Education South Africa Project #20901

Educate African Children to Save Their Environment

by DAKTARI Bush School & Wildlife Orphanage

Project Report | Mar 7, 2017
Our first game drive of 2017

By Sonja Heineck | Marketing Manager

All of our winners from 2017!

This past weekend was the first game drive of 2017 for our students of the week!

Each week, DAKTARI volunteers choose a student of the week to win a free game drive with other winning students. The student is chosen based on their improvement throughout the week, their respectfulness of others, and their enthusiasm during the lessons. The student also received an indigenous tree to plant in their gardens at home.

Our students for this drive were all of our 2017 winners so far and three from 2016. They were Tebatso, Glen, Adam, Morwana, Ndzumeni, Thato, Shamain, Motlabaile, Kadikwane, and Chrisjan. All of the students are in Grade 8 from either Maahlamele or Lepono secondary school.

Once we have 8-10 winners, DAKTARI organises a game drive for the students. Game drives are often too expensive for the children and their families to afford and so they have never experienced on before. These trips are a unique and exciting experience for them.

The drives are sponsored by the local game reserves and lodges. This week’s drive was hosted and sponsored by Tshukudu Game Lodge in Balule Nature Reserve.

Though it was a rainy day and many of the animals were hidden away, the kids still had an amazing time getting to drive around in the safari vehicle with their friends.

A big thank you to Tshukudu Game Lodge for hosting and congratulations to all of our winning students!

Links:

Tshukudu Bush Camp Website

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Jan 4, 2017
Plans for 2017

By Sonja Heineck | Marketing Manager

Our final week of children in 2016

As we wrap up an amazing year at DAKTARI, we are looking ahead to another great year in 2017! Last year, we worked with 295 learners in Grade 8 from four different schools. This year, we are hoping to reach five schools and even more children.

One measurement that we use to see if the teaching program is working is to perform a survey when the children arrive and again when they leave. Volunteers will ask the children 16 questions on Monday morning and then the same questions on Friday morning. We compare the results to see what the children have learned.

In 2016, the children improved their results by 37% on average. This shows great progress towards understanding the importance of protecting the environment and learning necessary life skills.

In the coming year, we are planning to increase the amount of one-on-one time that the students have with their volunteer teachers. We are also going to try teaching the children in smaller groups. We want to create a strong contrast to how they learn at their school, where they are one of 70-80 students in a classroom. We want to make sure each child feels important and valued and we want to know that each child is actually learning.

Another change for 2017 is that we have a new volunteer coordinator! Patience, our previous coordinator, will be attending nursing school in Johannesburg this year. She was a fantastic addition to our team and we will truly miss her. Our new coordinator, Pretty, is already busy and is excited to have her first group of children in just 10 days!

None of this work would be possible without you and your support. If you are interested in continuing to support DAKTARI throughout 2017, consider making a recurring donation. A monthly donation provides DAKTARI with reliable income and greatly expands your impact across the entire year.

Plus, GlobalGiving will match your recurring donation at 200% so there has never been a better time to start!

Thank you again for all that you have done for DAKTARI. We can’t wait to embark on the new year together!

Children with baby squirrel

A special treat! Touching a python

Extracurricular bracelet making

Another day in the classroom

Baby bunnies getting cuddled

Pretty, our new volunteer coordinator!

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Oct 20, 2016
Constantly Revising and Improving

By Sonja Heineck | Marketing Manager

Erica and Patience updating the teaching program

DAKTARI opened its bush school in 2006 - making this our 10-year anniversary!

Some might think that means we have everything down to a science - all the lessons are set in stone and ready to go, every class runs like clockwork, each week is simply repetition.

This couldn't be further from the truth! While we are far from "winging it", the teaching program gets constant attention. We strive to provide the best experience for the volunteers that visit us and, of course, the children coming to camp. This means that the teaching program needs to be improved all the time.

In the past several months, it has had a lot of work done. From simple statistic updates to completely rewriting lessons, we put a shiny new face on the teaching program. Thankfully, our small staff doesn't have to do it alone! The volunteers that come to DAKTARI and teach the lessons each week are crucial in helping us revise the program.

Recently, some our volunteers found that the Knowledge Hunt lesson, designed to reinforce the animal facts we teach, needed to be enhanced. Instead of filling out a worksheet while walking around the camp, the volunteers designed an intricate, 14-clue scavenger hunt! The kids LOVE it and will often run from clue to clue, trying to be the first team to finish.

Our bush walk also got a new activity. Normally, the children present facts about different trees that you can find in the African bush while we take our Thursday morning walk. In order the make sure the other students are paying attention, the volunteers added Tree Fact Bingo to the walk. Each child gets a bingo sheet and can only check a box once they can name the tree that corresponds with the fact in the box. It's been a big success and the children are paying more attention during their classmates' presentations!

As always, we feel very lucky and grateful to have such engaged, excited, and creative volunteers who help make our program better every day. To learn more about joining them, check out the link below!

Until next time,

The DAKTARI Team

Our teaching program board

Everyone headed out for the bush walk

Links:

Learn more about volunteering at DAKTARI

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