Summer event 2021 – another great success!

On September 3, we held our annual summer event at the HAUTE private club in beautiful sunshine.

On this evening, our name says it all: Friends of African Wildlife! Together we toasted with friends, had interesting conversations, enjoyed culinary delights from the HAUTE kitchen, laughed and listened to good music. At the same time, however, the focus was primarily on our projects: the board members reported on the latest successes and developments and Theresa Sowry, CEO of the Southern African Wildlife College, was connected live.

For us, this is always one of the most touching moments of the evening, because no one can tell you more about the situation at the college than Theresa, who puts her heart and soul into the college and the protection of wild animals.

Theresa informed us about the latest successes of the various projects, such as “Dogs 4 Rhinos” (174 poachers were arrested with the help of the dogs!). She also spoke about the difficulties the college is facing due to corona and we were once again able to experience how committed the entire team at the college is. Due to Corona, the entire theoretical part of the field guide training was reorganized digitally, which means that interested people all over the world can also take part and learn the basics of animal and nature conservation. This is a sustainable investment in the future of training and its reach.

The practical training units are carried out on site and in small groups. All these trainees not only need material for the training and have to be sponsored, they also need accommodation. The prospective field guides sleep in tents near the college. Some of these tents have become dilapidated over the years and urgently need to be renovated. Theresa also reported on this and the pictures showed that the tents urgently need to be renovated.

We found out about this problem before the event and dedicated the entire summer event to raising money for new tents, and it was a great success! Around 36,000 francs were raised that evening and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the donors who attended the event and everyone who donated, even if they couldn’t be there. Thank you very much – without you, this would not have been possible!

The fact that our summer event is slowly becoming an institution is shown by the fact that we were able to greet many familiar faces and also welcome new friends. This makes us happy and shows us that we are on the right track with our projects!

We will set the date for the 2022 summer event at the end of the year. Take a look at our homepage so you don’t miss the “Save the Date”!