One of Wilderness Foundation Africa’s projects is the Youth Development programme, where we seek to deliver holistic skills development and education interventions to equip vulnerable youth to be economically active and environmentally responsible citizens.
Exciting news from our sister organisaiton, the WILD Foundation and co-founder with us of Wilderness Foundation Global:
The continued senseless killing of African rhino for their horn, is driven by the demand for horn in primary consumer countries in Asia, such as Vietnam and China. More than 90% of horn goes to or through Vietnam. With the older generations for the most part set in their ways, much hope lies with changing the hearts and minds of the 10-24 year olds who make up almost 25% of Vietnam’s 94 million population. The Wild Rhino demand reduction campaign focusses on tapping into these young minds and motivating change before it is too late.
Royal St Andrews Hotel and the Little Brewery in Port Alfred are raising funds for rhino conservation. Every time a glass of Highlander Lager is purchased, R1 is donated to Wilderness Foundation Africa. In the first eight months, over R6 500 has been contributed to rhino conservation.
Every year, Haberdashers UK funds a group of students to visit South Africa after they have completed their last year of school. The students visit for a period of 2 weeks, where they get to experience our beautiful country and see what we have to offer.
Graduation ceremonies at the Youth Development Programme of Wilderness Foundation Africa are always an emotional experience for graduates, their parents and the WFA team. At a recent Siyazenzela Graduation ceremony held in Robertson, one of the graduates read out a poem she had written. This touched our hearts and we would really like to share it with you. We hope you enjoy it.
We would like to extend a thank you to Goodyear South Africa who is a proud supporter of Wilderness Foundation Africa’s many projects.Goodyear’s generous donation of tyres assists management and veterinary teams to reach rhino that survived poaching incidents in tough terrain in order to treat their wounds. In order to protect rhino populations, reserves deploy armed anti-poaching rangers to patrol the reserves and protect their rhino populations from poachers.
Following many months of planning and preparation, we are very pleased to introduce, Ella. She is a three-year old Doberman cross Bloodhound, and she has been selected as the most promising candidate to be at the fore-front of an exciting initiative.
Lincoln Meyer joined Wilderness Foundation Africa 10 years ago as an Umzi Wethu student and is currently Projects Facilitator for the Youth Development Programme. Today we say farewell to Lincoln, as he relocates to Gauteng to continue his journey in a new position.
A key point of the Youth Development Programme of Wilderness Foundation Africa is to build a programme with varying degrees of impact. We begin working with large numbers of youth through the Pride and Imbewu project which reaches thousands of disadvantaged scholars per year. These trails provide an entry level introduction to environmental education and the healing power of nature; ‘planting the seed’ for a passion for wildlife and wilderness.
