DAKTARI Outreach on the Road!
As the students of the high schools were enjoying their well-deserved holidays, that meant no Eco Club for 3 weeks. However, this is not a reason for us to sit back! That is why we decided to visit Mmakadi Crèche in The Oaks village. Accompanied by a lot of volunteers and some rabbits we had a great afternoon with the toddlers. We transformed their faces into beautiful animals, taught them how to pet rabbits and played a throw-the-rubbish-game. In the end, the children took the stage to sing their national anthem and an anti-poaching song. Yep, that’s right, not even 4 years old and they know their anthem… that is what we call dedication! In exchange for these wonderful performances, the volunteers sang our custom-made DAKTARI song using the animal names in Sepedi, the local language! ‘DAKTARI has diphôôfôlô (donkey), E-I-E-I-O…’
One of the volunteers, Gabi (USA), was kind enough to share with us a few words about her experience with these younger children! Read it below!
“I was fortunate enough to have been able to go to the crèche during my stay at DAKTARI. We went to face-paint the children and sing them a song that the outreach manager wrote that included animal names in Sepedi (the local language). It was beautiful to see how culturally enriched the children are at such a young age. They sang the South African National Anthem to us and also danced. They put on skirts made of cloth and danced around a chair while a woman sang and played the drums. The children were shy at first but then they opened up after we started face painting them. After one design on their cheek, they wanted one on the other cheek, then their hand. I drew hearts all over their arms and they loved it. They were of ages 2 and older. They were all so loving and warm. A little girl and I got into a tickle fight for 30 minutes! She and the rest of the children made my heart smile. They all made me forget the concept of time and simply enjoy the moment of being there.”