Safari Fund for my mother

I feel embarrassed to be setting this up but I don't know what to do...
Me and my mum have been planning to go to Kenya for the last 4 years. Back in 2014 we had booked to fly out to Mombasa, Kenya - my mums dream holiday. However about a month before we were due to fly our holiday was canceled due to the terrorism problems that were occurring in Kenya and the UK government prohibited flights to Kenya... My mum was heartbroken as we had been planning the trip for years...

We eventually managed to re-book the holiday to Kenya in 2015 after the government re-allowed flights and we got the funds back together. We are booked to go to Kenya in January next year and during our stay we booked an incredible safari.

Our bookings for the holiday have been made independently due to our financial situation with the attempt to save money and the feeling that the majority of monies will be made to the locals of the country as apposed to large corporations outside the country.

As the departure date was fast approaching my mum contacted the safari company to check everything was ok and to finalize any last details. We waited for a week, no response... We then turned to Tripadvisor and saw that the company we had booked with had an awful recent review with regard to the operator not paying for the respective lodges, driver wage and park fees, meaning that the individuals were forced to repay on the safari as the payments had not been made prior to the safari.

We then got increasingly concerned as we have paid for 50% of the safari as a deposit and the rest was to be paid out in Kenya. We then posted on forums and have recently had confirmation of our concerns,as a number of other clients and a company that used to work with him but stopped due to him 'ripping' people off got in contact with us....

We contacted the lodges we were expected to be staying at and two of them have got back and said they have no knowledge of our booking on the respective dates... My mum is absolutely distraught and I just don't know what to do... Due to our financial situation we cannot book another safari and my mum is heartbroken as we have been saving up so long for this and she feels really bad as she saw this as a present for my 21st birthday... I just don't know what to do...

So I ask from the kindness of your hearts if you could help us in anyway that you can, I will be eternally grateful, and I honestly mean that.

Best Regards,

Josh