Alabama safari hunter Roger Patterson has lost track of how many times he’s been to Africa.
“In excess of 25,” is his best guess when asked how many times the 56-year-old has hopped a plane for the “Dark Continent” in the last 20 years.
Like so many hunters who find their way to the “motherland,” Patterson fell in love with Africa in the pages of books by such authors as Ruark and Capstick, but never imagined he’d go there 25 times, much less once.
Still, two decades later and a trophy room packed to the rafters with countless African taxidermies, and Patterson is sure of one thing — Africa has given him back more than he ever expected.
And that’s saying something because in the last 20 years Patterson has spent an untold fortune of his own money not only getting to Africa but helping the people there.
“When I was young, my mom was a nurse and dad was a pastor and builder,” Patterson said. “We went to the Caribbean, and I grew up in Jamaica for some of my formative years.”
When Patterson turned 18 his parents headed off to Lesotho, Africa, pronounced Li-SOO-too, long on the SOO.
“Mom ran a clinic and dad raised horses and was the ambulance driver. They were there at the end of Apartheid and it was when the HIV pandemic kicked off,” Patterson said. “Dad notice children were the worst victims, all of a sudden this country of 2 million people had a growing number of orphans due to AIDS and HIV.”
Patterson’s parents worked hard for several years helping the Lesotho people until the church backing them suddenly pulled out its funding.
“They decided to sell the clinic back to the government and came home to the states. It was the worst possible time when need was the greatest.”
Patterson’s father asked him to help convince the church leaders to change their mind and continue funding the humanitarian efforts.
“They said they were not a humanitarian organization,” Patterson said. “That really threw me for a loop and shook my religious paradigm. Whatever the need is, you meet it. That was what Jesus’s life and preaching was about.”
Furious with the church, the Pattersons, started their own nonprofit and, as a family, went back to Lesotho to do what they could, for a young Roger, the experience was life changing.
“I was introduced to Africa in connection with helping people, so the first adventure I had in Africa was this big adventure into the unknown,” Patterson said. “I grew up reading stories about Africa — ‘Death in the Long Grass.’ I wanted a new frontier and it was that initially. I also had an idea in the back of my mind, there is risk and danger, but I saw a lot of traumatic things I wasn’t prepared for on that first trip. I had PTSD for several years after that. It was almost my undoing.”
Lesotho is a high-altitude country covered in mountain ranges. The cold climate makes it difficult to raise chickens for protein so the villages raise pigs and use the methane gas from their manure for cooking
The scene was more than 18-year-old Roger was ready for. The country was overrun with disease, drought and death on a scale he’d never witnessed before.
“I saw one of the strongest senses of community when I went to Africa. I would go back to my room every night and I would cry myself to sleep. There is something here that was devastating and beautiful at the same time.”
Chief among those was one of the first homes the family visited was inhabited by four children, the oldest just 12-years-old. Their parents were dead, most likely from HIV.
“The children kept saying the baby wouldn’t wake up,” Patterson said. “That baby had been dead for at least four days. A few days later I’m playing soccer with them, and they are singing and laughing after they were adopted. I was blown away by this resilience in the midst of disease and devastation.”
Eventually what became of the Patterson family’s charity project was they began partnering with locals who were already adopting orphans and doing their best to raise them.
“We met a woman who had taken in 10 of the village children,” Patterson said. “She was struggling to feed them. We went to the capital city, bought bulk supplies and seeds and food. We came back and we told her; ‘We are with you as long as it takes to raise these kids.’”
The family eventually had to return to the states for a stay and then went back six months later only to find the woman had recruited another widow and together they were raising 20 orphans.
From there it was like dominoes falling. The project expanded from village to village and the Pattersons raised money to aid the in-country volunteers in the humanitarian efforts.
“Over the years we have had as many as 1,800 children we fed in a month,” Patterson said. “The lowest we’ve had is 450-500. We have never had a food budget of more than $2,000 a month. From time-to-time we will raise money for blankets or school fees.”
But despite the financial help, the children were still struggling to get the nourishment they needed. Corn, beans and potatoes can only provide so much. The children needed protein.
As Capstick once wrote, “Africa is astoundingly efficient in the disposal of protein,” but not if there isn’t any protein to be had.
The family decided to try supporting the raising of livestock and not just crops, but it didn’t go well.
“Cows are super expensive to raise there, so beef was out of the question,” Patterson said. “Chickens aren’t hardy enough for the cold climate. I landed on, as a hunter, pigs. They propagate like rabbits, but then we realized they are expensive to feed. There are a lot less leftovers in a culture that uses everything.”
Pictured are some of the Lesotho children being helped by Roger Patterson's charity Life Trek Global. In Africa the project is known as The Bana Project, which means The Children Project.
Where else would they get the protein?
Like a 300-grain bullet, the answer smacked Patterson like a lead blanket — hunting!
Roger loved hunting and there were countless Americans hunting in Africa each year and with the inability to export the meat to the states here was a potential source of affordable protein.
Patterson found a willing partner in Izak Kirsten, owner of WOW Africa Safaris, and before long the duo was bringing American hunters to Africa in groups to hunt wild game and ultimately feed the Lesotho orphans.
“We get several thousand pounds of game meat each year that goes to help feed the children,” Patterson said. “I’m the only organization that has been able to import that meat into Lesotho.”
Moving meat or even game trophies across country borders in Africa is a major hurdle and was even a hot topic of discussion at a recent three-day forum in Johannesburg on the future of hunting in Africa.
With help, the Pattersons found a way through the red tape, but each year administration changes threaten their life-saving operations, as new bureaucracies attempt to block their efforts.
“It has been a big hurdle this year,” Patterson said. “We are struggling to see if we can get permits this year.”
It’s a project of passion, as the Pattersons’ charity, known as Life Trek Global, is 100 percent volunteer operated, even Patterson himself.
“We have no paid staff. I’ve always flown on my own dime, going back and forth,” he said.
Today the organization has a building in Lesotho where donations are dolled out from, they have a solar powered well, their volunteers in Lesotho raise pigs and even use the pig manure’s methane gas to cook and heat with. It is a model Patterson said he wishes more charities would adopt.
And if you think the operation must be massive, it isn’t, at least on the state’s side.
“Less than 100 people support the organization in the U.S.,” Patterson said. “Predominantly it is men from my band of brothers — the local community, family and friends of mine from the Alabama chapter of Safari Club International.”
That isn’t to say the organization couldn’t use more help. Financial donations are 100 percent tax deductible, but perhaps even better than money is getting hunters to join Patterson and his crew in Africa on a safari and fill the freezers with the much-needed protein those hungry orphans so desperately need.
“Nothing goes to waste,” Patterson said.
Recently KZN Taxidermy in South Africa opened its own butcher shop and purchased a freezer truck specifically to pick up donations for Life Trek and take them to Lesotho. It’s a movement that attracts givers at every turn.
Patterson’s trips to Africa have slowed in recent years — the charity is finally in a state of self-sufficiency — but he still makes a trip over every year to check on operations and, perhaps no less importantly, hunt a few critters and host a few American hunters with Izak at WOW Africa.
“I had so much more to receive from the people of Africa than I ever had to offer,” he said. “There were things I could teach to them, but what I received and still receive is much more than I’m giving. I love Africa because it has given me so much.”
For more information on Life Trek Global, contact Roger Patterson at roger@lifetrek.org.
Roger Patterson surrounded by dozens of the orphan children his charity helps feed each year. The project is currently feeding some 1,800 orphaned children in the African country of Lesotho.
