2016 - An overview of the year

Helping learners from underprivileged communities understand conservation

Visits to the centre

Learners from an informal settlement viewing wild dogs 

All smiles after the tour 

 2016 was a great year for our education team, with learners from underprivileged communities and orphanages getting the opportunity to visit the centre. Children from an informal settlement near Hartbeespoortdam were treated to a day visit to the Ann van Dyk Cheetah centre as the CHEETA team took them on a fun tour. On the tour, they saw cheetahs, wild dogs, vultures, suricats, servals, caracals and even spotted hyenas. The highlight was meeting our ambassador cheetah named Yeats. We also hosted a group of partially sighted learners from a school from Limpopo province. A sensory trail offered the learners an opportunity to smell, taste and feel some of the beauty that we all take for granted as sighted individuals. Of course, meeting Yeats, feeling and hearing his magnificent purr, and even getting a sense of the size of a cheetah is something these teenagers will never forget. 

Offsight visits

Underprivileged school learners getting
information about endangered animals

Yeats and the CHEETA team also traveled     to an underprivileged school in the     community of Ga-Rankuwa. After an           extensive presentation about cheetahs social behaviour and anatomy, as well as information about various environmental concerns South Africa is facing, the learners got the opportunity to meet the gorgeous Yeats. Although they were a little apprehensive at first, after touching him, Yeats and the team won over a few classes of little conservationists. 

Learners meeting Yeats

These types of visits are only possible due to support from generous sponsors, and visitors to the centre, if you would like to assist in making any donations towards visits for underprivileged learners coming to the centre, or our team visiting a community, you can do so directly on GivenGain or JustGiving or contact us for more information.

 

Fun times at the Ester Stewart Tented Camp

The Ester Stewart Tented Camp is one of the most exciting offerings that CHEETA has at the moment. A 16 sleeper campsite, as well as a vehicle for transporting underprivileged learner was generously sponsored by the Ester Stewart Trust to ensure that our education team could allow children of all socio-economic situations to be able to experience the beauty that the Magaliesburg biosphere and the Ann van dyk Cheetah Centre offers. During 2016, we hosted 2 orphanages for weekend stays, as well as a fantastic opportunity to bring learners from Diepsloot, Lonehill and Orange Farm together to learn from each others cultural and home lives, while enjoying the enviromental education at the centre. These children were even fortunate enough to bump into our founder, Ann van Dyk, and were given words of encouragement to protect our wildlife heritage. 

We also hosted the wonderful team from the Wot-If? Trust for their year-end function, and the ladies enjoyed the rustic setting very much, with customised conferencing, meals as well as a private tour. Of course no stay at the camp would be complete without meeting Yeats, and he was a graceful as ever.

The tented camp is also a fantastic venue for leadership camps, Scout and Voortrekker groups, or even self catering getaways. Contact us for any booking enquiries. education@dewildt.co.za 

Children meeting our founder, Ann van Dyk

Tented camp Girls vs. Boys Potjiekos competition
 at the tented camp

 Holiday programme fun in December

Meeting Timone, our cutie pie meerkat

During December, we had a lovely group of youngsters that spent 3 days in our tented camp, and learning about conservation while having fun. Activities including tours of the centre, meeting our ambassador animals, learning about tracking and making spoor casts, and lots of fun in the swimming pool. The evenings were spent playing board games, learning about sounds of the bush and story telling around the campfire while toasting marshmallows. We are not sure who enjoyed it more - our education team or the youngsters. 

The stunning Egyptian Vulture, Sagira

The holiday programme is held every school holiday, provided we have enough participants. Book early to ensure a spot.

Fun times on the "prey-ground"

Time for cleaning up

School tours and offsite bookings

With so many choices, CHEETA has an offering for your school, eco-club, scouts and voortrekker meetings or just for fun. We can give talks at venues in Gauteng, North-West and Limpopo provinces on Cheetahs, Wild dogs, Vultures or even introduce learners to domestic animals. Our ambassador animals are always ready for some cuddles and an outing. Yeats the cheetah, Sagira the egyptian vulture and Jedi the anatolion dog are well trained and travel with our team.

At the centre, we have game drives, walking tours, education games and much more. 

Please contact Rita on education@dewildt.co.za for equiries.

We wish all our supporters and followers a fantastic 2017.

Win a Skype Chat with a cheetah and an education officer

Like the page Community Help Enviro Education Through Animals to stand a chance to have a skype experience with a cheetah and an education officer 

By liking "CHEETA's " page on facebook you could stand a chance to win a Skype chat with a cheetah and an education officer. This entails an education officer being in a camp with a cheetah, and getting close enough to hear the cheetah purring. If learners have questions, the education officer will be able to answer these questions, and provide information about 

Even if you don't win, you can still make a donation to have this experience. It is a great cause to support and a fun way for learners from anywhere in the world to meet an ambassador cheetah in their classroom, or an office full of staff to have a fun meeting.

Please contact me if you have any further questions.

Cheetah Greetings,

Rita Groenewald

+27 12 504 9907

education@dewildt.co.za

Education programme has tented camp for learners visiting centre!

Thanks to the generosity of the Trustees of the Ester Steward Trust, CHEETA will be opening a tented camp to bring learners from rural and inner city communities to experience the beauty of the centre. We are thrilled to have this opportunity, and are watching with great excitement as the tented camp takes shape.

The education team can't wait to have learners visiting the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre on holiday programmes and educational visits stay over in the beautiful tents. 

Imagine waking up in a tent at the foothills of the Magaliesburg mountain, spending a day learning about cheetahs, wild dogs, vultures and so much more about conservation as well as being spoilt to delicious food and amazing scenery.

Watch this space for more details, or contact Rita .

+ 27 12 504 9906/7/8
education@dewildt.co.za
www.cheeta.org.za
www.dewildt.co.za

Video of Yeats the Cheetah Visiting School

Check out this cool video of Yeats, the ambassador cheetah from the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre, visiting a rural community in Johannesburg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbuOTBSwkTw 

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. Thank you Loreal Kiehl's for making this happen! We believe this has been very memorable for the 150 odd vulnerable children that have benefited from these visits.

If you would like to support our education programme please visit the following pages to donate any amount - remember every little bit helps.

http://www.givengain.com/cause/5140/

www.justgiving.com/enviro-education/

Chat soon,

Rita Groenewald

Community Help Enviro Education Through Animals

In association with The Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre of Dewildt

www.cheeta.org.za

www.dewildt.co.za

education@dewildt.co.za

Celebrate International Cheetah Day 2014

International Cheetah Day - 4 December 2014

Cheetahs are a flagship species, well known for being the world's fastest land mammal. What many people might not know about this spotted beauty, is that they have declined drastically in the last 100 years world-wide from approximately 100 000 individuals throughout Africa, Middle-East and Asia, to an estimated 

10 000 at the moment. At the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre of Dewildt, our team, under the leadership of the legendary Ann van Dyk, is passionate about educating the public about the plight of the cheetah. Although the Centre is well know for breeding cheetah, wild dog and many other endangered species throughout the years, our main focus remains education.

Mime - a beautiful 2 year old cheetah following the lure at the cheetah run at The Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre

Graca was an amazing athlete that is best known for her race against the South African rugby player Bryan Habana

Yeats, a school going ambassador cheetah at the young age of 4 weeks.

To ensure as many people as possible are able to learn about conservation, our environment, and the reality of losing many precious species, our education team has to venture off the farm into various communities with the message of environmental awareness. The most important staff members of the education team include an ambassador Anatolian Dog named Jedi, and Egyptian vulture named Sagira, and our ambassador cheetah - Yeats. During school holidays, our team also organises visits to the Centre for underprivileged learners. To celebrate International Cheetah Day on 4th December this year, our team urges cheetah supporters from around the world to donate money to this amazing cause, and help rural learners experience time on our farm, and learn about the animals at the Centre. The education programme is called "Community Help Enviro Education Through Animals" or "CHEETA" for short.

Yeats at a rural school in Alexandra (Johannesburg)

Learners upcycling

Any donation is welcome, and "CHEETA" has a GivenGain account for secure donations, or you can visit Justgiving where Yeats Cheetah has a fundraiser page to bring the learners our to the centre. Please visit our websites to learn more about the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre, as well as CHEETA www.dewildt.co.za and www.cheeta.org.za

Chat soon,

Rita Groenewald

Education Manager - CHEETA

education@dewildt.co.za

Tel. +27 12 504 9906

An orphanage at the Centre 

The learners from the orphanage playing in the veld.

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

Latest News from the Education Team

News from Community Help Enviro Education Through Animals

The education team would like to welcome our new staff member, Ntsae Sekati. She is completing her nature conservation diploma with UNISA, and is a valuable asset to our team. Ntsae was actually a participant in our education programme when she was in high school, so it is wonderful to have her as an education officer at the centre.

Educational visits to our underprivileged school, Lowe Primary, were made possible by a donation from Jackie Navarro of Wild Wonders. Jedi was a big hit at Lowe, even though the learners were a little hesitant in the beginning. Jedi visits schools during one of the visits leading up to wild animals, where learners are given more information about taking care of domestic animals.

Jedi at Lowe Primary

Ntsae grooming Yeats the cheetah

International Frog day

Every year, all over the world, learners and adults celebrate international frog day. This year, CHEETA was involved in a frog day celebration in conjunction with the WOT-IF trust, as well as JGI’s Roots and Shoots programme. The event was held in Diepsloot on 26^th April, with the main focus on the African bullfrog. Lydia, a resident of Diepsloot inspired all the parties, as she is a passionate bullfrog enthusiast in her community, promoting conservation of this endangered amphibian. The event was a huge success, with learners writing and performing plays and poems, as well as making beautiful drawings and other artwork which helped the participants learn about frogs and their conservation while preparing for the day. Bullie the bullfrog was at the event, and we thank Greg Strydom for allowing us to “borrow” this fantastic froggie, who wowed and entertained everyone. With about 250 participants entering their contributions for competitions, there are fantastic prizes for individuals as well as classes that participated. We hope this will be an annual event, as the learners and educators were exposed to a whole new side of frogs!

Visits were also made to a few different schools at Kloofwaters camp, Woodhill College, Jakaranda Voortrekkers, as well as a local Christian camp for learners from Ga-Rankuwa, Lighthouse Ministries.

Big thanks to Wild Wonders for their donation. If you would like to contribute to “CHEETA” (the education division of the centre) you can donate on the GivenGain website http://www.givengain.com/ from anywhere in the world. No contribution is too small, and makes a big difference for our team to conserve through education.

South Africans can sign up for a MyPlanet card (http://www.myschool.co.za) , and add CHEETA (www.cheeta.org.za) as their beneficiary, earning money for CHEETA every time you shop at the participating stores – earn money for us at no cost to you!

If you would like to get involved, and do fundraising as a class, company or individual for our education programme, please let me know and I can help you with ideas.

For more information, or to invite us to your school, scout group or corporate event, please email me on education@dewildt.co.za

Warm regards,

Rita Groenewald