Providing Outreach to Local Communities

Our outreach team has worked with Maahlamele School in the Oaks Village since the beginning of the year. We conducted two separate six-week teaching sessions for a total of 40 children. The purpose of these sessions was to provide valuable knowledge and skills to enhance the children's understanding of various subjects such as poaching, pollution and how to save the planet. The volunteers thoroughly enjoyed their time at the school, forming friendships with the children, and the ceremonies were a highlight for both students and volunteers.

Currently, our outreach team moved on to Leoma High School in Finale Village. In this new setting, we are conducting two sessions with smaller class sizes, each consisting of 20 children. The aim is to provide individual attention and support to enhance the progress of the children. It is crucial for us to focus on this village as a lot of poaching and littering are reported in the village.

To ensure a more impactful learning experience, our outreach manager, Rian, has made improvements to the curriculum. She has expanded the lessons on wildlife crime, offering the children a deeper understanding of wildlife trafficking and its consequences. Additionally, geography lessons have been upgraded to provide the children with basic geographical knowledge, enabling them to better comprehend the subjects covered.

Thank you once again for being an integral part of our mission.

Kings regards,

Looking back at the past year, we realise that together with your support we have achieved a lot.

The 12 past months have been filled with lots of joy and challenges, but thanks to your support, we were not alone!

You were there to back us up and your trust means the world to us. 

We are very proud of our impact made and we thank you for being a part of it, we know we owe you a lot!  

 Our first Outreach lesson started this week and the children were all very excited to see Our Outreach Director.

Camilla has now been joined by a long-term volunteer from the Netherlands, Rian Kraaij, and with her on our team we can only expect great things.  

We look forward to sending positive and exciting reports this year with stories of the impact that is being made in the young lives of the community. 

Wishing you lots of success and happiness in 2023.

Kind Regards

The first half of July was a great month with the Outreach and Wildlife Crime Campaigns being held in Leoma Secondary School. They were received by the pupils with enthusiasm and excitement.

 These 2 programs had to be put on hold due to mid-year exams and our long-term Outreach volunteer having to return to his own country. We have had difficulties finding an Outreach volunteer due to visa complications, BUT we are so happy to welcome Camilla Brotons back. 

Camilla updated/upgraded our outreach program, during her previous volunteer experience, and  has now been attributed the position of Outreach Director.

 The Outreach and Eco-Club programmes will be up and running again at the Maahlemele Secondary School in November 2022.

 We look forward to continuing to inspire and ignite a passion and understanding of the environment and wildlife in the community once again.

Thank you for your ongoing support

Take care and stay safe

Dear Friends,

We have been busy and achieved a lot since our last report!

We successfully reintroduced our wildlife crime campaign project, which had previously been postponed since June 2021, due to the pandemic. In May and June, we facilitated two separate wildlife crime campaigns at Sekoko and Maatla primary schools in Finale Village, serving over 80 students. These campaigns consist of three different lessons and workshops based around wildlife crime topics such as poaching, deforestation, and pollution - issues that are particularly prevalent in the surrounding areas. Our survey results show impressive improvements in the students’ understanding of these issues, and the campaign should serve as a helpful stepping stone and introduction to the topics which we cover when we host many of the students at DAKTARI next year.

Meanwhile, we also commenced our third eco-club of the year, at Leoma secondary school.

Despite being on school holidays for the majority of the period, the 14 dedicated students turned up to all of the lessons and produced some fantastic work. They carried out rubbish picks, planted trees, wrote letters to their school principal, designed posters, and produced some excellent presentations about the environment. Hoedspruit Reptile Centre recently sponsored our students on an educational excursion. The students received a lecture about snakes and other reptiles, a guided tour of the reptile centre, and even a snake-handling demonstration with puff-adders, cobras, and boomslang snakes! This was a highly educational experience that dispelled many misconceptions about snakes and gave our students a unique opportunity to interact with animals. With the eco-club ceremony coming up soon, we look forward to seeing how the students showcase what they have learnt! 

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Stay safe and have a good day,

Dear friends,

On April 27th, as we were celebrating Freedom Day, we were surprised to have all the students from the Eco Club show up in class. Their motivation for learning more is truly amazing. As they do not have a lot of opportunities to be more involved in extracurricular activities, these students are taking every opportunity they get to learn more. 

One of the students gave us a testimony in which she said “On Freedom Day, we came back to school because we wanted to learn more. We really did enjoy it because it was really funny and we are really motivated. And I found it very inspiring because learning more things is very unique because you get to know a lot of things that you didn’t even have the knowledge about. I really enjoy Eco Club!”

It was the same on this Monday, which was Workers Day, where all the class was present for a lesson on how to make South Africa a better place.

Also, we would like to thank Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center which opened its gate to 12 of our students so they can learn more about their wildlife. It was a great experience for them as they could see very rare animals such as the black leopard and the white lions.

The ceremony will take place at the end of the week in Finale with all the children and their relatives.

Stay safe and have a good day!