Elephants crossing a golden African savanna at dawn

A women-led safari cooperative across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda · Seeking seed backers

The wildest place on earth deserves to be guided by the women who call it home.

Good Karma Safaris is a pre-launch cooperative training women across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda to become licensed safari guides — women who’ve spent their lives raising families, sewing, and making jewelry, but never held a driver’s license. We’re asking a small circle of early believers to help us change that.

Fund a guide Read the vision

01 — The Vision

A matriarchal cooperative in a patriarchal industry.

In most villages across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda, a girl’s future is decided long before she can decide it herself: stay home, raise children, learn to sew, make jewelry to sell by the roadside. A driver’s license, let alone a career leading visitors through the bush, is not on the table.

Good Karma Safaris is a women-only cooperative that trains, licenses, and equips those same women across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda to become professional safari guides — and owners of the company that employs them. Every member holds a share. Every trip funds the next woman’s training. Every daughter grows up watching her mother lead.

This is how generational wealth gets built for women who were never supposed to have any. Your seed money starts it.

02 — Why Now

An industry built on African land, guided almost entirely by men.

<5%

of licensed safari guides across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda are women. The bush, the vehicles, the radios, the paychecks — almost entirely male. We’re building the pipeline that changes that.

women in our founding cohort across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda — mothers, grandmothers and daughters — ready to earn driver’s licenses, guide certifications, first-aid credentials and conversational fluency in three visitor languages.

A cooperative community

Good Karma Safaris is built as a cooperative, where guides become part of a community dedicated to supporting one another and strengthening the profession. As experienced guides, they help mentor and train future generations of female safari guides, creating a lasting cycle of opportunity, leadership, and knowledge-sharing that expands opportunities for girls and women for generations to come.

Kenya

No official national count exists. Female safari guides remain a small minority. Historical industry data showed only a handful of certified female guides, while in the Maasai Mara there were about 10 women among roughly 400 guides in 2017. Since then, the number has grown, but no authoritative nationwide total has been published.

Tanzania

No official national count of female safari guides has been published. Women’s participation has increased in recent years through initiatives such as all-female camps and guide training, but there is no verified national figure.

Rwanda

The most recent official figure reported only 5 female guides out of 183 registered tourist guides at the time of the survey (around 2022).

Uganda

No official national count of female safari guides has been published. Even with world-famous parks like Bwindi, Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls, women remain a small minority behind the wheel and behind the binoculars — a gap our cooperative is built to close.

Good Karma Safaris is built by a woman who believes women are born leaders and protectors of the land.

“As a woman who’s been on numerous safaris—every one of them led by a man—I can say firsthand that every guide has told me the same thing: this is the best job in the world. Women should have that opportunity too! Let’s make it happen together!!”

— Charlotte Z., Founder

Please consider making a donation in any amount

03 — The Pathway

From home to the driver’s seat, step by step.

Join the cooperative

A woman applies with the support of her community. If accepted, she becomes a trainee member — no upfront fees, no debt, just a commitment to learn and lead.

Driver’s license

Classroom instruction, supervised driving hours, testing fees and license issuance. For many, this is the first government ID-linked credential she has ever held.

First-aid & firearm safety

Wilderness first responder certification and safe firearms handling — prerequisites for any professional guide license in the region.

Guide certification

Accredited field guide training: tracking, ecology, vehicle skills, hospitality, and conservation law. Taught in-country, in-language, across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda, by women who have already made the journey.

Language fluency

Conversational English, French, Mandarin or Spanish so she can welcome guests from around the world and qualify for premium lodge assignments across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda.

Apprenticeship & license

Paid apprenticeship alongside an experienced female guide in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, or Uganda. After passing the final exam, she receives her full guide license and an equity share in the cooperative.

04 — The Plan

What the first $250,000 actually builds.

·
Driver’s licenses
Cover instruction, testing fees and vehicle time for the founding twelve — for most, the first license anyone in their family has ever held.
·
Guide certification
Full accredited FGASA-equivalent guide training: tracking, firearms handling, first aid, ecology, and hospitality. Taught in-language, in-country.
·
Language school
In-house tuition in English, French, Mandarin and Spanish so guides can host guests from anywhere in the world and unlock premium bookings.
·
The cooperative
Legal formation of the women-owned cooperative across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda, member equity documentation, and a shared vehicle and radio pool the collective owns outright.

05 — Back the Launch

Every backer sponsors a woman’s first license.

Contributions are structured as donations toward training, licensing and cooperative formation. Every tier, from a language class to a fully endowed cohort, brings a woman closer to the driver’s seat.

Sister

Fund one woman’s driver’s license, end to end.

$500

◦Founding-backer name on our launch page
◦Quarterly letters from the cohort
◦First access when bookings open

Choose Sister

Elder

Fund guide certification, first-aid and firearm-safety training.

$2,500

◦Everything in Sister
◦A hand-written note from the guide you sponsor
◦10% off your first Good Karma Safaris trip
◦Invite to our virtual pre-launch briefing

Choose Elder

Matriarch

Put a woman through the full guide program.

$5,000+

◦Everything above
◦Two seats on our inaugural pilot trip (at cost)
◦Named alongside the guide you sponsored on our cooperative wall
◦Direct line to the founders

Choose Matriarch

Cohort Circle

Endow an entire training cohort.

$10,000+

◦Everything above
◦Named cohort (e.g., the 2027 Amara Cohort)
◦Private briefing with the founders in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, or Uganda — or by video
◦Two complimentary seats on the inaugural pilot trip

Choose Cohort Circle

Legacy Guardian

Fund multiple cohorts and a named vehicle.

$50,000+

◦Everything above
◦Named safari vehicle with your family or organization name
◦Annual private dinner with the founders and graduates
◦Full Safari experience

Choose Legacy Guardian

Founding Patron

A transformational gift that anchors the cooperative.

$100,000+

◦Everything above
◦Permanent Founding Patron recognition on the cooperative wall and website
◦Private full Safari experience with founders and graduates
◦Observer seat at cooperative board meetings for one year

Choose Founding Patron

Want to make a transformational gift, fund a named vehicle, or anchor the cooperative as a founding patron? Get in touch.

06 — Our Promise

For her daughters, and her daughters’ daughters.

A licensed guide in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, or Uganda earns several times what her mother ever could from selling beadwork by the roadside. Multiply that by a cooperative equity share, and one woman’s training becomes a household’s independence — then a village’s, then a generation’s.

Once we launch, we’ll publish a public ledger every quarter: who was trained, what she earned, what her equity is worth, and who’s next in line. If we can’t show it, we won’t claim it.

06.5 — Future Guides

Meet the women waiting for the wheel.

These are the women your donation puts through licensing, language school and apprenticeship across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda. This is who you’re backing.

Uganda

Shine Tusingwire

Age 21 · Aspiring guide

Candidate 01

Shine Tusingwire — 21, Uganda

Fourth of six children, born in Uganda in 2005. Self-driven, curious, and full of potential — at a stage of life focused on growth, learning, and making an impact.

Passionate about building a meaningful career and giving back to her community, Shine dreams of exploring wildlife across her home country — the gorillas of Bwindi, the herds of Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls, and the mountain gorillas across the border in Rwanda — and one day guiding visitors through them.

“I’m so happy for this opportunity. I hope to see the world, work with wildlife, and help my fellow girls show the world that women can do it — better.”

She has completed her National Certificate in Garment Design, and hopes for an opportunity to continue her education. Good Karma Safaris exists so women like Shine don’t have to choose between the life they were handed and the life they can imagine.

Sponsor a future guide →

08 — Field Album

From the field.

Frames from Charlotte’s travels across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania — the wildlife, the guides, and the country our future members will lead visitors through.

A silverback mountain gorilla sitting in the rainforest of Bwindi, Uganda — Silverback · Bwindi, Uganda

Three zebras walking down a red dirt road on the savanna — Zebra crossing · Serengeti

Baby mountain gorilla on a branch — Baby gorilla · Bwindi

Charlotte Z. with a Rwandan park ranger and Ugandan guide holding a gorilla tracking certificate — Gorilla tracking · With rangers & guide

07 — Who’s Building It

Built by a woman who believes women are born leaders.

Charlotte has traveled the world extensively volunteering with animals in countries like Panama, Costa Rica and Paraguay, as well as teaching young monks in Sri Lanka, and working in Mombasa, Kenya, on economic empowerment for women, as well as doing volunteer work with lions in Zimbabwe and underserved communities across Rwanda. Her strong belief is that many of the qualities that define an exceptional safari guide—empathy, situational awareness, calm decision-making, and natural leadership—are strengths women bring to the role. By creating more opportunities for women in guiding, the industry becomes richer, more diverse, and stronger. Good Karma Safaris gives them the opportunity to show their strength, and build generational wealth.

Charlotte Z.

Founder

Traveler, volunteer, and advocate for women’s economic empowerment across East Africa and beyond.

Put a woman behind the wheel.

Every backer, at every tier, funds a license, a certification, a language class — and a share in a company she will one day own. We’ll remember who was there first.

Choose a tier Charlotte Z. 323-600-3111