Global Conservation Corps

2023 marked the seventh year conducting our Future Rangers Program. This program educates, inspires, and elevates South African youth who live next to wildlife areas to find conservation careers and pathways. We continued to engage with our existing 8 partner schools, reaching over 4,000 youth every single week. We increased our efforts in the high schools we work in, increasing the quality of the curriculum we delivered to ensure it aligned with South Africa's department of education (CAPS). We also increased the frequency of our field trips, sending over 550 students on game drives, safaris, overnight camps, and leadership trips. We doubled down our efforts on building strong partnerships, and now work with 18 established organizations in the region.

GCC continued its work to complete and distribute the Rhino Man the Movie documentary in 2023. All business for Rhino Man the Movie was carried out by the two independant subsidiary companies (GCC Ventures, and Rhino Man the Movie, LLC) that can legally perform the worldwide business of licensing and sales for Rhino Man. In June 2023, we hosted a private screening of Rhino Man with the Royal Foundation in London, with Prince William in attendance. This screening marked the start of Rhino Man being released into the world. The film was then premiered in Jackson Wild, Wyoming in September, 2023, after which it screened at 3 international film festivals throughout the remainder of the year. We additionally worked on obtaining a distribution deal throughout the rest of the year, and based on the film industry climate, determined that the self distribution model would have the greatest impact for the film and GCC's mission.

During 2023, GCC continued to invest in the development of our digital learning platform, called Vumba. This platform is designed and intended for GCC and other nonprofit organizations to track the impact of their programming, share valubale curriculum, manage programs, and to track shining stars in programs. During 2023, we successfully onboarded 5 partner organizations, and piloted the platform with over 3,000 students in the greater Kruger region of South Africa. We continue to engage partners to develop new features, and plan to launch this platform to a greater audience in 2024.