How We Use Your Donations

COMING SOON - Update on how your support in 2017 made a difference for rhinos

December 2016

To close out 2016, a grant of $2,000 was given to the Black Mamba all female anti-poaching unit in South Africa to assist with every day operational costs and to care for the children of a departed Mamba. Helping Rhinos is pleased that with your support we are able to assist the Black Mambas by helping to cover the everyday expenses which are difficult to cover using foundation grants. The money for this donation came from a fundraiser at the Oakland Zoo and through individual donations to Helping Rhinos USA.

November 2016

In November Helping Rhinos gave a grant to Ol Pejeta Conservancy of £4,070. This includes a grant to further support the Rapid Rhino Deployment Unit, an essential tool to help reduce the risk of poaching on Ol Pejeta, and funds raised through the adopt a northern white rhino programme.

Also in November a grant of £2,590 was given to the Black Mamba all female anti-poaching unit in South Africa to assist with every day operational costs. Keeping a total of 36 women operational comes at a cost and Helping Rhinos is pleased that with your support we are able to assist the Black Mambas and allow them continue their phenomenal work.

In November we gave a grant of £2,659 to the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage. This grant will be used to buy essential milk and medication as we approach the traditionally bad time of the year for poaching - December and the holiday season. Your support will allow the orphanage to be able to react quickly to the need to care for any new orphans over this period.

September 2016

In September we gave a grant of £6,387 to the Black Mambas. This included funds raised by Kim Budge for the Mambas by hosting a special cocktail party and also funds raised by Nick Shelley and some friends who abseiled down one of the tallest buildings in London! It also includes a grant from Helping Rhinos and funds raised through the Sponsor a Black Mamba programme.

Also in Spetember a grant of £6,000 was given to the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage. This grant included funds raised in memory of Helping Rhinos Patron Sir Gavyn Arthur who tragically passed away earlier in the year. The funds will be used to build 'The Sir Gavyn Arthur Rhino Camp', an essential area that will allow young rhino calves to adapt to their natural surroundings before being released into the full release bomas.

September also saw a grant of £5,053 given to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. This includes funds were raised through the adopt a northern white rhino programme and will be used to provide essential security and food for the last three northern white rhinos in the world. It also includes a £3,000 grant from Helping Rhinos to help start up the Rapid Rhino Deployment Unit.

August 2016

August saw our annual partnership with Port Lympne Wildlife Reserve for a Rhino Awareness weekend. Port Lympne are part of the Aspinal Foundation, and this year it was agreed that with an increasing and very real threat of poaching at the site in the UK, the funds raised will be used to purchase CCTV cameras for their rhino houses. In total Helping Rhinos gave £1,210 to cover the cost of the cameras.

May 2016

In May Helping Rhinos gave a grant to the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage of £4,500. This grant will be used to build a new boma which will form an essential part of the release process for the rhino orphans. Preparing the orphans for a life back in the wild is an essential part of the strategy at the Orphanage and it is critical that the team have the necessary infrastructure to give the rhinos the best possible chance of survival back in the wild.

Also in May a grant of £6,890 was given to the Black Mambas. This funding will be utilised to provide essential refresher training for the women of the Black Mambas and also to cover every day operational costs.

April 2016

April was the next quarterly payment in relation to the adopt a northern white rhino scheme. A total of £2,877 was sent to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya to assist with security and feed for the last remaining northern white rhinos on the planet.

Also in April a total of £1,512 was sent to the Black Mambas. This funding was generated from the Sponsor a Black Mamba approach and will be used to cover essential operating costs, including food for the Mambas and fuel for the anti-poaching patrol vehicles, which are essential to keep the Mambas working during the night.

Finally in April, £1,001 was sent to the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage (FTTRO) in relation to the adopt a rhino orphan approach. FTRRO is the first purpose built rhino orphanage facility in KwaZulu-Natal and these funds will help provide essential milk and medication for the orphans.

January 2016

In January we also passed a total of £4,186 to the Tusk Trust. This payment was in relation to the the joint fundraising initiative at the Bear Grylls Race for Rhinos. The funds will be used by Wilderness Foundation to cover veterinarian costs when treating rhinos who have survived a poaching attack.

December 2015

In December Helping Rhinos passed a total of £4,186 to the Wilderness Foundation (Africa). This payment was in relation to the joint fundraising initative at the Bear Grylls Race for Rhinos. The funds will be used by Wilderness Foundation to cover veterinarian costs when treating rhinos who have survived a poaching attack.

November 2015

We sent a total of £1,100 to Ol Pejeta conservancy in November in relation to the adopt a northern white rhino programme. These funds will be used to provide 24 hour armed security for the last remaining northern white rhinos on the planet.

Also in November Helping Rhinos gave a grant of £7,000 to the Black Mambas. This grant will be used to cover essential operational costs, such as fuel for the anti-poaching vehicles and food for the women of the Black Mambas.

Also in November we gave a grant to the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orpahange of £4,000. This grant will be used to buy camera traps for the rhino bomas in order to provide essential increased security for the rhino orphans. The grant will also be used to purchase the special milk formula required by the orphans.

October 2015
October saw a Helping Rhinos make a payment to the Black Mambas of £2,078. This was made up of funds received in relation to the Sponsor a Black Mamba approach and by a grant from Helping Rhinos

August 2015

In August we teamed up with Port Lympne Wildlife Reserve in Kent, UK at their annual rhino awareness weekend. The team gave talks, ran information stands and sold exclusive opportunities to hand feed one of the reserve's critically endangered black rhinos.

In total £1,716 which will be sent to Mkomazi Rhino Sanctuary in Tanzania. Mkomazi is the location where Port Lymone have sent a number of rhinos back to Africa to live in their natural habitat.

July 2015

We also provided a grant of £1,242 to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy for the funds raised through our 'Adopt a Northern White Rhino scheme'. These funds will allow Ol Pejeta to provide critial security for the northern white rhinos, maintaining a safe and natural habitat for their rhinos.

This quarter we sent £1,130 to the Black Mambas anti-poaching unit based in the Greater Kruger Park. Thes funds will be used to provide fuel for their patrol vehicles. The Black Mambas patrol on foot during the day but must use vehicles at night. Without fuel it would be impossible for the Black Mambas to remain operational during one of the most important times.

April 2015

This quarter saw us provide a grant of £1,022 to the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage to help with feed and key medical supplies.

We also provided a further £1,022 to the Black Mambas that will be used to provide key facilities at an outpost in the bush allowing the Mamba teams to operate within a larger area than was previously possible.

We also provided a further £897 to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya in relation to the adopt a northern white rhino programme.

February 2015

We proudly continued our adopt a northern white rhino programme, which this quarter saw a payment of £2,035.50 go to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The funds used will help Ol Pejeta maintain a safe and natural habitat for their rhinos.

November 2014
We are delighted that November saw us giving the largest number of grants we have given to date. Below are the details of how we are supporting the projects in the field.

We are very happy to have been able to provide the funding needed for Vision Africa Wildlife to secure the last piece of software they require to complete the development of their rhino tracking product. Our grant of £1,700 will help to protect rhinos on the Vision Africa reserves and also their neighbouring farms.

We are also very happy to have provided Vision Africa with a further £1,750 to purchase the required body armour for their tracking dog. The software being implemented (above) in conjunction with the abilities of a highly trained tracking dog, who is now much better protected from the threat of running into the poachers, will we believe make the rhinos in the area where Vision Africa operate are much better protected than they were just 12 months ago.

November also saw us provide sponsorship to Reserve Protection Agency in support of their Technology Demonstrations in South Africa. The demonstrations will be supported by the Department of Environmental Affairs, SANParks, a number of private rhino owners and will help validate the merits of new technology which can be rolled out into both national parks and private reserves alike. Stay tuned for more information as when it is available. In total Helping Rhinos have provided £5,000 for these key initiatives that will help improve the safety of many different rhino populations.

In addition, we provided a further £2,500 to Reserve Protection Agency as co-sponsors of their latest Jeep. Along with the other sponsor, Jankel, we are pleased to have been able to help bring this military spec jeep into South Africa where it will be located at a number of different reserves in support of their anti-poaching work, including Kruger National Park.

This quarter also saw Helping Rhinos continue their support of Game Reserves United as we provided £2,500 to allow them to purchase some key software. This software will allow far more effective collaboration of the private reserves that make up GRU and the world famous Kruger National Park. It is key for us at Helping Rhinos to provide essential support to the rhino populations of the Greater Kruger Park.

In addition, we provided £1,500 to GRU member Balule for the purchase of a quad bike to help assist with key anti-poaching activities such as fence checking. It will also allow rangers to move around the reserve in a much more effecient manner, meaning they cover much more ground on a daily basis in their work to prevent poaching.

We also welcomed a new partner to our books this quarter – the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage, based in KwaZulu-Natal. The Rhino Orphanage hopes to open before the end of 2014, and our donation of £3,000 will allow the management team to purchase the required veterinary and nursing equipment they need before they can bring in their first rhino orphan. Stay tuned for more information on the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage.

Of course, we continue with our adoption opportunities of the northern white rhinos based at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Your support of these adoptions resulted is us sending funds totalling £1,075. The funding raised through adoptions will help maintain a safe and natural habitat for the rhinos at Ol Pejeta. See our Adoption page to see how you can help us provide even more funding to Ol Pejeta.

June 2014
In June we were delighted to provide enough funding to cover 6 months gyrocopter pilot salary to Reserve Protection Agency, totalling £3,300. The newly launched gyrocopter will cover a number of reserve’s in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and experience has shown that having an arial presence is a real deterrent to poachers. We hope that this increased arial presence in the area will help reduce the incidents of poaching, as well as provide other key conservation benefits.

We are also delighted to confirm that the funds raised through our adopt a rhino scheme for the first half of 2014 total £2,500. This is amount is now on its way to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya and will be used to fund additional training for Ol Pejeta’s Head of Armed teams, including a 3 week visit to Kruger National Park to spend time with their Special Operations team. This is a great example of different organisations working together for the good of the rhinos, and a strategy we are very keen to support. Help us to keep supporting Ol Pejeta by adopting a rhino today.

In June we also were able to provide £900 to one of the Balule Game Reserves in Limpopo, South Africa. This funding will provide 12 months food to the the Black Mambas anti-poaching team. The Balule Reserve, adjacent to the Kruger National Park forms part of the Greater Kruger Park. It is an area targeted by poachers due to the overall rhino population, sheer vastness of the area, and its proximity to the Mozambique border. We hope this donation will help keep the key anti-poaching unit in place for the next 12 months at a minimum.

We were very pleased to be able to continue to support Game Reserves United this quarter with a donation of £1,600.

And finally, thanks to a grant from Paradise Wildlife Park, we were able to provide £1,000 to researcher Caroline Rees in Botswana. Caroline is researching how 6 rhinos adapt to being translocated from South Africa to Botswana. This is vital research as there are plans to translocate a further 100 rhinos over the coming months and knowing how they will adapt is key to the success of the translocation.

April 2014

By working in partnership with World Cycle Relief and Reserve Protection Agency we were thrilled to be able to donate 6 Buffalo Bikes to Amakhala Game Reserve in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. The bikes will be used to assist with every day anti-poaching activity such as fence checking and reserve management.

January 2014

Following an online appeal and a donation from the Helping Rhinos funds we granted £3,400 to Vision Africa as part of Project Rhino Track. The funds will help to provide satellite tracking collars for the rhinos at the Vision Africa reserves and enable to anti-poaching teams to be more effective in protecting the rhinos.

Also in January we sent £1,600 to Game Reserves United in the Greater Kruger region. These funds will fund two undercover agents for 3 months (salary phone bill etc) and also put one ranger through an advanced anti-poaching training course and a fire arms training course.

Finally in January we were delighted to receive the first quarterly instalment of our sponsorship arrangement with Native Escapes. The £300 received was sent to RPA to fund the first quarters 4×4 training courses.

October / November 2013

Tanya Zantow raised R12,000 through her fundraising efforts in her local community. The money was sent to Reserve Protection Agency (RPA) to fund the first set of 4×4 training courses for rangers and reserve staff. Also granted to RPA in November was R3,000 that was raised by the boys from Amper Famous who took part in the Big Walk, which they christened Big Walk for Rhinos. Thank you to both Tanya and Amper Famous.

September 2013

Following our World Rhino Day event at Port Lympne Wildlife Park in the UK we sent £350 to Mkomazi reserve in Tanzania to help with the costs of providing new solar panels to power the fences and out posts of the rhino sanctuary.

August 2013
We sent £1,000 to Ol Pejeta Conservancy to help with the costs of their new anti-poaching Operations Centre and ranger accommodation block. These new ranger facilities are vital for the conservancy to carry out the essential anti-poaching activities that will help to keep the rhinos at Ol Pejeta safe from the poachers.

In addition we sent £1,324 to Ol Pejeta in relation to our adoption of programme of the northern white rhinos that reside at the conservancy. These funds were used by Ol Pejeta to purchase night vision binoculars, GPS devices and digital cameras. All these items will be used by the anti-poaching teams.

Helping Rhinos provided the £710 required by Grietjie Game Reserve in South Africa to purchase a GPS tracking device to track their black rhinos, who are fitted with tracking collars. Grietjie is part of the Balule Game Reserve, which forms part of Game Reserves United.

May 2013

Helping Rhinos provided £1,000 to support some critical research by Lucy Vigne on how rhino horn and ivory is being traded in Lao. Understanding how rhino horn is being traded in key destination markets is key to the long term success of putting a stop to the poaching that threatens all 5 rhino species with extinction. This research was co-funded by Helping Rhinos and the Aspinall Foundation.

January 2013
We used the funds we received from our adoption programme to provide the rangers of Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya with brand new ranger headsets. The headsets were co-funded by Helping Rhinos and Tusk Trust.

We believe it is important for all charities to be open and honest in explaining how they spend the funds that you, our supporters, so kindly donate. We hope that this page gives you enough information on how we put your donations to good use, but if you would like more information please write to us via our contact us page. A full copy of accounts are available via the Charities Commission website (www.charitycommission.gov.uk).