By Sara Paz Pedrero | Eco-club teacher
8th May 2015,
Dear Daktari Supporters,
Replacing Nathalie’s was not as easy task, as she had big boots to fill!!! I am Sara and I am the animal manager at Daktari, and for the past few months I have been running the eco-club.
It was something new for me, and I have to admit it took about 5 minutes for these children to steal my heart. The educational part of my job is the most challenging and complicated, but also the most rewarding. In only 2 months I achieved great results with the children and a personal accomplishment I never thought possible.
I decided to cover subjects that the children are not used to study, talking about issues that are way out of their normal school programme. When the theory of evolution was firstly introduced to them they were very shocked: they refused any believe that does not glorify God as the creator of all human beings and animals.
Everybody has their own believes, and there is no right or wrong, but everybody should be informed. The children were curios about it, they showed interest in Charles Darwin, and I believe this lesson made think, and question themselves and the Bible, and isn’t it question yourself the first step towards improvement!
The need to look better after the animals in the local villages is a necessity, and as animal manager I wanted to participate in the education of the local people about the importance of keeping our dogs free of ticks and fleas, as these can affect the owners’ health and especially the children. The eco-club children demonstrate acknowledgment of the problem, and they show determination to teach their families and friends to look after their dogs better. Thanks to the collaboration of the State Veterinary the local people will be able to get free treatment from the animal technician of the area, and all the children that had pets saved the phone number!
We also learn about subjects as discrimination and respect towards everybody! We talked about history issues that were essential to stop discrimination in all ways, such as the Holocaust. None of the children were informed about Second World War and I decided to make a lesson about it.
Daktari Bush School and Wildlife Orphanage joined Roots and Shoots programme by Jane Goodall. As part of their team we will be involved ion campaigns that involve children, animal and environment. The children wanted to be include and they will come up with ideas in order to improve the community and their personal comfort within their village.
Teenage children are probably the most difficult kids to work with, if they are not inspired they show an attitude and they can bring the class down. It is hard sometimes to keep them all interested and focus, and to keep the discipline, but we always get there eventually. We had few national holidays when the schools were closed, but some children still came and it made our all team very excited and even happier to teach.
I like to think I can teach the children, but I have to admit what I learn from them, their appreciation of little things, their love of learning and their genuine smiles teach me way more that I could ever teach them!
I could never thank you enough for making all these possible and for keeping supporting Daktari.
Links:
By Nathalie | Eco Club Teacher
By Michele Merrifield | Co-Founder
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
