Education South Africa Project #41006

Vet Books for Africa

by Wildlife Conservation Trust

Project Report | Mar 31, 2021
Closing Report for the Vet Books for Africa 2020

By Xander van Eeden | Project Leader

Handing over textbooks at Sokoine University

What a journey our two year term has been, from starting as a new committee with all the enthusiasm in the world to being thrown into a life-changing pandemic and still persevering to complete our mission. I truly believe this would not have been possible with any other committee than the one we had. This was truly a group of young students with the will and means to adapt and push forward.

However, most importantly we - as a conservation and educational entity that have planned for two long and difficult years- would like to say a BIG THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. We were able to complete our mission with the assistance of our partners and most importantly YOU, our donors and always present supporters!

Preparation Summary

Our term started way back in February 2019, when we had a lot of plans and ideas that we quickly began to set in motion. We arranged many fundraising events, one of them being the annual VB4A dodgeball tournament. One of our highlights from 2019 was attending the World Youth Wildlife summit, bringing children from around the world to learn about the many challenges and solutions concerning conservation. We also enjoyed our work on our home soil with the community around us, we helped with tutoring at OP Primary and also took part in two community outreaches with our partners the International Veterinary Student Association (IVSA). During 2019 we worked extremely hard – we formed alliances with the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), IVSA, Lessons in Conservation (LiC) and the University of Pretoria, was extremely pro-active and landed many sponsors.

At the beginning of 2020 we were more determined than ever, we had more sponsors lined up and had plans in place for the biggest fundraising event in Vet Books history, in the form of a big Gala dinner. Everything was on track before tragedy struck with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of February. We were very naïve at first and thought we would return soon with all being back to normal in no time, but when the National lockdown in SA was extended for a fourth time we realized we needed to become innovative and make alternative arrangements. We had a serious meeting in June where we made the tough call to postpone our Gala dinner, made plans for alternative fundraising and came up with a new sponsorship plan. This worked well and we were cruising towards making our trip a reality.

Towards the end of 2020 our trip started to hang in the balance, as not only South Africa’s borders were still closed but many of the countries we were planning to visit as well. We then decided that by 15 November 2020 we would make a final call on our departure on the 28^th of December (which was already extended from departing on 16 December). Unfortunately, one of our committee members had to withdraw at this stage and we had to find a suitable replacement at short notice. After our exams that only ended early in December we started preparing for our departure. Many hours were spent trying to find out the exact regulations of all the countries we were visiting and hospitals or labs where one could do covid-19 tests, often this had to be done through communicating in another language, making things even more difficult. On 23 December, two days before Christmas, another member had to withdraw and we had to find a second replacement to fill that spot - ready to leave in 5 days’ time. This included the replacement to travel from where they were on holiday, to pack and be ready to leave with us from Pretoria, but once again the committee was able to persevere through this.

Trip Summary 2020

We all arrived in Pretoria on 27 December when final preparation started. Very early on the morning of the 28^th we went for our first Covid-19 test and received our results that evening, making us ready to leave as scheduled on 29 December. Another blow hit us when we heard that Malawi had closed their borders again and our route has to be changed once again. There was also the issue of the extremely congested Beitbridge border post into Zimbabwe that we had to overcome, ultimately forcing us to drive through Botswana into Zambia. All went well and we were into Botswana with no real issues. For everyone, the trip was still not a reality as there was so much doubt before we finally departed. We entered Zambia and visited our first University, The University of Zambia on 3 January 2021. And what an amazing experience that was, we were welcomed with open arms and shown such hospitality by the faculty. Their campus was beautiful and we got a huge sense of fulfillment that we were finally helping our first faculty. We then pushed East and visited two of our charities, Conservation South Luangwa and Chipembele Wildlife Education trust in the South Luangwa National park. They were extremely thankful for our support and showed us some of the amazing work they do. Due to the limited roads in Zambia, we headed 8 hours back the way we came to Lusaka and only then North to enter Tanzania. Where we visited our second University, the Sekoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro on 11 January 2021. This was equaled in every way to our previous University visit. Two completely different faculties that invited us in with open arm and were extremely grateful for our continued efforts towards educating veterinarians of the highest quality. We met some outstanding young people that have conquered all the odds to be studying what they are. But unfortunately we did not have that much time as we were quickly on our way to Mwanza against Lake Victoria to get our second Covid-19 test done in order to enter Uganda. While in Mwanza we applied online for our Ugandan visas, however never ended up receiving them in time to enter the country. Uganda had presidential elections at the time, where as a result of the unrest in the country their entire internet system was shut down (never allowing our visa applications to go through… even after payment) and they deployed their military. This once again forced us to make the tough call where we had to postpone our visit to Uganda.

On our journey northwards we had been surrounded by welcoming people whom we will never forget nor the conversations we had with them. From Mwanza, we headed South-West to travel back to Zambia along Lake Tanganyika. There the roads were beyond horrible, with dirt roads containing potholes the size of the vehicle, mud that got us stuck for 6 hours and high speeding buses which did not seem to mind the enormous potholes. We unfortunately got into an accident in Mpanda just before the Zambian border, but luckily we were able to sort it out with the relevant authorities and were on our way again the next day, without being a day of schedule. As soon as we entered Zambia, we learnt that Zimbabwe had a spike in infections and had also closed their borders. This meant we would not be able to visit the University of Zimbabwe either and had to travel back to South Africa along the same route we entered, through Botswana. So we drove to Livingstone to do our last Covid-19 test before returning home. We entered South Africa on the afternoon 3 February 2021 and were welcomed by our very own friendly police and immigration officials.

Vet Books for Africa considers our expedition to have been a huge success and appreciate all the experiences we were able to have, every special interaction, and every single student who was ever so grateful for our contribution and assistance. The charities are doing amazing work and we have already drawn up plans to help them on the next level in future Vet Books journeys.

Although we only managed to visit 2 out of the planned 4 Universities as well as 2 out 4 planned charities, our perseverance paid off as we were still able to impact the lives of animals and people of Africa. We plan to get the necessary books and the supplies to the Universities and Charities through other means during our upcoming holidays or through residents of these countries that are returning home form South Africa. Once again, a HUGE THANK YOU must go out to all our SPONSORS, DONORS, PARTNERS, as well as to our parents for all their support and assistance as without them we wouldn’t have been able to achieve our mission.

We raised just short of USD5000 before our trip and have since then it has gone all the way up to USD 6531!! Due to all the unforseen changes happening en route, all funds leftover has been left for the next Vet Books for Africa project in 2022.

As you will know by now, this is a biennial project that was started in 1993. As such, a new Vet Books for Africa committee will be chosen to continue the good work we do and to expand in order to create the maximum impact possible in our Mother Africa as well as with her children. That said, this is not the end of Vet Books for Africa so kindly keep an eye out for the next Vet Books 2022 project. We would love your continued support and assistance during all of our future endeavours.

Please consider following us or continuing to follow us on social media, Facebook and Instagram, and visit our website for more detailed information on our trip in the blog posts added while enroute, starting with the first one: https://vetbooksforafrica.org/?p=4371.

We know that the difference we made will be carried forward and that with your support Vet Books for Africa will continue to grow and play a role in improving the education of people, and the protection of animals and their environment.

Thank you again for choosing this unique initiative. We love our animals. We love our people. We love our continent. We believe we have the ability to connect them with the vital component “education is the key to conservation”. #OneHealth #OneAfrica

Yours in Conservation through Education,

The Vet Books for Africa.

Engaging with students at the University of Zambia

Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust

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Dec 1, 2020
Final Report BEFORE THE START OF OUR EXPEDITION

By Xander van Eeden | Project Leader

Looking forward to our expedition

Dear loyal supporters of VETBOOKS!

Coming to the end of our term, where we finally head off into Mother Africa where all our planning is coming together to create “the positive ripple effect in the struggling world of conservation”, we would like to say A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed either their time or financially to support this remarkable initiative.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Since the start of our GlobalGiving project launch we have raised $4 359, which has contributed immensely to the change we hope to make in our sister African countries. Even though we have not reached our mark, the assistance has been an additional bonus that we could not be more thankful for.

Itinerary

Due to the current situation and the new university calendars, we plan to leave on 29 December 2020 from the University of Pretoria, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Onderstepoort in Pretoria, South Africa. We will be travelling for 5 weeks and return at the beginning of February.

We will be travelling to 4 universities, starting with Zimbabwe. We will continue north into Zambia, where we will visit the Veterinary faculty in Lusaka and then east to Malawi. After the university in Lilongwe, Malawi, we will travel into Tanzania where we will visit our final university.

On our route back home we will stop at various charities to deliver specific supplies that we collected on their behalf. We will drive from Tanzania through Zambia, Zimbabwe and back into South Africa.

We will be packing all our equipment and the supplies over the next few weeks, while making the final preparations before our departure.

Changes

As a result of the Covid regualtions, we had to make a few alterations to our plans. As one can imagine to keep people and countries as a whole safe, certain laws were implemented which unfortunately made our lives a bit more difficult. Each border crossing requires a negative Covid 19 test (only viable for 2 days), accumulating to around an additional $ 4000 for the 8 committee members and 7 borders. Something we definitely did not budget for.

To compensate for this unwelcome surprise, we had to make the difficult decision to shorten our trip by one week and leave out the two most northern countries – Kenya and Uganda – in order to save time and redirect funds.

This was an extremely difficult decision as the Ugandan univeristy is one of the univeristies we identified as needing our help the most. We do however have a plan in place to still assist these two faculties, please keep an eye on our social media for more information. Even with the shortened version of the trip, we are confident that we can still make the impact we aim to with the resources and circumstances we have been given. We have been planning this for nearly two years and even in this uncertain time, we know we have prepared adequately to still make this a huge success – especially with the support we have received from our donors and partners.

We still have some preparations lying ahead, but once we are on the road with all the books and equipment packed we know our efforts would have all been worth it.

We will keep our project supporters up to date with our progress so please follow us on instagram: @vetbooksforafrica

or facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VetBooksForAfrica

There is still a month before the trip and any donations are more than welcome. If you know of anyone that has textbooks, equipment or medical material that they are not using and would be willing to donate, kindly let us know on info@vetbooksforafrica.org.

Please also consider sharing our project link on social media and telling your friends and family about our project - or just bring us up in conversation. Help us spread the word about our work and continue to grow our community of supporters like you.

Thank you again for choosing this unique initiative. We love our animals. We love our people. We love our continent. We believe we have the ability to connect them with the vital component “education is the key to conservation”. #OneHealth #OneAfrica

Yours in Conservation through Education,

The Vet Books for Africa.

Looking forward to educating others

part of our planned trip - Nairobi, Kenya

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Aug 3, 2020
COVID-19 Testing Character

By Xander van Eeden | Project Leader

One of the orphaned rhinos at HESC

To our loyal VetBooks Supporters

When 2020 started, no-one would have guessed that it would turn out the way it did.

This has truly been a difficult time for Vet Books for Africa (VB4A), since online learning started our committee had to adapt to the new way of learning while also trying to make the best we possibly can out of our cause. However, this pandemic did not only target us, but rather turned everyone’s lives upside down and created a lot of uncertainty for the future. As a result the universities, communities, charities and schools we plan to visit need our help now more than ever.

We would like to THANK everyone who continued to support us during this time, as well as a huge THANK YOU to all the new supporters who have come on board to assist the various African countries we plan to visit – you recognized the need that these people have, especially now under these circumstances. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the VBFA mission and vision and the 2020 committee has had to learn to adapt to the lockdown circumstances as well as learn to persevere despite the uncertainties of future.

GOOD NEWS!! After considering all possibilities and seeking advice from all our partners, travelling experts and researching the different countries’ current regulations, we have decided to CONTINUE WITH THE EXPEDITION! As a committee we have voted to continue with our planning and preliminary dates with the hope that by December 2020 travel would be opened (with novel Corona rules) just enough for us to move from between universities, communities and charities.

Here follows the VBFA story during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic:

We unfortunately had to postpone our long-awaited Gala dinner because of the lockdown restrictions in South Africa and for the health and safety of our guests. We have worked hard in making this event a reality so it was probably one of the most difficult decisions our committee needed to make during this time.

The lockdown period gave us a great opportunity to complete all our “administrative” parts of the planning – with the ever-present hope it would become a reality… VB4A contacted the universities we planned to visit as continuous communication has been paramount for us to keep updated with the situation in the respective countries so we can make informed decisions. At the same time contacting all the charities we are planning to visit to ascertain how this pandemic has changed their operation and to hear where we can help.

Online learning has brought some uncertainty with regards to our faculty’s academic calendar, but after some time we received preliminary dates for our end -of year exams and holidays. We have however, made a number of “ backup plans” if our normal trip does not work out, entailing a shortened 3-week version of the trip over the same period (Plan B) or a shortened trip in the following year (Plan C). Therefore, even if we are given less time we should still be able to make an impact in some of the countries south of and including Zambia.

Our detailed list of camping and vehicle equipment that we will need is complete and we have started to collect these items as a committee. Another important thing we have worked on is a preliminary menu to stay within our recently cut budget.

Book Collection Drive

We launched our English dictionary and Children’s book collection drive, together with our partners IVSA, amongst Veterinary students at the University of Pretoria. We are collecting any English dictionaries, school books and/ or story books to distribute on our trip and at OP primary (a small rural primary school close to our campus).

The Expedition project

During April 2020 Vet Books for Africa was invited to share our story with some like minded people through The Expedition Project. The EXPEDITION project is a very cool organisation that was started back in 2011. They strive to connect projects, communities, ideas and individuals with each other, to share their successes and even help them further with contacts, expertise and funding.

Visit them on: https://theexpeditionproject.com/partner/vet-books-for-africa-onderstepoort/

We were truly flattered when Roger from the Expedition project approached to share our story with their community. We immediately jumped at the opportunity to share our vision with more people and had a live stream on the expedition projects platform on the 18^th of April. Our follow-up session will be on the 24^th of August to give an update as to what we have done since April and where we are heading. To see our live stream from April please follow the following link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theexpeditionproject/?ref=bookmarks

Remember to have a look at our HESC experience, where we try to involve our members to a greater extent (as well as to assist us with fund raising). Every person who raises 500USD or more will be given the opportunity to gain valuable wildlife experience at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre. As most of our members consist of veterinary students, it falls perfectly down our alley to enrich the veterinary field as well as assist conservation institutions with additional carers for animals ranging from cheetah to rhino orphans.

As you can imagine finding sponsorships during this time has been an almost impossible task, with many of or proposals/ sponsorship requests being denied as a result of financial hardships. Nonetheless, we took on this challenge by developing a sponsorship strategy that has proven to be successful.

Like everyone else, Vet Books for Africa is learning to change and adapt during this uncertain period, as previously mentioned we will have to think outside the box to continue with not only our mission, but for the future VBFA committees who will follow in our footsteps. The world has changed dramatically in a very short time, but we remain motivated and committed to fulfilling our role of unlocking the true potential of conservation in Africa through the education of its people.

Read our latest blog on our website “Wildlife trafficking and its role in the spread of COVID-19”, which emphasizes the urgent need to confront and end wildlife trafficking: https://vetbooksforafrica.org/

The VBFA committee wishes everyone health and safety during these challenging times.

Yours in Conservation through Education,

The Vet Books for Africa.

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