Raising Rhino People

We have a dream. We want to skill, employ and educate local women and children to aid us in building a rhino army. This army will not only continue to raise funds for our beneficiaries but also help us to engage in community projects surrounding Game Reserves in our drive to bring not only awareness, but a skill and a livelihood to rural retired or unemployed women. Through this we hope to uplift them and connect them to their wildlife and their natural heritage. We hope to engage the Parks and Reserves to support this little initiative and thereby build bridges. However, to do this we need to raise funds for these projects. And to do that we have asked the babies, the survivors, to lead the way.

While their mothers and fathers will continue to raise funds directly for The Rhino Orphanage, Saving Private Rhino and SanWild the babies will contribute the majority of their cost to this initiative – Raising Rhino People – to providing education and work for people that will put food on the table for their babies.

While Tania’s original hope was only to contribute towards the safety, upkeep and rehabilitation of the orphans of poaching incidents, her vision has widened and her aim become more focused. We are faced with so many complex problems regarding poaching and although we cannot address them all, her dream is to skill, employ, train, educate and connect the local woman and children surrounding Game Reserves and Parks to the animals. She believes part of the greater solution is to uplift local women and educate local children. We are aware that poachers are often local community members and hopefully if their children and wives have softened towards the creatures, feel less afraid and resentful of them, perhaps they will speak thus to their fathers and husbands. Perhaps these men will at least pause and perhaps we can plant more seeds and nurture their growth into a different direction – one of care rather than destruction.

EDUCATION

Raising Rhino People in conjunction with Action For Rhino’s will engage the youth at a local primary or pre-primary school with a Rhino Awareness day.  We will give a talk regarding rhino’s and the devastation of poaching, while engaging in fun activities provided by Action for Rhino’s.  Through our Adopt-A-Rhino – Donate To A Child programme we will be able to create competitions where the children can win/adopt a rhino of their very own.  We would approach the local reserve and find out if they would be willing to do an educational Game drive with the children.  The latter being fundamental in connecting the people to the animals.

Rhino Awareness Day/s:

  • Talk on Rhino’s and their importance to the land and the environment
  • Poaching and its effects
  • Competition – drawing/colouring in or making a rhino from clay
  • Game Drive or Movie with Rhino facts and baby rhino
  • Competition – knowledge of rhino and poaching
  • Gifting Rhino’s from adopt a rhino project and gifting the school with a large one for display

SMALL BUSINESS

Through the aid of a local community member, we would run a 5 day workshop teaching and skilling local unemployed woman to make the rhino’s from start to finish.  We would request that the local game reserve allow these to be sold in their shop as part of their own community based out reach programme.  While we will offer ongoing assistance, the main objective is to teach the women to create their own business and become self-supporting within their community.

Our programme:

The first workshop will be around the basics of sewing and creating the little rhino’s:

  • Making of template
  • Material layout and cutting
  • Pinning
  • Sewing – this would either be by hand or machine electricity dependent.
  • Stuffing
  • Hand sewing
  • Packaging

We would then source someone within the group to train as an Admin & Marketing person:

  • Sourcing material donations (materials, eyes, stuffing etc)
  • Liaising with Game Reserve shop
  • Keeping record of orders, sales and stock
  • Media training
  • Management skills
  • People skills – we believe that if we love what we do, our products will be loved. In order to do this the workshop environment also needs to be one of love and support with the aim of upliftment of the women within.
  • Quality control