Over 220 South African youth educated about nature

Dear Supporter of Daktari,

The year 2010 is nearly finished and we welcomed, this week, our last group of Children.

To celebrate Christmas, we invited Children who have been with us in the past, and have created a wildlife club in their village. Along the year they have encouraged their friends, family and community to protect the environment. The message is passing through and all we have to do is to spread it to more and more children, which we will carry on to do from January 2011.

During this week we have celebrated Christmas and the joy of receiving from all of you, as we know that without your precious help, Daktari wouldn't exist. The children enjoyed the hot hours of the day in the Swimming Pool. Yes, summer in South Africa isn't under the snow but around the swimming pool!!!

The children went on a bush walk with Ian who reminded them about the trees and the animal tracks. At the time of their stay, the children had also the opportunity to experience a tracking of poachers by the South African police. Unfortunately, poaching still exists and Daktari has a lot of work to do, still, to convince the whole community of the importance of saving wildlife for their future. It was a favorable time to discuss solutions to stop poaching and everybody left with the promise to spread the word in the village.

On a more positive side, the children had also the chance to celebrate the birth of Chico's baby. Chico, our bushbaby, is living free around the camp for more than a year now. We didn't know if he/she was a male/female and therefore didn't know she was pregnant. What a surprise and an existing Christmas present Chico (renamed Chica) gave us.

We thank you all for your great generosity and for keeping us in your heart and thoughts.

From the sunny South African bush, we wish you a Merry Christmas.

The year has been very busy for Daktari. We started the year welcoming the grade 8 children from two local schools. There were no school holidays for Daktari Bush School and we decided to work non stop, even during the soccer world cup event and the building of our new predator camp. We are, and have been, very determined to achieve what you and us believe in : Educating as many children as possible - because the future of our environment depends on our children. The success of our teaching programme is spreading over the community and we have been asked on numerous occasions to welcome children from other schools. So we did !!! When we finished all the grade 8 from Ramatau and Lepono schools, positive contacts were made with three new schools, and we have started taking their children as well. We will have reached, by the end of the year, more than 1500 children! And this all in the past five years! We have given all of these children the experience of a lifetime, and created in them an awareness of caring for wildlife and environment. 

Animals have also been a part of this success. Recently we hand raised an orphan Nyala that was re-introduced into the wild. A baby donkey was born, a baby bushbaby is taken care of by our volunteers and older bushbaby (Chico), Shiloweni our leopard has calmed down a lot and settled nicely in his enclosure. All of us, volunteers, donors, children and staff are really making an impact on the future of our environment. 

We thank you for your tremendous support and the faith you have in our work. Without you, Daktari wouldn't exist and survive.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and look forward to hear from you.

Links:

• Daktari website