By Felicia Hansen | Fundraising Manager
Dear DAKTARI-supporter!
I’m writing to you on behalf of DAKTARI with an update mainly regarding the bridge project after the heavy rains in January.
Once everything finally dried up, we immediately started working on repairing the damage around camp. We repaired and reinforced the animal enclosures that had been damaged during the floods, making them more resilient for future heavy rains. We also had a grader come to repair and level our internal roads, which had become extremely damaged and difficult to drive on.
At the same time, we started thinking carefully about the bridge. We knew that if we rebuilt it, we needed to do it properly. It became clear very quickly that we would need guidance from someone with real engineering knowledge and experience.
We contacted CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), one of South Africa’s governmental engineering and research organisations, and explained that we are an NGO in need of help but without the financial possibility to hire a civil engineer. Very kindly, they connected us pro-bono with one of their associated engineers.
In March, the engineer visited DAKTARI for the first site inspection and measurements. Afterwards, he provided us with drawings, calculations, a full material list and even a step-by-step guide explaining how to build the bridge. We are planning to do the construction ourselves together with our maintenance team.
Unfortunately, the material costs turned out to be almost double of what we originally expected. Because our bridge crosses a sandy riverbed, a lot of excavation and groundwork is needed to create a stable and long-lasting structure, even though the bridge itself is not anything fancy.
Meanwhile, we also realised we would need equipment and machinery that we do not have ourselves. We contacted a local supplier in Hoedspruit, and incredibly kindly, they agreed to sponsor almost all the tools and machinery we will need for the construction period. It's amazing to have this support from our local community as well!
We have also asked the engineer to help us investigate whether some of the materials can be replaced with more affordable alternatives while still keeping the bridge strong and safe for the future, and he's busy with this at this very moment.
So this is where we are right now. We hope to begin construction during July, and the full process will likely take about one month as the concrete and foundations will need proper time to settle and strengthen.
Even though the actual construction has not started yet, we still wanted to share this update with you because so much work has already happened behind the scenes. During those endless days of rain in January, when it just kept raining and raining and we slowly realised the amount of damage we would face, it honestly felt overwhelming at times. Your support during that period gave us hope and helped us start moving forward again. Thank you for being with us!
Last week, a team from CSIR came for another site visit. At the same time, we happened to be running our Job Hunting Program for unemployed youth at camp. Two of the CSIR representatives were female civil engineers, and we asked them if they would speak to our students about their careers. It turned out to be one of those unexpectedly beautiful moments.
One of the engineers, Mary, shared how she grew up in poverty without electricity at home. She knew she wanted to study and create a different future for herself, so together with one of her teachers, they arranged for her school to provide candles so she could study at night. After finishing matric, she applied to university, and today she works as a civil construction engineer at CSIR and loves her work.
Listening to her story was incredibly inspiring for all of us. It reminded us that sometimes beautiful things can also grow from difficult situations, just like this bridge project.
Take care, and thank you once again for supporting us at DAKTARI. We truly feel your support every single day. Once the construction of the bridge has started, we'll send out another final update about this project!
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at office@daktaribushschool.org.
Warm Regards, Felicia + the entire DAKTARI-team!
p.s We operate as normal! So if you, or someone you know, would like to visit us for a volunteering experience in the wild - please read about it here on our webpage!
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