|
|
|
| Here are a few extracts of email correspondence from Remote Africa which help give an insight how the tourism industry and good local knowledge can help with conservation and the prosperity of the surrounding community. The first email reflects Remote Africa's involvement with the local village school: "Christine [Pellegrini] has indeed been a great help this year generously giving us $2018 on 24/12/02 to fund the high school scholarships for 2 training teachers, 2 high school scholarships and stationery packs for 9 orphans at the school. Basically we have since acquired 5 more high school students and 2 pupils who are attending skills training courses (ie Auto Mechanics and Electrical Engineering). These are being sponsored with the balance of Christine's contribution and the rest from the Tafika Donations. We (Tafika donations) pay for 6 teachers salaries, school exercise books/pencils etc, assist the headmaster with travel funds, provide sporting facilities in the form of footballs, medicines, the odd bag of mealy meal when they have interschool competitions, buy dictionaries and so forth. "Christine also sent $2360 to buy the text books for grade 9 intake, which now means the school is able to offer the first 2 years of high school to the local residents. In fact not all of these books have been purchased yet as they are "out of print" but hopefully that project should be finalised this month. "Christine has also said that there are funds available for us to buy a solar panel and lighting system for 2 classrooms which we have not actually got very far with yet, but hopefully that will happen when we next organise a batch of imports. "Her contributions have been very gratefully received and are enabling us to expand what we are able to offer to the school. The neighbouring schools at Yokobi and Chisera are clambering for assistance too, so there is plenty still to be done so please don't think that the project is a closed book! I am always reluctant to expand too fast as assistance quickly becomes expected and the joy of the project will disappear...also I actually have a full time job anyway, which is one of the reasons I am not quoting total donations versus expenditure this year. I haven't got around to that yet! Being able to offer more scholarships is great. In November 2 more students will start a 2 year carpentry course so we are still moving outwards but slowly!" The Christine Pellegrini referred to in the above email extract is a Swiss lady who was inspired sufficiently during her very first trip to Zambia to get involved in helping the local community by raising funds in her hometown and even achieving a local government grant to assist the work with local children in Zambia, particularly those affected by the loss of parents through AIDS. The second email reflects how viewing game can occasionally become a distressing experience as we are confronted with man's impact on the environment: "The game viewing is hotting up now - recent special sightings in the past week that I can think of include antbear near the pan, 19 roan (at Chikoko) and serval killing genet. One very sad development is the increase of snared animals - a direct result of [name removed for legal reasons] having attempted to erect an electric fence around Mkasanga 3 times in the past 2 years. "We recently had a lion with a bad snare around her neck. Hugo [van der Westhuisen of North Luangwa Conservation Project] came down to help us dart the animal but we found that the snare had severed her trachea and oesophagus. As it so happened we had a surgeon and 2 doctors in camp so we brought her back and tried to stitch it all together. "It looked as if she might survive but the last time I saw her (about 4 days ago and a week after the 'op') she had killed a mongoose and our immediate elation quickly turned to horror when we noticed that the flesh she was attempting to consume merely fell through a hole in her neck - a very gory and tragic catch 22 situation. Yesterday I saw a zebra with a bad snare around her ankle. "I have now vowed to get my woefully inadequate drug box and rusted dart gun into good order so that I can immobilise animals quickly and efficiently myself - I did a course 5 years ago and have never really put it to use. One of the problems is the obvious expense of all this equipment, however I think it is time to get organised. Time!!!" If you would like further information please contact us through the feedback page. |
|
© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner) |
