Elewana

The name Elewana means ‘harmony’ in the East African language Kiswahili. Elewana as a company strives each and every day to demonstrate this harmony with the habitats and people of Africa, doing so in two very distinct ways.

Firstly, the Elewana properties collectively have a direct role in protecting over 1.36 million acres of safari habitat across Kenya and Tanzania including a vital human-elephant conflict mitigation programme. To complete this picture, Elewana supports two turtle conservation initiatives, one on Diani Beach, Kenya, and one at Kilindi Beach, Zanzibar, as well as a Colobus monkey protection programme and the Kendwa fishing community, for whom Elewana built a new community centre with offices and a fishing net repair facility.

In each location, Elewana creates and designs lodges and camps to have as little impact on the environment as possible, from the materials used in construction to the impressive use of solar power and policies on recycling.

Secondly, Elewana is synonymous with strong community connections and with working to safeguard the sustainability of the areas we operate in through providing tangible benefits to local people. This ranges from providing over USD 200,000 per year in direct conservation payments to local communities, to purchasing from local producers and employing people from nearby villages, empowering them to pursue professional hospitality careers.  

Through the Land & Life Foundation, Elewana supports a powerful conservation education programme for over 2,000 students and has enlisted 20 conservation scholars since January 2015 in the Wildlife Warrior Program. Land & Life also runs a health programme in the Maasai Mara, providing free treatment to 1,285 people since inception and training 12 clinicians serving over 40,000 people. 

Finally, Elewana is proudly supporting social initiatives such the Plaster House in Arusha, which provides corrective surgery and post-surgery care for Tanzanian children with severe burn contractures, fluorosis, club foot, cleft lip and other disorders.