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