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Supporting Kariega’s famous poaching survivor Thandi the Rhino.

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5 September 2022 marked the official launch of the Kariega Veldskoen. Kariega Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape released their first-ever shoe with local South African shoemaker Veldskoen Shoes in the hopes of raising funds for the Kariega Foundation.

Kariega is home to Thandi the Rhino who miraculously survived a near-fatal attack back in 2012. Her story reached millions across the globe.

Thandi’s supporters, locally and around the world, can now offer support by purchasing a pair of specially designed leather shoes.

In the ten years between 2009 and 2019 there have been 8,288 rhinos recorded dead due to poaching in South Africa alone. Over 80% of the world’s surviving rhinos live in South Africa as the populations elsewhere in Africa and Asia have been decimated. The killing has slowed slightly but at least one rhino continues to be brutally killed by poachers every day.

Veldskoen and the Kariega Foundation share a mutual interest in nature conservation and creating improved living conditions and opportunities for South African citizens.

Profits made on the Kariega Veldskoen will be donated to the Kariega Foundation in support of their holistic mandate to protect and preserve the Kariega wilderness along with the endangered rhino and uplift the people and communities that live in and around the reserve.

So, when you buy a pair of Kariega Veldskoen, you are helping keep the rhino at Kariega safe and contributing to initiatives that protect and rejuvenate Kariega’s wildlife and local community, through conservation, education, and job creation.

Kariega Foundation Director Lindy Sutherland says; “Together, through sales of the Kariega Veldskoen, we aim to generate funding that will support numerous and diverse projects that flow from our core motives to protect and preserve our natural heritage as well as uplift and educate our neighbouring communities so that, together, we may reform that which threatens its existence and build a conservation community that works collectively to rejuvenate our planet, people and wildlife.”

The Kariega Veldskoen
The Kariega Veldskoen

The Kariega Veldskoen shoe is a handmade, luxury nubuck chukka boot, fully leather lined with TR soles. It includes a rhino motif to honour the rhinos in need of protection over the heel arch, below the instantly recognisable Veldskoen trademark flag.

The shoes are available to purchase online at www.veldskoen.com and at the Kariega Game Reserve curio shop and range from size 2 UK – 14 UK

Nick Dreyer, CEO and co-founder of Veldskoen Shoes says.. “Kariega is a place of magnificent beauty, delicate ecology and the abundant human spirit. The Kariega team share a deep passion for protecting and celebrating a magnificent part of our country but do so in the great South African way, through community. We are so proud to partner with the important work done at Kariega, to be a small part of their wonderful community. Veldskoen endeavours to continue to give back to”

The Kariega Foundation is a non-profit trust working in partnership with Kariega Game Reserve to create a sustainable eco-tourism model that delivers on a holistic mandate to protect and preserve the Kariega wilderness and uplift the people and communities that live in and around the reserve.

The vision is to build a conservation community that works collectively to rejuvenate our planet, people and wildlife.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.