By Manuel Camino | Marketing Manager
Hello All!
Firstly, I would like to thank you all for your incredible support! Week in and week out we are reminded of all the amazing people who have helped us and are helping us achieve our goal of inspiring young people to care about the environment. For that, we are incredibly grateful!
Over the last few months we have continued on our mission of making a difference through education. In October we took the Winners of the Week for an incredible game drive. Not only did the children learn a lot about the bush and what it takes to become a field guide, but they also saw a leopard and it’s kill as well as a close encounter with a not-so-happy elephant! All in all, a great day!
The biggest highlight which I wanted to share with you came in mid November. As the children which we usually take entered into their exam season, we wanted to come up with a way to continue providing a service to the community.
Over the years we have taken on local volunteers who had previously been to DAKTARI as children, and came back to lend a hand. They act as extra support with translation to the international volunteers, but also provide a role model for the children as someone who is involved with conservation. More importantly, these young local volunteers are a great example of the dire situation of youth unemployment in the area.
As a result, we decided that during the children’s exam period we would take on young adults that had already finished school and focus the program more towards employability skills. Although the program maintains the essence of environmental education and interactions with the animals at the wildlife orphanage, these older learners also took part in workshops aimed at writing a CV, creating a cover letter, job interviews, and even presentation skills.
It has been an incredible experience, and we have decided to take on this alternative teaching program for the future to help a different demographic of learners. It has also been incredibly successful as three of the learners left with employment leads at a nearby game reserve! In addition to this, one of the learners, Patience, has found a job as Environmental Monitor and will now be actively involved in teaching at local schools about the environment and wildlife!
We also wanted to invite you to participate in our December fundraiser on GlobalGiving! From December 1st until December 31st all donations made to this project (Educate African children to save their environment) will be entered into a competition which could see us win a grand prize of $3000! If you would like to learn more or to get involved with this fundraiser please send us an email at marketing@daktaribushschool.org !
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