Providing Outreach to Local Communities

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far, we have been able to make some progress with the development of our Eco Clubs and our work with the children of the local village! We were able to start our second Eco Club at Maahlamele Secondary School, in The Oaks Village. They meet twice a week after school and our Outreach Manager attends the meeting every Thursday to support them with their goals. Already there are around thirty-five members of the club who are so excited to learn more about the environment, animals, and ways to help their community!

We also organized a meeting with the Ramatau Eco Club and Childline. Childline is a non-profit organization in South Africa that provides guidance and information for children. They also have a crisis hotline children can call for free twenty-four hours a day if they need advice or assistance with any problems in their lives. Three representatives from Childline attended the meeting, and took turns speaking to the group about HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, and the different forms of abuse. The children were enthusiastic, and said afterwards that they learned a lot!

One of the Ramatau Eco Club’s ideas was to visit other schools around their village and tell them about the importance of taking care of the environment. One of the children in the Eco Club, Grace, has a younger brother attending primary school, and she took the initiative to contact the school and arrange a day when they could go and speak to every grade. Four girls from Ramatau went with the Outreach Manager to the primary school, where they started in Grade 7 and worked their way down to the littlest kids. They talked about how important it is to throw all your trash in a trashcan, why they shouldn't cut down trees or kill animals, and about how pollution is bad for the Earth. They even talked about noise pollution! It was a great opportunity for the kids to share what they have learned, and as a reminder for the younger children to be aware of the environment and their community.

We are happy to be making progress with our goals, but have so much more we would like to accomplish! We have three more schools to start Eco Clubs in, and a lot more ideas for things we can do with the kids! We are still especially looking for funds for a vehicle so that we no longer have to rent a car for our Outreach Manager to travel to the villages and work with the clubs.  

Links:

• Tebalelo tells us why the Eco Clubs are so important.