About Us - Redrhino Wilderness Scarves

Redrhino is a coming together of like minded individuals from South Africa and Europe. We design scarves and spend time in wilderness.

Redrhino is purpose-driven.

We work on a volunteer basis, and for each wilderness-inspired scarf we sell a minimum of R 500 (€30) is donated to the the Lapalala Wilderness School in the Waterberg, South Africa, a beacon of conservation, sustainability, education and hope for the future. Read more about the school under Purpose.

Elizabeth Folgen

Chairwoman

Originally from Southern Norway, Elizabeth grew up in a solitary place of natural beauty where she found her passion for Nature. She started travelling early on, and has lived abroad for most of her adult life. Running her own businesses in the West of Ireland for many years, she also studied environmental science and spent a year in South Africa as a Peace Corps participant, working for a Pan-African environmental NGO.

Redrhino is Elizabeth’s dream come true – working and breathing for a concept that link entrepreneurship with the protection of Nature.

Paula Blomkamp

Director

Paula Blomkamp was raised in a rural village in England and settled in South Africa as a young child.

She has balanced her life with her love of the outdoors, travelling always off the beaten track to connect with the real Africa and her people.

She has over thirty years’ experience in the business world and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree. She has been associated with LWS since late 2012, and feels that the Redrhino model is a perfect fit for its time, to ensure that our planet survives and thrives for the generations to come.

The Redrhino idea of “bringing together people, the planet and profit” seem in perfect balance with time and place.

Mashudu Makhokha

Director

Recently appointed as LWS School Director, Mashudu Makhokha was raised in a township called Shayandima, in Venda, South Africa. There, he enjoyed the surrounds of a complex interplay between topography and micro – climate, which give rise to an intricate mosaic of habitats.

That experience fuelled Mashudu to pursue a National Diploma in Nature conservation and he is currently studying B Tech in Nature Conservation. He has over 13 years’ experience in the Environmental Education field.

He has been in Lapalala since 2009, and he feels that the Redrhino model is a perfect tool, which will allow LWS to achieve its Mission statement, which is to: “help our children and young adults discover the value of the biodiversity of the natural world and our place within it, and to identify and nurture Africa’s future conservation champions”.

Carol Hanks

Director

Carol grew up in England, the daughter of a country parson whose parishes ranged from the Cotswolds to Cumbria, inevitably small country village parishes where strong personal values were formed and she had total freedom to play in the English countryside from dawn to dusk.

On leaving school Carol chose nursing as a career, training at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where in 1964 she met a student who was already dreaming of a life in wildlife conservation in Africa.

No sooner had she completed her training than Carol flew to join her young husband, John Hanks, and a life in a wilderness context, deep in the Zambian bush. Here she realized her calling for community work and while running the local Clinic found herself involved in the day to day lives of rural Zambians.

Although as passionate about wildlife and wilderness as John, her humanitarian drive has seen her working with communities.

“Without the buy in of communities, biodiversity conservation has no future. The Lapalala Wilderness School embraces this challenge, and Redrhino exists to support it.”

Elizabeth Folgen

Paula Blomkamp

Mashudu Makhokha

Carol Hanks

WORKING AT LAPALALA