Newsletter

Newsletter 12

(Sep/Oct 09)

Hello again to all of our existing subscribers and welcome on board to all of our new sign-ups. First things first, I'd like to welcome a new addition to our team. Nicolette Nel has joined the Nomad African Trust team to help us in raising funds and awareness to make a bigger difference on a wider scale. We wish her the best of luck in these trying times, and we are looking forward to working with her.  

Then I am pleased to announce that we have received the endorsement of the Department of Water Affairs as well as that of Rhodes University for the implementation of our carbon offset programme being launched in the Eastern Cape. Our certificates are at the printers and we should be able to roll out the programme within the next week (barring any major catastrophe's!).  

Then we are finally heading out on the road with a team of motivated volunteers to get our hands dirty, and hopefully learn a bit more about the challenges that we are facing, but more on that in our "Voluntour roadshow" section.

So without any further adieu may I present the 12th Nomad African Trust newsletter, which I hope you enjoy! And remember, without your support we can only but help a little less, so please keep the support coming.  

The Nomad African Trust has been running for almost a year and a half now and it’s high time we stepped up our involvement to another level by going out to where it’s all happening and getting stuck-in. This month will mark the first month that this is going to happen with the very first Voluntour setting off on the 21st of October. We will be travelling from project to project with a small team of philanthropic travellers who will be putting where their mouths are and helping to make the dream of a sustainable African future a reality.

That being said, all work and no play makes Jill a dull girl so we’ve made sure that there will be plenty of time in between projects to relax, take in the sights, and generally have a good time. We will be visiting the Khayalethu township and spending two days helping out there before moving through to Louis Fourie’s place at Gwexintaba for a fully authentic experience. There after we have work to do in the Drakensberg, KZN, Swaziland, Nelspruit (at the Jane Goodall institute) and at the Machabeng project site.

In between all that, there are going to be wine farms to explore, mountains to climb, bridges to be jumped, animals to be seen and a whole lot more besides. So watch this space and we will keep you posted on how it goes with our first hands volunteer tour!     

The African Wildlife Foundation - Leopard research in Kruger National Park.

The efforts of the African Wildlife Foundation to collar leopards in Kruger National Park have been hit by a series of unfortunate events. As a result the collaring of leopards has been halted for the time being until a proper leopard census of the Kruger Park has been completed. This will take approximately six months. The reasons for halting the leopard spatial investigations are as follows:

1. AWF was constantly capturing post-prime or injured males, meaning that the methods selected were for weak animals, as can be seen in this photo of a leopard after being freed from a snare.
2. The collared individuals did not live longer than two months after capturing, making it difficult to draw robust conclusions from the data collected.
3. It is not conclusive that the collared individuals were TB free, suggesting that leopards could be directly affected by the disease. As a result Nakedi and his team are revising their methods so that when collaring resumes we will be in a good position to follow up on the direct effects of BTb on leopards.
4. It is important that we have reliable estimates of leopard abundances in each of the different landscapes in the Kruger National Park before attempting further investigations using collaring.

On the other hand, the work with camera traps is going very well and AWF is very close to finalising the pilot study. In October AWF will start with the actual survey of the entire Kruger National Park (2.2 million hectares). Unfortunately we only have 20 cameras at this time; initially we had 25, but five were destroyed by animals. Measures have been taken to protect the cameras with steel casings. Ideally we need more than 50 cameras if our study is to be undertaken in an efficient and successful way.


The Gwexntaba Community

The Gwexintaba Community project is currently busy with the second phase of their project.

In the first phase, we helped the people in the village (situated on the plain to left of the gorge in the photo) to plant tomatoes according to permaculture principles.  The importance was also stressed  of good fencing to keep animals out (cattle, goats, sheep, chickens).  We are happy to report that a lot of the families in the village now have healthy tomato plants.

Phase one was also just a starting point for them (kind of a practice run).  Now that the people have been taught some basics, we can move onto phase two.  In phase two, the community is going to plant Moringa trees.  As a matter of fact they’ve already planted 40 Moringa’s in their own vegetable garden.  The Moringa is a “supermarket on a tree!”. To quote from the www.miracletree.org "Because of its wealth of vitamins, minerals and proteins the Moringa Tree is a rich source of nutrients. Biochemists call the Moringa Tree the most densely rich protein ever discovered. Per gram, fresh Moringa leaves contain 7x the vitamin C of oranges, 4x the calcium of milk, 4x the vitamin A of carrots, 3x the potassium of bananas, 3x the iron of spinach and as much protein as in eggs."  In my own experience with the dietary benefits of this tree in Zimbabwe I have seen chronically ill and dying children turn back from the brink after including this in their diets.

The Gwexintaba project does not only consist of planting vegetables & fruit trees though, but it  also includes education, nutrition, health, herbalism and a lot more. For example the photo to the right is of the first prototype washing machine that will also purify the effluent water.
By planting Moringa’s, the project can now also teach the people of Gwexintaba about nutrition (and once our trees are big enough to start eating them, we will experiment with some recipes and then give the successful recipes to the people).

The project is also looking into building Ferro cement water tanks for every family in the village and if we get enough funding, this will be our next project.

There are still lots of challenges ahead though.

For example:

1. Fencing at school.
2. Planting Moringa trees at the school.
3. Planting vegetables at the school.
4. Starting a nutrition/feeding programme at the school.
5. Introducing a gardening class as a subject at the school.
6. Ferro Cement Water tanks for every family in the village.
7. Awareness in village about the importance of the correct use and distribution of  the river water.
8. Fencing for every vegetable garden in the village.
9. Teaching the people how to look after their animals properly (teaching them about viruses, medicines, etc  as well as general care of animals)
   More volunteers to help with the project and to teach English and Maths at the  school.