HERD - Community Development Project

We are happy to report back on our community project with the nearby Mpisi School that we work with at HERD Trust.

As mentioned in out last report, the Lessons in Conservation team (https://www.lessonsinconservation.com/) visited the local Mpisi School with us at the end of April.

Through the vision and dedication of HERD Founder, Adine Roode and the help of a group of veterinarian students from Onderstepoort, we took to Mpisi Primary School under the banner of the registered NPC, Lessons in Conservation (LIC) to share the message of conservation with 20 of their Grade 7 learners. What a success it turned out to be.

Our own conservation students and staff at HERD were there to watch LIC in action, with learning, games and so much more filling the day. Each lesson was explained in theory and then played out in a game to ensure that the little learners could understand, by way of example. After the lessons were completed, we took the children to visit us at HERD in Hoedspruit – to discover who we are and what it is that we do.

HERD elephant carers, Godknows and Shepherd were ready to show them what they had come all the way to experience – the elephants – with a brief introduction to HERD. Although some students were nervous to meet three elephant bulls from the herd, others took it in their stride. For many, this would be a once in a lifetime experience. For some, this would be a chance to step into the life of conservation and to one day walk in the footsteps of other elephant carers, rangers, lodge staff, and conservationists before them. Thank you LIC for the hard work over three days.

We visited Mpisi School again on 19 July, as the school requested for our team to plant fruit trees and vegetables in their garden. The HERD team spent the whole day with the children, colouring with them, while the planting of the fruit trees and vegetables was carried out in the background. We managed to plant pomelo, lemon, lime, kumquat, orange, mango and pomegranate trees. The vegetables that we planted were tomato, beetroot, spinach, green pepper, onion, and cabbage.

The next day, we returned with a delivery of nutrition-packed Nkosi Bars for the little students. The kids are always so excited when the “happy elephant” visits, as one of our team members dresses up in an elephant onesie costume to spread joy and awareness.

Thank you for all your support for our community school initiative, and helping us to build strong little learners who will become our next generation of conservation custodians.

Warm regards

Adine and the HERD Team