Education is the key to making a change
Hey everyone!
So as I said before this post is going to be about my first volunteering project in South Africa, DAKTARI. Daktari is a bush school combined with a wildlife orphanage. Basically how it works is that they take up injured or orphaned animals and raise them with the purpose of releasing them again. Unfortunately some of them are too sick or injured that they would not be able to live on themselves so they keep them there and give them a space to enjoy the rest of their lives.
That itself is awesome and I’ll show you more about the different animals in one of the following posts. But what in my opinion makes Daktari such a great project is that they combine the wildlife orphanage with education. They give the kids in the poorer villages the chance to learn more about the environment.
How it works is that on Mondays they pick up a group of 8 kids (4 boys and 4 girls) from the local school and bring them to the camp. The kids they in a dorm room until Friday. During that time we teach them different lessons about the environment but also about respect and job chances for example. We also take care of the animals together with the kids.
Every night we meet with all the volunteers and the wonderful volunteer coordinator Pretty and the animal manager Nodia and do the so-called board meeting. That is when we split up all the tasks for the next day so everyone knows what they are supposed to do.
The day starts at 7am with a cup of tea or coffee. After a few minutes of relaxing and waking up we leave for the daily dog walk with all the kids and the 4 dogs (Mirabelle, Nikita, Kenzo and Gucci). Once we get back its breakfast time. The kids have their own table and then all the volunteers and staff sit at a big one as well.
On the last picture you can see Thor (a little marmoset) stealing some fruit at the breakfast table. Once the table is cleared everyone meets for the morning stabling. In the first week it was always 1 volunteer, 1 staff member and 2 kids. The second week we were 10 instead of 5 so it was 2 volunteers instead.
As you can see we split up into different groups and swapped that around every day. I actually managed to find a good system they are using now so every child had the chance to do every task during the week. After the morning stabling the kids usually have two or three different lessons.
Lunch is always at 12.30. After this everyone has some free time and the kids get the chance to go to the pool with some of the volunteers. Once everyone relaxed a bit we have another two lessons. After that the animals seek some attention again and we do the afternoon stabling, which is usually not as long as the morning one. Then its shower time for the kids.
Then we usually have a fun activity like Minigolf, studying insects in a waterhole or a fun treasure hunt through the camp. Some days we did a social talk instead. Its one topic every night were its less like a lesson but more a conversation about topics like respect, safe sex or substance abuse.
Dinner at 6.30pm. Before going to bed we have another fun activity. It’s either a game, a night safari, a movie and then the bonfire on the last night. The kids love the bonfire! There is lots of dancing and having fun. Also the kids really enjoyed taking pictures with all the volunteers.
Some days instead of doing the lessons in the morning we do a cool activity outside the camp. One day the kids go to a game reserve to learn about the different job opportunities. Another day we all did a bush walk together and look at the different tracks we find on the way. Even Mirabelle (one of the dogs) managed to escape to join us on the trip.
It was great to see how the kids changed over the week and everyone became so attached. It was actually really sad seeing them leave on friday not knowing whether we were going to see each other ever again. But what made it okay was knowing that we managed to make an impact in their lives!
I must say I love the concept of teaching the kids and its awesome to see how willing they are not only to learn but also to educate others.
If anyone of you is thinking of doing a volunteering, I would definitely recommend this place. It’s a great course and the people there are the nicest I have ever met in my life.
Lena xx
