Big strides in our big 5 education programme

As some of you may know, in 2021 we started we launched our very own education programme called the “Big 5 Schools Programme”, which we wanted to update you all on.
In the pipeline for a long time, the pandemic derailed our plans to launch in 2020. But adjusting to Covid opened up new ideas and from our feeding scheme for children ages 0-5, we built beautiful relationships with the schools in our community and decided to invest further in these bright minds.
The programme includes a variety of activities, from fun animal masks being used to teach the children facts about the Big 5 of wildlife, to playing their sounds and having the children guess which animal it is, to storytelling using a shadow puppet box which the children are then invited to make up their own story using the puppets.
We started testing out the programme with one or two ECD (Early Childhood Development) centres (also known as “creches”) to see whether the programme worked and what needed changes before starting with regular classes. Each school responded incredibly well to the programme and before long, the schools that were not yet included in the programme wanted to become part of it.
At the end of the year, we created a fun competition between the schools, giving them a chance to show what they had learned and earn prizes for things their schools needed. There was so much creativity in their performances and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

In South Africa, there is the strong cultural belief in a concept called “uBuntu” – which means I am, because you are – what you do affects me and what I do affects you, we cannot exist without each other.

And so, in the true spirit of uBuntu, the principals decided to share the prize regardless of the winners, and the schools each received a share of new tables and chairs.

We can’t wait to expand on this wonderful journey as we teach and learn from the communities around us.