Thanks to our donors, TWT has been able to support amazing projects in the Waterberg:

• Northern Education Trust’s School Nursing Sister – health issues, counselling, first aid, social problems, home visits, pressure from drug/alcohol abuse, school vegetable gardens, tree planting, litter-picking, recycling, environment club events + distribution of sports kit & bras.
• Equipping every schoolgirl with Dignity Dreams washable sanitary towels
• Emergency food parcels for needy school children and families, carefully distributed by Sister Grace. A total of 644 food parcels were distributed between March 2020 and March 2023.
• Lapalala Wilderness School – education in conservation
• Lethabo Kid’s Club in Leseding – ‘Back to School’ project
• Northern Education Trust – further education support for promising students
• Save The Waterberg Rhino AKA the Waterberg Landscape Alliance – anti-poaching initiatives

In the past, The Waterberg Trust has also supported:

• Waterberg Living Museum – equipment for school visits
• Boschdraai Primary School – books and stationary
• Security Interest Group – defibrillator and First Aid equipment
• Waterberg Welfare Society – education support, Waterberg Waves Community Radio Station.

Lapalala Wilderness School – Education in Conservation project

TWT has enabled 245 from Vaalwater aged 12-17 to attend a residential course at Lapalala Wilderness School

Meetsetshehla Secondary School to attend a 5-day course.

Northern Education Trust’s School Nurse – Health and Welfare project

TWT provides the salary for an experienced school nursing sister to work in and around Leseding Township to address social, health and educational issues faced by learners including teenage pregnancy and teenage motherhood as well as drug/alcohol abuse.

Sr Grace has an office at Meetsetshehla Secondary School, which has 700 learners. Here she offers careers advice, takes life orientation classes and sees pupils on matters of health and welfare.

Environmental Impact Management Services have sponsored two school vegetable gardens that Grace has set up and oversees. The produce supplements her nutrition programme.

Grace has been able to distribute donations of sports kit and bras from the UK along with washable sanitary pads from Dignity Dreams so that girls do not miss lessons when they have their periods. We are seeking funding for another 300 packs to equip all the school girls in Vaalwater. If you would like to donate to this project, please click here.

Sister Grace has set up four school vegetable gardens

Lethabo Kids Club’s ‘Back to School’ project – Welfare

TWT grants have supported the ‘Back to School’ project at Lethabo Kids Club, that has been run in the township of Leseding by Marilyn Cook for the last eighteen years. This ensures each child has a smart uniform, shoes, a book bag and place in school.

TWT supporters visited the project in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Kids Club is attended by 200-660 children each week and is an important point of contact with those in need.

Marilyn says, ‘Most requests are for school shoes.’ These cost about £10 a pair. She ensures they are properly fitted. The shoes get passed on as soon as they are out-grown.

The youth who have grown up at Lethabo Kids Club now help as volunteers and have formed the Kholofelo Association who are seeking help to take them through tertiary education or start businesses.

The Northern Education Trust – Education Support projects

A grant has awarded to cover academic fees for a promising student called Elton to study computer science at Eduvos University in Midrand. NET are finding a bursary to cover the living expenses of this orphan who has been doing so well at school. 

Thanks to TWT sponsorship, an outstanding student called Donum Mandizvidza gained a degree in Actuarial and Financial Mathematics at Pretoria University and is now working as an accountant.

“I am driven and upon finishing my undergraduate I want to pursue my Postgraduate degree in Financial Mathematics while writing my board certification exams from ASSA (Actuarial Society of South Africa) and CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) institute.”

Waterberg Welfare Society – Education, Health and Welfare projects

The Waterberg Trust has financed learner support programmes at the Waterberg Welfare Society to give local children a place to study with a qualified Maths mentor. The Language and Homework Club gave pupils graduating from primary schools the chance to improve on their language and computer skills to make the most of their secondary education. All pupils have improved by a grade.

Back in 2018, The Waterberg Trust also paid the salary of a nurse working at the WWS Hospice and on the HIV/Aids Stepping Forward project.

Boschdraai  Primary School – Education

Donations of books and stationary were brought out by TWT riders in 2015 for Boshchdraai Primary School, which 140 children now attend.

TWT supporters kindly bought the school gifts of pens and pencils in 2018 and 2019

The Waterberg Living Museum – Education in conservation

Outdoor furniture and information boards have been purchased for the Waterberg Living Museum established by Clive Walker and his son Anton Walker for local school children and visitors to the area.

Save The Waterberg Rhino – Conservation project

Thanks to those who sponsored Sam Whitbread and his friends on their Rickshaw Run through India, TWT  was able to send £1,000 to Save The Waterberg Rhino for the purchase of equipment for the anti-poaching unit and local Police Force.

TWT is now helping Save The Waterberg Rhino purchase high-tech security initiative equipment with a network of 34 night-vision cameras to help guard wilderness areas from the threat of poaching. These need to be erected on concrete poles:

This operation has been carefully thought through and implemented, maximising security in the whole area so that everyone benefits. It has been vital to get the right hardware, software and verification processes in place.

~TWT trustee visiting one of the security posts where WSI guards are based~

 

The security container purchased by The Waterberg Trust is being used as a staging post for WSI security patrols in the district, which operate on a 24 hour basis.

The Waterberg is home to the third highest population of rhino in the world and is under huge pressure from international poaching syndicates. We are doing all we can to help protect the species from extinction. If you would like to donate to this project, please click here.

-TWT Riders observing white rhino-

TWT receives reports on how the projects are going, which are published on our News page. It is always great to receive thank you letters from projects administrating the funds.