Providing Outreach to Local Communities

Dear DAKTARI Supporters,

My name is Nathalie and I have been volunteering at the Eco Club for the past 3 months and I must say that it has been a wonderful experience for me… :)

This experience is so rewarding and as you know….the eco club program could not be possible without your donation and continuous support!

A good news at Machlamele School is that we now have our own Eco Club Room. This classroom is dedicated to the Eco club and the children and I are very happy to have our own space to learn. We have started to furnish it…bought tables and chairs, some curtains, and have been donated some cushions to make a nice living room space in it! We have also planted trees and flowers to decorate the room and also to teach the kids to care for them…

Francois one of DAKTARI volunteer has also made a wooden filling cabinet for the children to keep their folders.

Slowly but surely we want to decorate this room and make it a confortable space for the eco club kids to enjoy coming and learning in it. 

But one of big project we have run with the children in the last month is the preparation of a big event in their village, The Oaks. Part of our Outreach program we are currently working on is a long term project to make the village a “eco friendly village” to be able to attract and welcome tourists. Therefore we must gather the population and educate them on the importance of having a clean village and taking care of the environment. Our best ambassadors being the children of the village, we decided to make a speech and a show event in order to motivate the population.

The children have written a song about the importance of having a clean village, and they have prepared the show by singing and dancing. It was really great fun but also very educational..

Last week we started the project and it was very nice to see the community participating but also the children coming to show the example…this project is on going and we look forward to tell you more about it in our next report.

Beside that big project, we have been caring on our lessons about animals care and environment and watched videos and learn about subjects as wide as pollution, reptiles, anti poaching or global warning ;)

The children also decided to write some beautiful letters to the anti poachers to thanks them for caring of the animals and stopping the poachers.

As I said this past 3 months have been very exciting and rewarding…its so rewarding to see the children becoming more and more confident and curious about their environment.

At the present they are all in exams period until the end of November. We wish them good luck and we all look forward to restart the Eco Club in about 3 weeks time.

As you know, your donation is more than precious and means the world to us. We still have many ideas and so much more we would like to accomplish! We are still looking for funds to be able to take the children to the Reptile Park and cover the cost of petrol, entrance and lunch for about 20 of them. We also would like to continue furnishing our eco club room and by the end of the year, if possible, take them on another game drive for them to Makalali Game Reserve.

We will never thank you enough for your support and look forward to give you more news in a bit :) 

Nathalie, Eco Club Teacher

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Dear Daktari Supporters,

I have been volunteering for DAKTARI as the new Outreach Manager for 3 months now, and I am enjoying it a lot :).

It is for me a very new experience and I am learning every day about the real African life, as I am getting to know better and better the kids and the community. Africa is really a magic place, nest of human kind, sweet by the sun shining almost every day and smiling faces. Africa teaches you a lot about Life, people and about yourself, as long as you remain open minded, patient and humble.  You need to find the right balance in each situation, and especially be confident in the magic of life to observe the expected achievements when it is time for them to happen. Not really thanks to yourself, but just thanks to Life, which is slowly moving and evolving through yourself, faithful and humble servitor… More than reason and intellect, it is the heart that is the engine of everything…

These are my first impressions. I do my best in contributing to the kids’ education and in helping communities, and in return, I get great surprises and heart gifts from all people I meet every day.

But let’s talk about our projects. I have a lot of happy stories to tell you :).

However, as you and us are all very busy and do not have so much time to read all what happened these last 3 months, I will send you news more regularly, once or twice a month to let you follow up our achievements and adventures without taking too much of your time.

June and July have been quiet calm at the eco-club, as it was first the writing exams period and then holidays. But as soon as they could come to the Eco-club even during this period, the children were attending happily and attentively our lessons about global warming, recycling waste, rhinos, lions, cheetahs and snakes…

We also have now a very special volunteer who is very excited every time she comes with me to the village or to school: our wonderful dog Mirabelle enjoys a lot her new position of Dogs Ambassador! She is awesome! Greeting nicely everyone, happily shaking her tail and playing with the children. She likes them so much and they begin not being afraid of her :). Hopefully they will soon understand that all dogs deserve to be treated well, as they can bring a lot of love and friendship to us. Mirabelle is also a very clever attendee during the lessons, greeting every kid for their behaviour and participation.

Thanks to your generous donations, we can go on driving to Metz and The Oaks villages twice a week to teach about 40 kids. The villages are located about 30 km from Daktari and you know that petrol is very expensive… 

Amongst other things, we can also provide our kids with useful notebooks and pencils, paintings, scissors, glue,…  as well as sometimes, for the students who work the hardest, some little environmental books they love to read and share with their families and friends.

Without your help, we could not go on educating the youngster of the Community. Please go on supporting our action to help them getting better education and being aware of the importance of respecting their natural heritage, the African treasure.

Remember you can always follow the news on our FaceBook page! (Don’t forget to like it please ;)

Speak more to you very soon.

Kindest regards.