94-year-old Hilda from Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees heard that life is tough right now for the workers at Meserani Snakepark in Tanzania – home of The Meserani Project. Despite this, they have been extremely kind and supportive of the owner – affectionately known as Ma – who lost her husband on 28 April. Ma has been doing her best to keep things going at Meserani Snakepark, despite the fact that there is currently no income from tourism due to the Coronavirus issue, and she has been extremely generous to her workers.

Hilda decided that the best way to celebrate her daughter’s birthday today was to buy a bag of rice each for the 39 workers – and this went down very well with everybody. Hilda is housebound, but she raises money for the project by knitting slippers, and so far she has raised enough to sponsor four students through their education in Tanzania.

Click here to see a thankyou message from the workers at Meserani Snakepark