7News Spotlight: Oct 13

On 7News Spotlight Liam Bartlett reunites with former special commando Damien Mander for a story on combating endemic poachers.

The Aussie veteran continues his quest to save the continent’s critically endangered wildlife, with an all-female army of rangers.

Plus US Bureau Chief David Woiwod meets Australians in San Francisco who warn of a city’s drug addiction problem fuelling homelessness and violent crime.

Damien sold up everything he owned to establish the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, and his unconventional journey has led him to recruit a ground-breaking all-female unit of rangers known as Akashinga, meaning “The Brave Ones” in Zimbabwe’s Shona dialect.

The heavily armed local women, often mothers, patrol areas the size of small countries to catch the poachers and stop illegal operations. Not only do these women protect wildlife, they also change the trajectory of their communities by passing on 90% of their earnings to their families.

Damien, who is eliminating the community’s reliance on money from trophy hunting and illegal poaching with the support of his rangers, said: “When we started [the Foundation], we thought if it actually works, let’s create opportunities for those who need it the most. Many of them were survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, single mothers and abandoned wives.

“What we didn’t realise is that we were getting the toughest in society. Anything we threw at them was nothing compared to what they came from or most importantly stood to go back to.”

9.00pm Sunday on Seven.