Fifteen years ago, 7NEWS Spotlight reporter Liam Bartlett met former special commando Damien Mander when he had just returned from the Iraq War with a dream of fighting a different battle: combating endemic poachers. This Sunday at 9.00pm on Channel 7 and 7plus, Liam goes deep into the African wilderness to reunite with the Aussie veteran who is saving the continent's critically endangered wildlife with an all-female army of rangers. Damien sold up everything he owned to establish the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, and his unconventional journey has led him to recruit a ground-breaking all-female unit of rangers known as Akashinga, meaning "The Brave Ones" in Zimbabwe's Shona dialect. The heavily armed local women, often mothers, patrol areas the size of small countries to catch the poachers and stop illegal operations. Not only do these women protect wildlife, they also change the trajectory of their communities by passing on 90% of their earnings to their families. Damie