Providing Outreach to Local Communities

Dear supporting friends,

Wow, time went by so quickly… it is already September, can you believe it?!

The past few months were filled with a broad range of activities in the Eco Clubs and as pictures say more than a thousand words, I will let them do the talking ;). However, there are some exciting developments I am very eager to tell you about.

At first we are thrilled to inform that learners from the local primary schools are also finding their way to the environmental clubs. We welcome everyone who is keen to learn about animals and the environment, so we are very happy to have them!

Remember that I told you last time about the wallet we made from an old milk carton? Well, this lesson got a follow-up as we made wall art using old cardboard and ‘treasures from nature’ (i.e. stones & twigs). This all is nice and fun to do, but actually serves a greater purpose. We aim to make the students aware of the great possibilities of recyclable materials. In the local villages the communities face a large litter problem, which is a shame, since we all know that it is very important to live in a clean environment.

As another part of DAKTARI’s Outreach Programme, we are helping the communities with implementing rubbish management. Once this is done, it is more likely for visitors to stop by in the villages (which are located along main roads). At that very moment, the children can sell their 100% homemade curios, primarily made out of things that are considered as rubbish. All in all, crafting with recyclables now will pay off in the long run! And oh, we are also working on a ‘building with rubbish’ project with the learners but I will tell you all about that in the next report :). 

Last but not least I would like to raise awareness for a very special day for us. Wednesday the 16^th of September, GlobalGiving is offering an opportunity that you do not want to miss! Every online donation will be 30% matched. $70 000 in matching is available, so be prepared! Matching begins at 9.00 AM EDT (South Africa: 3.00 PM – Europe: 3.00 PM – UK: 2.00 PM). On this day, your donation will even have a bigger impact on the underprivileged children; you can make the difference!

As you might know, in the past we already organized some environmentally oriented day trips and game drives for those underprivileged students that improved most in the clubs. These trips are essential in making the learners more conscious of their heritage and to take care of it: they provide the much needed practical component in addition to the theory covered in the lessons. Most children have never been able to see African wildlife, even though they live very close to numerous nature reserves. Your support will be amazingly appreciated in order to offer these excursions.

Let me end by giving a huge shout out to all of you generous donors. It is because of YOU that the environmental clubs can exist and flourish. On behalf of all underprivileged learners: ke leboga kudu (means ‘thank you very much’ in the local language; Sepedi)!

Best regards and until next time,

Toine Vos, Eco Club teacher and Outreach Programme Coordinator

Links:

• DAKTARI Outreach online
• DAKTARI on Facebook

Dear supporting friends,

I hope you all are well and enjoying a sunny summer… at least if you are living in the northern hemisphere. For the people in the southern hemisphere: better times are coming, as spring is on its way :).

The children of the Eco Club just went through a tough month, as they had to write exams. I am very glad to announce that they all survived and passed; well done all! The Eco Club was still alive & kicking, since the exams could not withhold most children from attending the Eco Club for even more education. A great reward for us as this shows once again how dear and important the environmental club is for the kids!

During the first lesson we worked on decorating our classroom to make it an even more inspiring and pleasant learning environment. We teamed up to hang curtains (early preparation for the summer to come!), attached some motivating quotes to the wall and did a big clean. Thanks to your generous gifts the classroom looks nice and fine again!

The next lesson was on advertising & media – something different and out of the box for Eco Club, but really important. We looked at tricky advertisements (even in their own village!) that use the ‘appeal to pity’ technique and watched convincing commercials. Although the media are tricky, we underlined that their techniques are not necessarily wrong or dishonest. Moreover, it is the person who uses a camera who decides what to show and what to leave out. The kids really are now aware of the hazards and secrets of the advertisers. Mission accomplished!

We also talked about rubbish, for example the ‘RRRC-principle’: reduce, re-use, recycle and compost. We discussed the rubbish problem in the local village. The children understand the problem and would love to use dustbins instead of burning their waste. We emphasized that, although it seems very difficult, they are the ones who can make a change. As Nelson Mandela said: “It always seems impossible, until it is done.”

We ended the lesson with crafting wallets… out of old milk cartons! The children never saw this before and were surprised of what you can do with this regular type of waste. The hard work was rewarded, as it resulted in some beautiful and useful wallets.

A Dutch take-over at the next Eco Club! Four Dutch volunteers (including myself) introduced the children to the country of windmills, wooden shoes and tulips. Next to topography and the national anthem, we played Old Dutch games, such as sack race and T-shirt hanging. We ended the lesson with an estimation quiz. Do you for example know how far the walk from The Netherlands to The Oaks village is? Or how many times the Netherlands fits in South Africa? No? Look it up ;). The children as well as the volunteers had loads of fun. As we would say in the Netherlands: een geslaagde les! The students now enjoy their well-deserved holidays!

Thank you friends, for your continued support. We are thinking of you and cannot emphasize enough that your donation is more than precious. We still have many ideas and so much more we would like to accomplish! For example, we are planning to do more crafting, for which stationary is needed. Moreover, for the children to visualize how decomposition of different materials works, we would like to make a solid decomposition box so that they can follow the process day by day.

Best regards and take care,

Toine Vos, Eco Club teacher and Outreach Programme Coordinator

Links:

• Join us on Facebook!