Our second Cheetah scout selection course!

After last year’s very first women scout recruitment in March 2025, we had another 20 women attend a selection course in July 2026 in hopes of becoming women scouts, and part of the Cheetahs community wildlife protection unit. 

Selection course instructor Predict with the 14 women who completed the course.

Our recruitment drive targeted local villages, inviting interested women to apply to the Cheetah selection course. The selection course started with 20 participating women. Over the course of 3 weeks, 6 women dropped out and 14 completed the intensive course. One of our senior scouts, Predict, was chief instructor and was in charge of guiding them through the course. He highlighted their ease for comprehending and learning, but their deficits in physical fitness, compared to his experience as instructor on the men's selection courses. He is eager to continue to work with these new recruits and he believes they have shown great potential to learn and expand their skills.

Some of the lessons that Predict, amongst other scouts, led and delivered included health and hygiene, roles of a scout, tools used to achieve the common goals of conservation and community support, core values of team work, use of authority and force, how to patrol, first aid, operational security, communications, approaching dangerous game, carrying out drill, physical fitness etc. From the group of 14 who completed the selected course, 8 have finally been selected to undergo basic training for the next 6-9 months. This basic training will provide more intensive learning and skills development to allow them to be confident as Cheetah scouts.

Just like the women who became Cheetah scouts in 2025, these 8 women, assuming they complete the basic training, will be predominantly working in the local villages, carrying out intelligence, patrols, community liaison, conservation education and making sure that our community-conservation efforts, including the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative, are totally embedded in the local communities. Their role is extremely important to the development of the Initiative as well as to provide communities with the information, support and means to engage in conservation successfully.

For more information about the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative, contact us  here