By Kate Robey | The GVI Trust, Operations Manager
Dear Supporters,
Today I'd like to introduce you to Faith, a 25-year old Nature Conservation graduate from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa.
After graduating in 2015 and working at the Safari and Lion Park for 6 months, Faith found GVI with a little help from her partner! She found out about the National Scholarship Programme, applied and a few months later got a call from Richard, the GVI Karongwe Base Manager, who offered Faith a spot on the 3-month Wildlife and Conservation Internship. Faith gladly accepted!
"I fell in love with the place and the people the first day I got here and I was looking forward to the experience. I enjoyed doing everything, but community work caught my eye the most. I enjoy making people smile and my passion for giving back was enlightened. This is when I asked Richard ,Leah and Kutulo, GVI Karongwe's staff, if we could have a girls development project – where we will be talking about the changes we go through as ladies and hopefully make an impact in their lives and give them something to go out there and be beautiful, passionate and amazing ladies.
I also implemented that we donate sanitary pads to the girls once a month, because I’ve noticed that in most rural communities it is not everyone that can afford to buy themselves a pack of pads. I asked the other volunteers to help get the project running and everyone donated some money to buy the first bunch of sanitary pads. With the help of my mentor Leah (Assistant Base Manager), I drafted a letter asking for donations from local businesses in Hoedspruit so we can have the project running, and we got temporary sponsors from Labamba, a supermarket which the base usually buys from, as well as the butcher next to the shop. They donations helped us a lot and we had enough for the whole of 2016. In 2017 the project is still running and the volunteers have been helping with donations since the beginning of the year!"
Faith left GVI in September 2016 and was employed at Cango Wildlife Ranch in December 2016 as an Animal Handler. In early 2017, Faith called Leah to find out how the community project was progressing and during that conversation she was told that there was a position open for a Community Liason. Faith asked for more information, applied for the post, had an interview over Skype and started her new position on 2 April 2017!
Thank you for your generous support!
With Gratitude,
The GVI Trust
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