Teach Rural African Children to Conserve Wildlife

The aim of our fundraising campaign on GlobalGiving from December 1st-31st 2020, was to raise funds for our direct action partner, The Black Mambas, to purchase solar-powered WiFi to support their educational programme, The Bush Babies, at their resource centre in the Maseke Village community.

The Bush Babies programme interacts with 1300 primary-school children in the local tribal communities on the borders of the Balule Nature Reserve.The programme teaches these children how to conserve the local wildlife and their natural heritage. It is critical for personal growth that these children become part of the global community. The addition of WiFi will give them access to online learning resources, transforming the course delivery, scope and impact. These children are changemakers of tomorrow but need the right tools today to educate and inspire others in their community, and beyond.

Our $5000 USD target was exceeded, thanks to the support of over 100 international donors. 

Project Findings:

Coupled with the Samsung Wildlife Watch Project, other values that were not initially part of the primary objectives of the “Connecting Villages” concept, have come to light:

• The Samsung Wildlife Watch live-stream is now available in the classroom at The Bush Babies Resource Centre and is proving to be an incredible resource for the educators. Basic lesson-plans and activities to improve the learner’s knowledge and understanding of wildlife and the value of the Balule Nature Reserve, have so much more impact now. It has historically been a challenge to give the children exposure to the wildlife and landscapes within the national park and the WiFi 'Connecting Villages' Campaign has brought this directly into the classrooms.

• Most of the Black Mamba Rangers are young mothers and primary caregivers in their communities, and households, and efforts to empower them to become the role-models to their peers and families has been boosted by access to the WiFi. They have always found it difficult to express their work, describe their daily tasks and hardships of a Black Mamba on patrol, to their families and friends. Now, they use live-stream cameras and social media to show their children, families, and friends the animals and landscapes that they are protecting. This has enriched their lives and provided an extra tool for them to use back in their villages.

• Schools around the world often ask for Zoom or Skype time with The Black Mambas for African Wildlife Conservation classes. The ability to stream directly, in real-time, into any classroom around the world would add a lot of value to the conservation cause of African wildlife and would certainly enrich the children’s learning experience. Lesson-plans and activities linked to the audio and visual stream would become a favourite and very popular event.

Update - July 2021

This fundraising campaign has helped The Bush Babies generate funds to upgrade the new Education Centre in Maseke community in South Africa. They have installed wifi, bought a web camera and speakers with Bluetooth. This technology truly has made a difference in their centre: they have watched educational movies with the children, done activities with music through Bluetooth during the load shedding which happens a lot in South Africa, and had online meetings.

To our loyal supporters, a heartfelt thank you, we couldn't have achieved this without you.

View our report here.

Links:

• How Many Elephants Website
• Download our Report Here.

• How Many Elephants GlobalGiving Report (PDF)