Kethabile Modise

Kethabile is a young Musarau woman from Ubani village in the Kgalagadi region of Botswana. Since 2023 she has worked as the Tourism and Community Coordinator in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Area, linking conservation, tourism management and community engagement on the ground. She coordinates the boomgate attendants who manage tourist movement and the host scouts who patrol boundary zones, report suspicious activity and help manage livestock movement to reduce human wildlife conflict. She also monitors community development projects to make sure they deliver real benefits to villages across the landscape.

Kethabile grew up in a small Indigenous community where hunting and gathering shaped daily life, and she leads with humility, patience and respect. She works alongside her teams rather than above them and champions women as decision makers in conservation and tourism. Her vision is for the women and children of Ubani and the wider Kgalagadi to benefit from sustainable conservation, with dignity, opportunity and long-term hope for the people who live with the land.