Wild Heart Foundation

For the first time we are selling festive cards to raise funds for our projects in Kwa Zulu Natal. Please email Ulrike on UHotopp@gmail.com if you would like to buy cards.

You can purchase the cards in different packages at 10 for £17, 5 for £10, or up to 5 for £2.50 each. The picture on the cards is a photo of a mural on the Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer Park) taken by Ulrike. The cards come with envelops. The message in site reads: Festive Greetings. The production cost per card is £0.79. All profits go directly to our projects with no further admin.

With many thanks for your donations we are proud to announce that we have been able to provide one of our partners in Kwa Zulu Natal who works with a number of schools with a lap top. She is now able to communicate with teachers and learners, increasing her productivity.

 

Thank you all for coming to the charity walk “South to North” on August 27th of 2017 and to those of you who sponsored a participant!

The walk took us from the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, south of the river Thames, through the Greenwich foot tunnel to the Isle of Dogs and then along the rivers which contribute to the Thames to Stratford.

The walk gives a good impression of the industrial history of London and the UK:

The Cutty Sark is the oldest surviving tea clipper, built in 1869 in Scotland, with an extraordinary history.

The Greenwich foot tunnel was opened in 1902 and allowed workers who lived south of the river to walk to their workplaces in the docks and wharfs of the Isle of Dogs. It replaced an unreliable and expensive ferry service.

Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs are now a representation of London as a City of Finance.

 

We also walked along the River Lea and the Three Mills Wall River, both part of the elaborate transport system which allowed the factories further north in the country to be connected to the river Thames and its port. Three Mills itself is the oldest tidal mill in the world, producing energy for centuries.

Our walk ended in the Olympic Park in Stratford.

 

We collected around £100 which we want to use to support our project enabling young people to reach their potential in an environmentally sustainable way.

 

Note: All photos taken by Ulrike Hotopp

Fezufunda Eco Environmental Youth Development

Fezufunda Eco Environmental Youth Development is an environmental education centre founded in 2013  which started to be operational in 2015. Fezufunda is based in the Rural Area of the Eastern Cape in KeiMouth. They are working with the community on environmental conservation, sustainable farming and well-being. One of their projects is to rehabilitate terrapins which have been found in a state of degradation. You will find details of this story here.http://www.wildheartfoundation.com/wp/2016/04/09/fezufunda/

How we would use donations?

We have asked Lihle, the project leader, to send us some detailed information how they would use donations from the Wild Heart foundation. Depending on the amount we can raise, this will be spent:

• in the community: environmental education and awareness is still the key in our community and it all begins by planting the seeds by organising the cleaning campaign, cleaning the streams collecting rubbish and plastics that are polluting the earth and water. All of the pollution runs down to our rivers. The country is also running out of water due to drought  so the organisation is doing a bit of education about water in the community. The contribution we make makes a difference.
• on permaculture gardens: these are one of the sustainable sources of food. We all need to learn to utilize the little piece of land that we have in a sustainable way. With R5000 (around £230) we are looking to buy tools for ten  people to start the project. Tools we need are (10) Watering Cans, (10) hoer( igejo), seeds  etc. We believe this  approach while being only a small change helps the community to sustain itself by selling the food grown in the garden as cooperatives. It will also be used to supply the nearest pre school.
• safety: this has to be the main focus when working with society. The organisation will train 6 people to do first aid level one, train them on herbicide accreditation level one to enable them to protect themselves when working on rehabilitation projects such as with  the terrapins.
• Wilderness: there is nothing as powerful as the power of the wilderness. Were we to raise R10 000 (just under £ 500) we would be able to take young people and the community on a wilderness trail to experience the healing and nurturing wilderness can give. We believe that by doing so the community will benefit a lot. Wilderness experience is a lifetime experience. It creates stories and pictures  that will never be removed from a person’s memory and accompany them throughout their life, instilling the wish to protect and nurture.

 

THE FUNDING PROPOSAL TO BUILD POOL FOR TERRAPINS

Background.

Fezufunda Eco Environmental Youth Development is an environmental education centre founded in 2013 which started to be operational in 2015. Fezufunda is based in the Rural Area of the Eastern Cape in KeiMouth. We are working with the rural Schools and Community from KeiMouth down to Matthau and now spreading to KwaZulu Natal province.

Fezufunda is a company that deals with environmental issues in different ways by running workshops, raising awareness, delivering education projects and exhibitions. The company’s trend is to take students and communities on experiential learning in Nature. By doing so the people get a chance and opportunity to feel, touch and connect with the environment and Nature.

The centre is built inside the reserve, a few kms from the ocean. We have discovered that not far from the ocean there is a sewage plant. In this polluted environment we have found terrapins living in ponds of sewage. Terrapins normally live in clean water! It shocks and amazes us as environmentalists and environmental educators that they have survived. The sight of suffocating animals in the polluted sewage is the reason why we are now going out knocking on people’s doors to raise funds that can help us save these animals.

We are planning to build a pool in the Fezufunda Centre where we will rehabilitate these Terrapins. We will also use them for education. Pollution, in some cases caused or worsened by Climate Change is another reason why some of our species are endangered. Education is one way of addressing this.

The polluted Sewage where we have found the Terrapins. The Terrapin on the right is running into the sewage.

An Example of the Pool we would like to build for the Terrapins.

The Support

The Fezufunda team has done lots of research regarding the terrapins and we have spoken to experts. We have consulted East London (SA) Museum and are working with them to rehabilitate these animals. They will give us a lot of support. We have also built a relationship with the veterinarians in KeiMouth and in East London; they are excited about the initiative and keen to assist us. The good news is one of the founders of Fezufunda has a background in rehabilitating animals. He has been working for 7 years with a big organization that is rehabilitating sea birds and other animals.

Below is a rough outline of the budget required to take this project forward and a schedule of how support from Wild Heart could make a difference.

BUDGET FOR BUILDING THE TERRAPIN POOL

QTY TOTAL: 1.      20 BAGS OF CEMENT @ R98.00 PER BAG R 1 960.00 2.      8 BINDING MASH OF 4.2m x 4.2m R 1800.00 each R 14 400.00 3.      2 TONS OF BUILDING SAND @ R 450. 00 PER TON R    900. 00 4.      12 GUM POLES OF 1 METRE @ R 89.00 EACH R 1 068.00 5.      2 TONS OF GRAVEL R 1 460.00 6.      2 x 11km PUMPS @ R 3 600.00 EACH R 7 200.00 7.      PRC PIPE 14 meters R 940. 00 8.      REMOVING OF SAND IN THE PIT R 2000.00 R 2000. 00 9.      8 x 20 LITRES OF PAINT @ R658.00 EACH R 5 200.00 10.  1 x LABOUR (BUILDER) @ R 280. 00 PER DAY FOR 2 WEEKS R 2 800.00 11.  2 x CEMENT MIXER (PERSON ASSISTING THE BUILDER) @ R 80.00 EACH FOR TWO WEEKS. R 3 200.00 12.  DELIVERY OF THE MATERIAL (TRANSPORT) FROM EAST LONDON TO KEIMOUTH R 672. 00                                                                                                                 GRAND TOTAL R 40 000.00

 

PHUMLANI DANCING PENCILS WRITING CLUB

KZN’S Premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize, supports Dancing Pencils Writing Clubs as being a wonderful way to were improve reading and writing in this province.

On Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th of May, teachers and learners of Phumlani Primary School in Hluhluwe had a full right brain creative writing training with Felicity Keats from Durban. Teachers trained on Monday, children learnt how to write stories and illustrate them on Tuesday. Now children can write their own stories.

The photo top left is of Phumla Mthembu, in Grade 3, reading from the book she wrote and illustrated which is called “A fish I saw in Shaka Marine”. Many other children wrote and illustrated stories. Some of these will be published, towards the end of June, in a Phumlani Primary School Dancing Pencils Writing Club anthology.

All those present at the training may be part of the new Phumlani Dancing Pencils Writing Club which will meet weekly. By the end of June, they will send in a selection of stories by the children for an anthology to be published at the annual Dancing Pencils Book Launch in September. It was an emotional experience to listen to the children’s stories as they read them out.

The newly trained staff Mentors delighted with this assistance in reading and writing skills for their school and are enthusiastic about the new writing club!

The training was sponsored by Arch Ventures Ltd from the UK (under the Planet Foundation brand). The books and publishing is being sponsored by umSinsi Press. Wildebees Ecolodge is also included with the latter’s sponsorship.

Felicity can be reached at: 031 464 1556 / www.umsinsi.com

 

The staff and Principal were hugely excited and the children loved it!

(Source: Spoor May, 2012)

In March 2015 we were able to send money to our four main projects for the first time. Dividing the £1000 we had collected between our sponsored projects was a difficult decision. In the end we gave £250 to each: the Ndwedwe Project, the Newlands Youth Organisation, the Sizakal Creche and Vukukhanye project. We had found a financial service provider for the transfers who doesn’t charge charities any fee. This means 100% of the money we had collected from our donors went into supporting these projects. No loss on admin or overheads. It was a very special feeling to know that our work helped children to learn and play, and their mothers to earn a living in a save environment.