2014

• Honiton Community College in the UK helped share the Rhino Love on Valentine’s Day with a non-uniform day to help raise funds for the Rhino Protection Trust. They raised £270 and also have a permanent display sharing information about the Trust to help raise awareness about the current poaching crisis to the whole school.

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• The Rhino Trust has been supported by online vintage clothing store Bodil Vintage.  They have created a special collection, SKIN FOR SURVIVAL, which was freely donated by the Swedish director Suzanne Osten.  All profits from this collection are being donated to the Trust.  THANK YOU for your support Bodil Vintage – you can check out the collection: www.bodilvintage.com  

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• Eye Remote Solutions Demonstration: We teamed up with George Tomlin, a retired British Army Officer, Siyafunda and Eye Remote Solutions to help put together a demonstration of cutting edge technology which will help combat rhino poaching in South Africa. The Ivory Remote Solutions Approach (IRSA), demonstrated by Eye Remote Solutions, brings together both ground and airborne technology from 10 different countries which can be used for game conservation and management.  The system can be used to track and monitor both humans (ie poachers) and animals and can be operated day and night in most weather conditions.Representatives from all corners of wildlife conservation have been invited to attend the demonstrations taking place across Limpopo and KwaZulu Natal in South Africa between the 24th and 30th April.

  • Demo 1 took place on Thursday 24th April at the Leadwood Estate near Hoedspruit.  There was a great turnout of with more than 70 attendees and the Rhino Protection Trust and Siyafunda staff and volunteers were there to help out.​

  • Demo 2: Following on from the initial demonstrations at the Leadwood Estate and Hluhluwe Imfolozi, a full demonstration took place on the Makalali Private Game Reserve on the 30th April\P Hosted by Siyafunda and the Rhino Protection Trust, the demo team got to show invited attendees the equipment in use during both daylight and and after dark.  Siyafunda staff got to play at being poachers, hiding in the bush from the drones, while Siyafunda volunteers got to be part of the interception team to apprehend them after they were located.

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• Bongis Quest Distribution: Thanks to your very generous donations, the Trust was able to help out with a distribution of Bongis Quest.  In the last week of July, Bongi's Quest embarked on a HUGE educational drive along the southern boundary of Kruger National Park.  9 schools and over 9000 children were reached.  Bongi's Quest is an educational, illustrated book which highlights the plight of the rhino and the importance of protecting them for the future.  It was a pleasure for us to be able to contribute to this.  Thanks to you all, we were able to ensure that 200 children got their own personal copy of the book.  Here's a few photos taken throughout the educational drive.

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• Barnyard Fundraiser: On the 30th August 2014 we held our first fundraiser at the Barnyard Rivonia in Johannesburg.  With thanks to everyone who attended, bought raffle tickets and donated, we managed to make the grand total of R28,238!!!! Everyone had an amazing evening in the name of a good cause - saving our nations rhino!  Here are a few pictures from the evening.

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• November was very exciting as we had the first of our monthly game drives with the Green Kidz Initiative!  We met the kids at the main gate in the morning and then the fun began.  We started off by giving them a little bit of healthy competition - they were split into 2 teams, with each team given a list of 4 birds to look out for during the drive.We then set off to see what we could find!  For many of these children, it is the first time that they have seen much of the wildlife in the wild, or at all and they were just as interested in spotting all of the general game, such as zebra and giraffe, as they they were any of the big five.  About half way through the drive we stopped for a little snack break.  At this point, each team had managed to spot 3 out of 4 of their birds.  All that was left was Guinea Fowl and Francolin - should be easy right?  We managed to make it all the way home without seeing either of them! We got back to camp for a lovely lunch and a game of guess the animal with our skull collection, finishing off the morning with some volley ball and jelly and custard!  The kids then had a final short game drive as we took them back to the gate.  They were unlikely to see much though due to the sing-song going on for the whole drive back!

• We managed to fit in another Green Kidz game drive before Christmas.  A new bunch of kids got to see 3 of the 'Big 5', including mating lions!  There were also baby impalas and dung beetles galore as summer has really set in.  After a drink stop in the river bed, we headed back to camp for some lunch, followed by a bit of exercise to try to work off some of the food!  We then headed back to the gate via the hippos.  Before the kids got back in their bus, they treated us to a lovely Christmas carol.

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• In December, we were very happy to give an amazing Christmas present to Karongwe Game Reserve. After many years of service, the motorbike they used for fence patrols had to finally be retired.  However, this left them short of vehicles to use and meant that patrolling the fences to ensure that there were no security breaches was more difficult and took a lot longer.  Thanks to everyone's very generous donations, the Trust was able to provide them with an amazing second-hand quad bike!  The reserve manager and his team can now complete patrols in super quick time over any terrain and in all weather conditions!

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