Providing skills, fostering entrepreneurship, exposing children to conservation and making a difference here where we live - Hartebeestfontein  Conservancy is a place where every footprint counts.  Developing skills locally

Hartebeest Jobs commenced activities late in 2009 by sending five local trainees to the Protech Training Centre for NQF 2 training in Electrical Engineering.

All the trainees completed their theoretical training phase successfully by June 2010, and four of them have commenced the practical phase already, three of whom in Hekpoort. The one who has discontinued the course has taken a job with an electrical contractor. It is envisaged that the four who are continuing, will do NQF 3 and 4 training to eventually become fully fledged electricians. The support of Protech Training, Electro Link and the Hartebeestfontein Conservancy is much appreciated and will hopefully continue to see these trainees completing their programme successfully.

A handyman course of four weeks will start shortly after the World Cup. There has been lively interest in this field, which will launch candidates for delivering local service as individuals or teams to residents and landowners in our area.

The programme will assist experienced farm workers, diversely skilled practical workers and some young people with around matric qualifications to understand entrepreneurship, marketing, costing and pricing, and quality service delivery to tackle such challenges in an environment where there is work to be done, but hardly any full-time or permanent jobs to be found.

The community’s buy-in to provide opportunities to these people who wish to better themselves, will go a long way towards alleviating poverty.

Information kindly provided by Ivan Lätti.

Vegetable growing and compost making

The school vegetable gardening project has been rather slow during the past year due to labour resources being utilised on other more pressing maintenance projects at the school.

However, there have been small crops of vegetables harvested, and plans are underway for more planting in the spring. The children are encouraged to assist in the watering and weeding of the gardens.

The scarecrow that was made by Joy Wiggill of JR Nurseries has withstood all the seasons of the past year and will hopefully continue to add an element of fun to the garden.

As a school registered on the national school feeding programme, it seems that the ordering of their gas and dry food supplies for the kitchen has been sorted out and regular lunches have been prepared during the last term.

Some classes have begun making up their own class compost making charts from the templates that were prepared by Sue Oxborrow for the school use. The idea behind their making up their own charts, was for the children to understand the importance of good composting to enrich the soil in their gardens. Each class will contribute items regularly from home (veg scraps, paper, ash, etc.) to go into the compost bin.

Wildlife awareness

Towards the end of March, a visit to Die Poort Farm School by Kerri Wolter, Manager: Vulture Programme at the Rhino and Lion Wildlife Conservation NPO (www.vultureconservation.co.za), who spent an afternoon talking about the importance of vultures in the area. (You can read more about Kerry and the programme on the Magaliesberg Biosphere Newsletter of May 2010)

She also brought a rehabilitated vulture she uses for demonstration with her. The presentation was done by Kerri's assistant, a young Zimbabwe girl who gave a very articulate talk.

The children were interested, and some enjoyed the opportunity of actually touching the vulture (with thick gloves on!).

George and Christina, teachers at the school, also attended the vulture presentation and found the talk very interesting and informative. They were very appreciative of the opportunity for the children to learn about the vultures that inhabit the Magaliesberg mountain range.

A request was made by the teachers to be able to take some of the older learners to the vulture sanctuary that Kerri manages in the Boekenhout area west of Pretoria.

Many thanks to Sue Oxborrow for the above information.