e-Learning computer labs donated to Maritzburg schools

State of the art computer labs designed for e-learning have been supplied to twenty schools through the collaboration of two NGOs and two ICT companies. The NGO Qhubeka focuses on access to opportunities and sustainable living, which includes access to learning and information.

Anthoy Fitzhenry, Project Sponsor of Qhubeka, said: “e-learning allows self-starters to educate themselves. We have found generous partners who have donated equipment that has been distributed to a range of schools in communities involved in the Recycling for Life programme of the NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust.”

Intel donated 320 Classmate laptops, and Pinnacle Technology Holdings supplied 16 teacher laptops and connectivity through wireless networking. Eight Pietermaritzburg schools have been supplied with this equipment, and St Christophers School in Pietermaritzburg recently received their computer lab consisting of 20 Classmate laptops, a teacher’s laptop, e-Learning class software and wireless connectivity.

Said Caryl Cullen, Science and Computer teacher at St Christophers School: “This will enable to us to use the e-Learning Class application, managing the classroom, communicating with the students, and assisting individuals using the teacher’s laptop. The teacher can also send messages, remote commands and interactive quizzes from the teacher’s laptop to the students’ Classmate laptops.”

“e-Learning is student-centred learning and requires students to be active, responsible participants in their own learning. Thanks to Wildlands we have had training last week and will receive further training shortly, which means we are able to utilize this equipment as it was intended.”

Hannes Steyn, Business Development Manager for Intel, said: “Our aim is to create opportunities for education by teaching the future generation using 21st century tools. We partnered with Wildlands in donating this equipment because of the sustainability model they offer, which ensures that the training and full use of this equipment takes place.”

The Wildlands Conservation Trust is an environmental NGO working with vulnerable communities, including needy learners, creating opportunities to earn with projects such as Indigenous Trees for Life (participants grow and trade trees for goods) and Recycling for Life (participants collect recyclable waste and trade it for goods). This in turn leads to more sustainable communities that are cleaning and greening their own environment.

Picture: Pupils from St Christophers get to grips with the new Classmate laptops donated to their school, while teacher Caryl Cullen guides them through the process.

Picture credit: Simon Winn/Wildlands Conservation Trust

R90 000 worth of Indigenous trees exchanged for goods in Vosloorus

Eighteen thousand indigenous trees grown by participants in the Indigenous Trees for Life project in Vosloorus were traded for R 90 000 in goods at a “Green Futures Store” recently.

Through this initiative run by conservation NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust, adults and children are trained to grow trees from seed, (they are known as tree-preneurs) and once trees reach a certain height, they are traded for credit which can be spent at Green Futures Stores, the market place set up for tree-preneurs to exchange their credits for goods.

Apart from the purchase of food and household items, tree-preneurs also traded their credit for building materials such as corrugated iron sheets and window frames, and wheelbarrows. Two of the young tree-preneurs paid their school fees and one mother is saving credit from her trees to pay for university fees for her child.

As part of their vision of “A Sustainable Future for All”, Wildlands developed this programme to afford poor and vulnerable communities the opportunity to purchase food, clothes, education support, building material, water tanks, solar water heaters, solar powered lighting and bicycles, all while growing indigenous trees to assist in conservation initiatives.

Nine year-old Sfiso Maphosa traded 100 of his trees for a bicycle. A grade four pupil at Zimele Primary School, he has grown 236 trees since the start of the programme in 2009. He said “I am going to ride on my bicycle that I have worked for. I have also bought myself school shoes and other items and I am very happy.”

Unilever South Africa has partnered with the Wildlands Conservation Trust on projects for many years, including funding the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme in a number of communities. There are currently 188 tree-preneurs in Vosloorus ; many of the adults are unemployed and the programme enables them to purchase much needed groceries.

Renée Burton, Assistant Sustainability Manager, Unilever South Africa, said: “Unilever South Africa is committed to creating a better future in which people can improve their quality of life without increasing their environmental footprint. Through our partnership with Wildlands, we are working towards making a difference in the lives of people by helping them help themselves while creating environmental awareness.”

Picture: Nine-year old Sfiso Maphosa from Vosloorus is in grade four at Zimele Primary School. He grows indigenous trees as part of the Sustainable Communities programme and recently traded his trees for a bicycle.

Picture credit: Wildlands Conservation Trust

Supporting a Green Economy

In the Mzimela community near Mtunzini in KwaZulu Natal, and the Luphisi community near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga over 500 participants are earning a ‘green living’, through support from the Old Mutual Foundation.

The Indigenous Trees for Life Programme run by NGO, Wildlands Conservation Trust aims to nurture the development of ‘tree-preneurs’, individuals who grow trees and then barter what they have grown for food, clothes, education support, building material, water tanks, solar water heaters, solar powered lighting and bicycles.

In impoverished communities such as Mzimela and Luphisi where unemployment is high, the opportunity to earn in this way has been embraced. Bicycles are a popular choice for barter as so many learners walk long distances to and from school each day. Philani Madonsela of the Mzimela project said: “We now have bicycles to go to school and to the store. It takes us 30 minutes to be in school where before it was over an hour. With trees we will change our community”.

There are now 230 tree-preneurs in Luphisi. Lerato Nkosi started growing trees when the project started in her area in 2008. She has traded 1150 trees at the ‘Green Futures Stores’ and has 1300 trees in credit she can spend. Lerato has purchased food, a hippo roller for water collection, a wheelbarrow and building materials.
Nomusa Ngema joined the Mzimela project in October 2009, where 276 tree-preneurs participate. Through the project she has purchased food as well as building materials, a wheelbarrow and a Jojo tank for rainwater harvesting. “We have a group of woman in our area, where we go together to harvest the seed in the bush, then we propagate those seeds. We love our trees in a way that, a day is not a day without visiting our garden. I love nature, so that helped me a lot to grow many trees,” she said.

Dr Pandelani Mathoma, Old Mutual’s general manager for corporate affairs says: “Our partnership with Wildlands enables us to make a difference in the day-to-day lives of South Africans – both environmentally and in the form of livelihood support.

At Old Mutual we believe in supporting initiatives that promote environmental conservation and encourage self sufficiency in our communities.”

 

Photo Credits:

Wildlands Conservation Trust

Wildlands Allocates R10 million in Grants to Promote Community Conservation Capacity in the MPAH

The first R10 million of a R40 million ($6.5 million) grant obtained from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) to help conserve the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot has been allocated.

The Hotspot covers 275,000 square kilometres, and stretches from Xai-Xai in Mozambique to Port Elizabeth in South Africa. It is crucial as the meeting place of six biomes (complex biotic communities characterized by distinctive plant and animal species) and three centres of plant species endemism, which gives the Hotspot very high biodiversity value. However the area is under extreme pressure from mining, uncontrolled grazing, unsustainable urban and rural development and its unique biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate.

Founded in 2000, the CEPF, a unique partnership of six international donor agencies, is a global leader in enabling civil society to participate in and benefit from conserving global biodiversity Hotspots. Wildlands represents the CEPF in the Hotspot as Regional Implementation Team, as such, Wildlands works closely with the CEPF Secretariat to solicit and award grants to civil society organisations in the Hotspot. According to Dr Roelie Kloppers, Wildlands’ Regional Leader for the CEPF investment, these grants are designed to build local capacity to address current environmental challenges such as climate change, landscape transformation and the loss of biodiversity. A strong network of civil society organisations will support national and international efforts in this region to promote ecosystem health, which is also critical to ensure human well-being through the delivery of ecosystem services such as water and clean air to society.

Since the initial $6m grant was made in Sept 2010, CEPF has processed some 88 applications, awarded 11 grants and is in the process of awarding another 16.

Grant recipients (to date) are:

    •  Wildlife ACT (Africa Conservation Trust), which has established a bush school for children at Somkhanda Game Reserve in Northern Zululand, based on the philosophy that an effective, holistic anti-poaching campaign must include education of community children. Trained researchers – wild dog and rhino monitors in particular – are sent into schools to teach children the important place that these animals have in the ecosystem, and how a healthy ecosystem benefits the human community as well.
    • African Conservation Trust, which aims to establish a new conservation area south of Somkhanda to grow the Zululand conservation corridor and link Somkhanda with the Zululand Rhino Reserve.
    • WESSA, having launched the Nelson Mandela Bay Urban Conservation Program to establish green, connected corridors throughout the city which are protected as part of a stewardship program and also secured so that the public can frequent them safely.
    • Wilderness Foundation, promoting management effectiveness in reserves in the Pondoland and Albany areas. Reserve managers from SANParks, privately owned reserves, and the Eastern Cape Tourism & Parks Authority visit one another’s reserves and help each reserve to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas for improvement. In this way, a network of reserve managers is being built up in the Eastern Cape, and reserve managers are helping one another to sharpen their management skills.
    • Conservation South Africa (Formerly Conservation International SA), engaged in a project to capture and leverage the lessons learned from previous CEPF investments in the Succulent Karoo Floristic and Cape Floristic regions and to build networks between those areas and the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot.
  • Six small grants totaling $120k have been awarded to smaller civil society conservation organisations across the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot for diverse projects, mostly in support of other, larger conservation projects.

Says Kloppers, the Trust is very pleased with the progress being made, and expects visible results by the end of 2011. “The next round of large grants will be awarded towards the end of 2011, while small grants are awarded whenever worthwhile projects are identified.”

For more information contact Dr Roelie Kloppers on 033 343 6380 or e-mail roeliek@localhost/import-data-post.

Photograph Credits:

1.) Karkloof Water Fall by Kelvin Trautman

2.) Flower by Kelvin Trautman

3.) Aloe By Maryann Rivers-Moore