Baker & Sons Safari Co is intimately involved in the series of villages that share the same banks of the life-giving Rufiji River. Immediately next to the lodge is the village of Mloka – the last village outpost before the Selous Game Reserve. Baker & Sons has opened a school for Mloka, called the Rufiji Lighthouse, where volunteer teachers from abroad meet with locals to teach the English Language. Many ‘doors’ are opened for the local villagers who attend this school, not least of which improving the success rate of primary school students in Mloka village qualifying for secondary school education – proficiency in the English Language is a large component of the national exam for these young students. If they fail, their formal school careers are over.
Guests of the safari lodge have the option to visit Baker & Sons Rufiji Lighthouse, and often get the opportunity to see or even participate with a class in session. From time to time the Lighthouse houses other projects of the company with the village, including a sewing cooperative where local women sew various authentically Tanzanian souvenirs. Guests of the lodge are able to purchase these items, which is another way of ‘giving back’ to the neighbouring village, by providing employment to these women and for their families.
Baker & Sons works through East Africa River Mission, a project organized by the company to deliver relief to the villages surrounding the safari lodge. God has blessed the company – through the guests that patronize the lodge – and positioned the company to bless others, beginning with the local village neighbours. Learn more at www.EastARM.net
