A Scholarship for A Child To Go To School in Afric

Dear Supporters, 

After the completion of the construction project at Mmamorare Creche in July, we spent sometime looking for a creative way in which we could use our funds for the benefit of wildlife conservation. It was essential that this project encompassed our ideals of conservation and environmental education. Our search ended in September after contact was made with the Timbavati Foundation. In November we sent eight learners from Diputhi Primary School on a three-day Eco-Quest, an experience they will never forget.

Timbavati Foundation

The best way for a message to have a lasting impact on an individual is to evoke excitement and emotion. It is difficult to convey a message about the environment if the learners are not given an opportunity to see, touch, hear and feel it. Cue, our introduction to the Timbavati Foundation, an experiential education facility, based on a game reserve surrounding the Kruger National Park. Their mission; ‘To promote environmental and conservation awareness and ecotourism, including maintenance of the environmental school and expansion of teacher workshops at local schools.’ The foundation have the resources to accommodate large numbers of learners and have a permanent program set up to engage individuals in conservation.

Faith, our community officer, selected eight learners from our Diputhi Year 7 class to join her on a three-day Eco-Quest with the foundation. The children were accommodated at the bush school and received experiential lessons and practical workshops in conservation, environmental best practice and eco-tourism. The three day course covers various aspects of conservation including: interaction between animals, bird and plant life, water conservation, establishing vegetable gardens as well as poaching problems and damage to our heritage as a result thereof. These learners are trained as conservation leaders and equipped to identify environmental issues such as soil erosion and water pollution at their schools and home environment. A key focus of each course is to highlight the ever-present rhino poaching problem, and to educate the learners on the role we all need to play in combating this issue.

During their time at the Timbavati bush school, they also enjoyed game drives to get up close to the wildlife, with practical hands-on experience with the plants and animals.

Your generous donations funded this trip in its entirety and due to the resounding positive feedback we received, we will continue to take learners to the foundation throughout 2019.   

Quantifying our impact

The results of the qualitative study are in! Last year the Diputhi Primary School learners took a qualitative test in January and then again in December to determine whether the hundreds of hours that we pour into environmental education classes are making a tangible impact. Statements such as ‘There is no point in 

helping the environment because what I do won’t make a difference’ and ‘It is okay to throw your rubbish on the ground’ were given to learners who were required to rate their attitudes towards these statements on a scale of 1 - ‘Stronly Agree’ to 5 - ‘Strongly Disagree’.

We are thrilled to report that we recorded a 70% improvement in score. Our impact is making a difference and has positively influenced the attitudes of these 110 learners towards the environment, conservation and wildlife. We are incredibly excited to continue to educate these young minds throughout 2019 with the results of the study last year reinforcing the importance of our work.

One month down and so many more to come. Twenty-nineteen has plenty in store, including more game drives, more learners reached with our message and bigger and better fundraising events.

Thank you for your on going support from where ever you are in the world.

Love the Karongwe team x

Dear Supporters,

The last quarter in Limpopo has been an exciting and colourful one. On Saturday 1st September, Global Vision International volunteers and staff joined Diputhi Primary School members and Oaks residents to take part in GVI’s Annual Spring Colour Walk. The walk spanned 10km – a round trip commencing and finishing at the focus of our work – the primary school. Congrats must be given to our star Community Officer Faith who co-ordinated the event and managed to raise over R12,000! 

Colour Walk

150 people took part in the colour walk and although there were many exhausted bodies, crossing the finish line was achieved with smiles from ear to ear as we remembered the purpose behind our pain. Most completed the walk in two hours, but in the spirit of team encouragement, some ran extra km’s to drive the last few over the line. Upon returning to the school, a sports tournament took place as well as any African’s favourite pastime – dancing! It was incredible to see coloured chalk flying across the playground as we danced the afternoon away.

The aim of the spring walk was to raise money to assist Diphuti Primary School as well as, raise funds for GVI’s community outreach projects. Each fortnight, GVI provides lessons on environmental education, undertakes youth development initiatives, as well as engages in sports practice programs with learnerd from the primary school. Funds are generally utilised to purchase sports equipment, books for the learners and prizes for outstanding achievevers. Just last week, two dictionaries were purchased to award to two students from 2018’s year seven graduating class.

Going forward we plan to expand our impact through the co-ordination of an eco-school weekend. Ten exceptional students from Diputhi’s 2018 class have been selected to attend a three day practical weekend in a local game reserve during November. GVI will be transporting the children, with a teacher, to the Timbavati Game Reserve where they will take part in hands-on conservation education. Studies have shown the overwhelming benefits of short or long term exposure to nature, and the resulting positive attitudes towards it. Children are more likely to want to protect and conserve something that they have been able to physically and emotionally connect with. We are incredibly excited to be able to offer this experience and if successful, we hope to send more groups through next year.

Cricket

Our work with Coach Gavaan continues as we support him through the attendance at cricket practices. We have seen an increase in attendance to practice as a result of our presence. There are many talent children across South Africa but they remain undiscovered without a platform to reach their full potential. Cricket clubs like The Oaks draw children from rural communities away from harmful behaviour that they may be exposed to outside of the clubs safe space. The team camaraderie also encourages basic soft skills like team work, fitness and leadership.

Quantifying our impact

GVI commits hundreds of hours each year towards environmental education and awareness. It is important for us to be able to quantify whether our time spent at Diputhi is gaining the repose and attitude change we hope for. Unlike writing a maths test and seeing a rise in score over time, it is difficult to be able to quantify an attitude or opinion. We have instead put together a qualitative study which was given to our class of 110 learners at the start of 2018. We will be running the second test with the kids in the coming weeks and will have the results for you in our next report. Stay tuned!

What an eventful quarter it has been. Our Spring Colour Walk, although only in it’s second year, was incredbily successful and an important tool to further connect with community members. Slowly but surely we are recruiting more and more people to join our conservation army.

Thank you for your ongoing support whether financially or through spreading the good word about our work on the ground.

Love, as always, the Limpopo team x