Adopt a Student
| Adopt a Student |
Their dedication is already established, their abilities recognized, they simply need help to take the next step in training.
Once trained, they will return to their countries and protected areas and implement new techniques in anti-poaching, fire management, cultural heritage site management and much more.
Keeping Africa’s natural heritage in its spectacular state needs skilled managers. Through sponsoring a student at the Wildlife College, you are empowering the people who will take on the responsibility of managing our conservation areas – for generations to come.
THE BENEFITS OF TRAINING
The Southern African Wildlife College, through its Certificate Courses and short courses, trains existing natural resource managers from the region in conservation, eco-tourism, administration, community development and natural resource management skills. Every year 50 natural resource managers, all officials already in service at a national conservation agency, are selected for training.
At the end of their course – which is conducted both in their workplace and onsite at the College – the trained managers will be able to supervise operational activities in order to maximize efficiency, exercise leadership in order to enhance performance and productivity, implement, supervise and evaluate management planning practices (for example animal and plant management, security, integrated catchment management and cultural heritage site management) in order to monitor progress and performance against planned goals, understand ecosystem components and processes, use firearms competently and maintain area integrity and promote conservation understanding through cooperation with local communities, environmental education and tourism facilitation.
SUPPORT A STUDENT FOR A YEAR AND SEE THE BENEFITS TO CONSERVATION
Adopting a Student for a year costs R60,000. This covers full training, accommodation and food and all course associated costs.
You can also sponsor a student to do one of our short courses, or indeed sponsor an entire short course. Sponsorship prices vary, so please contact us, or find out more about our short courses by clicking here.
FROM THE GROUND – CASE STUDY
German businessman Charly Graf has a long standing relationship with the College and has been one of the most dedicated Adopt a Student supporters over the years.
Not only does he attend graduation to see his student receive his certificate, but he also arranges things like laptops to help their studies and ensures he remains on contact throughout the year and beyond to encourage them in their life and work.
He has also taken it one step further and has visited his students out in the field in Malawi and Zambia – seeing their lives, meeting their families and colleagues, understanding their circumstances.
Charly believes this is the key factor to funding the education of a student at the College – you gain a different perspective of life in the field, can visit your student and really see what he goes through and what challenges he faces back home and in his workplace, and it also gives you exposure to things you would never see as a tourist going through a national park.
We need more Charly’s – more people who want to become deeply involved in the future of Africa’s conservation, and who want to really support the people on the ground who are in charge of that future.