Education Team Update

Latest news from the education team:

We had some wonderful visits. Some of the highlights include having Jedi, our Anatolian dog ambassador, and Sagira, our beautiful rare Egyptian Vulture ambassador, at Wits’ Yebo Gogga this year. These ambassadors and the education team were conveying the message about the plight of the African Wild dog and vultures. Sagira was a big hit with the children, and it is wonderful to see how people’s perception of vultures can be changed once they have met this young ambassador. Sagira also visited the children of the Eco-Pilots group in Pretoria. Jedi has also been busy, with visits to children in Mamelodi, working with Veterinary Students from Onderstepoort, educating the youngsters about how to look after their domestic animals. Yeats has matured very well as a school going ambassador cheetah, and he has visited schools all over, including Laerskool Menlopark, Cornwall College, as well as some adult educational visits in Dalpark and Centurion.

During the July holidays, an outreach programme was held with vulnerable children at the Rearabilwe Place of Safety in Ga-Rakuwa. We had numerous visits to their centre, and also had an amazing day with the youngsters at the farm, learning about our wonderful wildlife and our natural heritage. Any donations are welcome for these learners, including stationery, clothes, toys, blankets etc.

The team has also been working in Alexandra, Johannesburg, throughout August at the Afrika Tikkun community centre. This is a series of visits, based on a holistic environmental theme. From learning about domestic animals, recycling and up-cycling, to where we all fit into the environment, ending off with an ambassador cheetah visit, the learners in the community are getting exposed to a whole new world. Yeats was unbelievably sweet, and the children were so well behaved. Clare Vale and Nokuthula Radebe gave motivational talks after Yeats visited the learners, and this was an amazing ending to an awesome experience with these learners. Clare Vale is a well know Racing driver and drifter, as well as chairperson of Women in Road Safety She is also Yeat’s adoptive mommy.  Nokuthula recently climbed Kilimanjaro through Trek4Mandela in support of Caring4Girls, and is well known as an adventure motorcyclist and sports enthusiast.

Thank you Loreal Kiehl's for making this happen! We believe this has been very memorable for the 150 odd vulnerable children that have benefitted from these visits. It was an amazing collaboration, and the education team can’t wait to be involved with more of these in the future…

We will be holding holiday programmes at the centre both during the upcoming September/October school holidays, as well as in December. This is loads of fun for the young explorer. A great deal of time will be spent learning about the creatures, great and small, at our centre, as well as the importance of protecting our environment.

Thank you all our South African citizens who have already added CHEETA, North West Province, as a beneficiary on their MyPlanet cards. If you would like to help us raise funds for our education programme at no cost to you, please visit www.myschool.co.za to sign up for a rewards card, or email us for an application form.

To invite us to your school, scout group of corporate event, or for more information about our holiday programmes, please email me on education@dewildt.co.za  Like Community Help Enviro Education Through Animals on facebook, or follow @yeatscheetah on twitter to stay in touch with the latest education developments.

Warm regards,

Rita Groenewald