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Welcome to the Future Guardians initiative.

We enable moments of wonder for children that inspire and empower them to become the future guardians of the natural world that they will inherit.

We are a global initiative that supports early emotional connections to nature by giving children meaningful encounters with the natural world through education, creativity, storytelling, and immersive experiences, to help build environmental awareness and lifelong guardianship.

Global Impact

The ambition of this project is to provide a framework for others to follow - to generate long-term, structural impact, far beyond what isolated charity, education, or conservation programs can typically achieve.

The synergy between community involvement, creative storytelling, and global reach is what makes the project uniquely powerful.
Donate Here

About Future Guardians

Our Vision

Children everywhere deserve the opportunity to discover nature with fresh eyes. These first encounters spark curiosity, confidence, and responsibility. Future Guardians exists to create those moments and turn them into lifelong stewardship.

Our Model

Future Guardians operates through a chapter-based structure. Each chapter focuses on a specific ecosystem and the children who will one day protect it. Children of Akagera is the first chapter in this growing global movement.

Why Children

For many children, seeing these animals in the wild is a profound and life-changing moment. It awakens curiosity, builds confidence, and forms an early connection to the natural world that can shape a lifetime of guardianship.

Chapter One:
Akagera National Park

Akagera National Park is one of Africa’s most successful conservation stories. Once on the brink of ecological collapse, it has been restored into a thriving savannah ecosystem now home to the Big Five, including African elephants, African buffalo, black rhinos, white rhinos, lions, and more than 8,000 large mammals. It represents the possibility of renewal and the importance of protecting Rwanda’s natural heritage.
The park contains a wide range of wildlife that children may encounter during their safari, including giraffes, zebras, elephants, buffalo, hippos, antelope, warthogs, baboons, and vervet monkeys. Lions and rhinos are also present in the park following successful reintroduction and protection efforts, although sightings are not guaranteed.
For many children, seeing these animals in the wild is a profound and life-changing moment. It awakens curiosity, builds confidence, and forms an early connection to the natural world that can shape a lifetime of guardianship.
Future Guardians: Children of Akagera helps ensure the long-term protection of this ecosystem by inspiring the generation who will inherit responsibility for its future.

Children of Akagera

Future Guardians: Children of Akagera is the first chapter in this initiative. It brings children from Rwanda’s Kicukiro district into direct contact with the wildlife of Akagera National Park, often for the first time.

Children living near Akagera National Park grow up beside an extraordinary ecosystem, yet many have never seen the wildlife that surrounds them. This chapter takes them on a journey of discovery.

Project Journey

The Children of Akagera experience is designed as a journey rather than a single event. It carefully guides children from early learning and imagination, through their first encounter with wildlife in its natural habitat, and into reflection and understanding.
Each stage builds on the last, ensuring that the initial moment of wonder becomes a lasting connection to nature and the foundation for future guardianship.
Donate Here

About Amahoro Nursery School

The Story

Amahoro Nursery School was founded in 2013 by Progetto Rwanda to support children from the most disadvantaged families in the Kicukiro district of Kigali.

The school provides early education and daily nutritional support in a context where access to early learning remains limited and many children face poverty and undernutrition.

The Objective

Each year, children are selected by district education authorities based on need.

The 30 children participating in Future Guardians: Children of Akagera come from the school’s oldest classes and are at a stage where they can begin to understand ideas around nature, responsibility, and protection.

Why this Project

For these children, the project offers a first encounter with wildlife in its natural habitat and an opportunity to develop confidence, curiosity, and a sense of guardianship for the natural world.

The Experience:

Learning, Discovery, & First Encounters

For many of the children involved, the natural world exists only through stories, drawings, and classroom discussion. This project is designed to change that by guiding them through a carefully structured experience that moves from learning and imagination to direct, real-world discovery.

The journey begins in the classroom, where children build knowledge and curiosity. It then leads to their first visit into Akagera National Park, where they encounter wildlife in its natural habitat for the first time. Finally, the experience continues back at school through reflection and creative expression.

Together, these stages ensure that a first encounter with nature becomes a meaningful and lasting foundation for guardianship.

Before the Safari

Children take part in wildlife lessons, storytelling, drawing sessions, and simple camera workshops. They learn tracks, sounds, behaviours, and local cultural perspectives to prepare for what they will see.

During the Safari

During the safari, children encounter giraffes, zebras, elephants, monkeys, and birds in the wild for the first time. Their reactions and expressions of wonder are captured through photography and film. This moment of wonder is the spark that begins guardianship.

After the Safari

Back at school, children reflect through new drawings, natural materials art workshops, storytelling sessions, and interviews. This helps them turn wonder into understanding and understanding into guardianship.

Turning Wonder into Lasting Impact

Future Guardians is designed to create change that extends far beyond the safari experience. Each chapter delivers practical, long-term benefits for children, communities, and the ecosystems they will inherit. By combining education, cultural connection, and conservation support, the initiative helps ensure that moments of wonder translate into meaningful and lasting impact.

Education

  • Support helps provide school materials and supplies, improve classroom environments, fund scholarships, and introduce creative tools and nature-based learning resources that strengthen early education.

Community

  • The initiative encourages cultural storytelling, the involvement of elders, and the integration of nature-based learning within local communities, reinforcing shared responsibility for environmental protection.

Conservation

  • Funding contributes to ranger and anti-poaching efforts, wildlife monitoring, habitat restoration, coexistence programmes, and conservation education within schools, supporting the long-term protection of natural ecosystems.

Project timeline

Future Guardians is delivered through a carefully phased approach that balances preparation, experience, storytelling, and long-term impact. Each phase is designed to build on the last, ensuring that the initial work in Akagera not only delivers a meaningful experience for the children involved, but also creates the foundation for future chapters and wider expansion of the initiative.
Phase 1.
Initiative Launch
Formal introduction of Future Guardians as a global initiative and announcement of Chapter One: Children of Akagera.
Estimated timeline: December 2025
Phase 2.
Preparation & Alignment
Confirm partnerships, align with local stakeholders, develop materials, and establish the structure required for the pilot chapter.
Estimated timeline:
Q1 2026
Phase 3.
Fieldwork & Discovery
Deliver workshops, run safari experiences, & capture photography, film, interviews, & other outputs; aligned with school holidays.
Estimated timeline:
Q2 2026
Phase 4.
Production & Curation
Edit and assemble documentary footage, photography, drawings, and stories into exhibition and microsite assets.
Estimated timeline:
Q3 2026
Phase 5.
Launch & Showcase
Public release of Chapter One, including gallery content, videos, documentary material, and storytelling outputs.
Estimated timeline:
Q4 2026
Phase 6.
Expansion & Evolution
Identify additional ecosystems, partners, and shortlist candidates for next chapters for the Future Guardians initiative.
Estimated timeline:
2027 Onward

The Future Guardians Team

Alexandra Surkova

Alexandra Surkova is a wildlife photographer and visual storyteller dedicated to documenting and protecting the natural world.

Luca Germini

Luca Germini is a composer, music producer and sound designer with over three decades of experience in the music industry.

Patrizia Salierno

Patrizia is the founder and President of Progetto Rwanda. She began her career as a teacher and later worked with Amnesty International.

Bernadette Lauricella

Benedetta is Project Manager at Progetto Rwanda. She oversees community-based actions on sustainable development & social impact.

Paolo Righetti

Paolo is the CEO and Founder of Atombit and played a key role in the creation and early development of the Future Guardians initiative.

Filippo Amedeo Venturi

Filippo Amedeo Venturi is an Italian photographer based in London, specialising in reportage, interiors, and architectural photography.

Shema Yves

Shema Yves is a communications officer with experience in social impact storytelling, digital media, and community communication.

Francesco Venturi

Key Partners

Progetto Rwanda

Progetto Rwanda is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) founded in 1998, in the years following the genocide against the Tutsi. The organisation was created to support the long-term recovery of communities in Rwanda through education, child protection, and the empowerment of women in vulnerable situations.

Since its establishment, Progetto Rwanda has focused on increasing access to education for children in the poorest areas of the country, tackling school dropout, child labour, and malnutrition through the creation of schools and school canteens, including in Kibaya and Kicukiro. The organisation also supports micro-entrepreneurship initiatives that help women build sustainable income and strengthen their autonomy and dignity.

All projects are designed, delivered, and monitored by local teams working closely with district authorities and community partners. Progetto Rwanda has been officially recognised by the Rwandan Government as an international NGO since 2014 and continues to work in close collaboration with local associations across the country.
Progetto Rwanda

Park Guides & Conservation Educators

Their skills, developed through specialised interpretive training and daily field practice, allow them to turn encounters with nature into learning moments that inspire stewardship of Akagera’s ecosystems. As partners, they ensure conservation learning is rooted in real ecological insight and connection to place.

Atombit

Supports the initiative through digital storytelling, platform structure, and strategic communications. Atombit ensures these stories are not just shared, but experienced, turning ideas into digital experiences people can explore and respond to.
This project exists because of people working together.

At its heart is Projetto Rwanda, whose long-standing relationships with families, schools, and communities make this work possible. Their trust, cultural guidance, and local coordination ensure that every activity is respectful, safe, and deeply rooted in local reality.

Teachers, school leaders, and community elders walk alongside the children throughout the journey. Educators help carry learning beyond the workshops and into everyday school life, while elders share stories, traditions, and lived knowledge of the land, linking wildlife to identity, memory, and belonging.

Conservationists and wildlife professionals bring the natural world to life with accuracy and care. Through their guidance, children encounter wildlife not as spectacle, but as something to be understood, protected, and respected.

Akagera National Park and public authorities open the gates to these experiences, providing access, rangers, and guidance that connect children directly to Rwanda’s living landscapes and conservation future.

Together, these partners create more than a program. They create a shared space where learning, culture, and conservation meet—and where children can build lasting relationships with the natural world.

Help Shape the Next Generation of Guardians

Future Guardians is made possible through collaboration and shared commitment.
Support helps children experience the natural world for the first time and ensures that this moment of wonder leads to lasting impact for education, communities, and conservation. By getting involved, you become part of a growing initiative designed to protect nature through the people who will inherit it.

Education

  • Sponsor a safari day for children
  • Support learning materials and environments
  • Provide creative or educational equipment
  • Contribute to conservation programmes
  • Fund documentary, gallery, or storytelling outputs
  • Become a long-term partner
Donate Here

Make a Donation

Donations help turn moments of discovery into lasting opportunity. Every contribution supports children who would otherwise never have the chance to experience wildlife in its natural habitat and begin building a connection to the world they will one day protect.
Funding directly supports early education, creative learning, and conservation-linked activities, including safari experiences, classroom resources, community engagement, and the production of storytelling materials that help sustain and grow the Future Guardians initiative.

By donating, you are not only supporting one project, but helping establish a model that can be repeated across new ecosystems and communities. Your support helps ensure that wonder becomes legacy, for today’s children and for the natural world they will inherit.
Donate Here
Pictures & Videos Credits: Alexandra Surkova
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Shema Yves

Communications Officer

Shema Yves is a communications officer with experience in social impact storytelling, digital media, and community communication. For Progetto Rwanda, he's in charge of documenting activities, managing project visibility, and communicating their impact through social media, photography, and video.

Filippo Amedeo Venturi

Writer and Photographer

Filippo Amedeo Venturi is an Italian photographer based in London, specialising in reportage, interiors, and architectural photography. In 2023 he graduated from Parsons school of design with a degree in photojournalism.

Paolo Righetti

CEO and Co-Founder of Atombit

Paolo is the CEO and Founder of Atombit and played a key role in the creation and early development of the Future Guardians initiative.

He helped connect Progetto Rwanda with the wildlife photography and conservation storytelling community, bringing together Benedetta Lauricella and Alexandra Surkova to shape the initial vision of the project. Through Atombit, Paolo supports Future Guardians as a sponsor, promoter, and storytelling partner.

His focus is on helping launch the initiative, amplify its impact, and support its evolution into a scalable global model that can inspire future chapters across new ecosystems.

Bernadette Lauricella

Project Manager at Progetto Rwanda

Benedetta is Project Manager at Progetto Rwanda, where she oversees community-based initiatives focused on sustainable development and social impact. Her background in anthropology includes field research in Rwanda, Burundi, and Kenya, experiences that shaped her deep understanding of local culture, social dynamics, and community needs.

In her current role, Benedetta works closely with local partners and institutions to design and deliver programmes that respond directly to the priorities of the communities Progetto Rwanda serves, with a strong focus on education, inclusion, and long-term impact.

Patrizia Salierno

Founder and President of Progetto Rwanda

Patrizia is the founder and President of Progetto Rwanda. Following a humanistic education in philosophy and economics, she began her career as a teacher and later worked with Amnesty International, supporting a wide range of human rights campaigns.

She subsequently served as a project manager in India with the ASIA Association, working in support of the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamshala. Since 1998, Patrizia has been deeply committed to Rwanda, focusing on the protection of children and the defence of the rights and dignity of women living in vulnerable circumstances.

Luca Germini

Composer, music producer and sound designer

Luca Germini is a composer, music producer and sound designer with over three decades of experience in the music industry. Throughout his career, he has collaborated on a wide range of international productions across Europe and Latin America, working with artists, filmmakers and producers in projects where sound and narrative are central.

For the past ten years, Luca has also worked professionally in video production, initially directing and producing music videos, and later expanding into wildlife filmmaking through his collaboration with Alexandra Surkova. This transition allowed him to bring a cinematic, narrative-driven approach to documenting the natural world, shaped by years of experience in rhythm, structure and emotional timing.

Today, his work sits at the intersection of sound, image and storytelling, with a clear focus on creating visual narratives that feel honest and attentive — allowing stories, rather than spectacle, to lead the way.

Alexandra Surkova

Wildlife photographer and visual storyteller

Alexandra Surkova is a wildlife photographer and visual storyteller dedicated to documenting and protecting the natural world. Born in the former Soviet Union, she trained as a journalist and spent fifteen years working in the field before leaving her career behind to fully commit to wildlife photography.

Her work has taken her across continents, following wild animals in some of the last places where nature still resists. Her photographs have been published by National Geographic, Sony Alpha Universe, The Independent, El País and other international media, and she has collaborated with organisations and brands such as WWF, Sony and Leica, among others.

For Alexandra, photography is not about collecting images, but about creating understanding - not only by revealing beauty, but by awakening emotion and curiosity toward the natural world around us, a world we still know far too little about, and by choosing to pay attention before it is too late.