Building an eco legacy for the future

“The Legacy Experience Foundation is extremely passionate about, and committed to, fighting wildlife crime, and in particular rhino poaching, in South Africa.

Those intimately involved in the fight against poaching have confirmed that community education and poverty alleviation yield the best results.”

Corné Havenga, CEO of Eco Children, explains: “At Eco Children, we champion community-led conservation and education programmes, so people living near rhinos are inspired to protect wildlife and feel a sense of ownership for their natural heritage.

Instead of resorting to criminal activities such as poaching to provide for their families.”

The Legacy Experience Foundation will be the main sponsor of Eco Children’s Eco Village project, supporting the drive to establish sustainable vegetable gardens at schools to supplement feeding schemes and improve the level of education in the area.

Further to this, they will also be contributing to the organisation’s bursary programme where talented learners are identified and allocated bursaries in order to reach their true potential and one day return to their communities as adults to improve quality of life in the area.

Havenga elaborated on why the partnership is such a good one: “We work with seven primary schools in the area, helping them better their infrastructure and the overall teaching conditions, in order to improve education in the area and empower learners to break the cycle of poverty they have been born into.

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While doing this, we bring a strong environmental angle to learners’ education.

Because of their location, the children we work with can identify with the conservation lessons we teach.

We have not only seen a change in behaviour from these children, but also in the rest of the community – as the children come to appreciate the natural beauty surrounding them and influence their elders to do the same.”

“We focus on empowering these youngsters with knowledge to help them make better decisions. Through education, we aim to create agents of change.

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Agents who do not only absorb the message of anti-poaching but also pass it on to other children and adults.

By establishing an awareness of the importance of conservation as well as the benefits that the Kruger National Park can hold in the long-term for the community, we are developing one of the most effective defence mechanisms in the fight against poaching: The buy-in from communities living right next to the Park to defend our natural heritage and not exploit it,” she concluded.

Thanks to The Legacy Experience Foundation’s support, another Eco Village will be established this year, bringing the total number of schools currently supported to eight.

Eco Villages consist of a large vegetable garden that demonstrates to learners the principles of food production and sustainability and contributes to the school feeding scheme.

The Eco Village also includes a renovated classroom at the school where Eco Children staff present conservation-based lessons.

“It is during these lessons that we plant the seeds of change to empower learners to take up the fight against poaching.

We focus on teaching learners about the importance of conservation and the long-term benefits of tourism for the community.

“With this knowledge we aim to give them the tools to make better decisions and influence their communities to do the same,” said Havenga.

The support of the bursary programme is as important in the fight against poaching as this is where Eco Children’s focus shifts from purely educational to empowering talented learners to escape the cycle of poverty, give back to, and influence their communities.

Bursary candidates are identified at Eco Villages of adopted schools.

These learners are academically talented and show great promise but due to the burdens placed on them by poverty, they are unable to reach their full potential.

The Eco Children Bursary Programme helps these learners by giving them access to quality education at Southern Cross Schools (another bursary partner) and removing the stresses of poverty. Havenga explained: “For South Africa to continue to develop and grow economically, we need to develop more leaders from a variety of cultural, religious and racial backgrounds, allowing them to create a brighter future for themselves and ultimately for their country.

The ultimate objective of the bursary programme is to develop well-rounded, well-educated young adults with a strong sense of community and a desire to give back to society.

While we give these talented youngsters the opportunity to lift themselves up through access to quality education, we also aim to develop their sense of social responsibility.

Youth social responsibility involves developing a sense of commitment toward the community. This translates into an appreciation of the community, the environment, participation in social and political processes.” Derek Macaskill from The Legacy Experience Foundation was overjoyed with the new partnership and said they are looking forward to working with Eco Children.

He commented: “In keeping with our philosophy of ‘Doing Good Things With Great People’ we are delighted to be working with Corné and the Eco Children team and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship in the years to come.

“Through community initiatives such as this we hope to have a positive and sustainable influence on socio-economic development, education, environmental awareness and stewardship programmes in the communities bordering the Kruger National Park.”