Dear Friends of the College,
What a time it’s been since 15 March, 2020, when President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the South African nation for the first time about the Covid-19 pandemic.
Between the College’s Executive Committee, its Human Resources (HR) Department and its Academic Departments, we have been steeped in legislation, protocols, policies, rules, and regulations, all of which we have had to adhere to and draft so that all staff, students and other stakeholders were kept informed. In addition, our finance department has most certainly been kept on their toes.
The announcement of the Advanced Level 3 lockdown, has enabled the College to allow one third of its total student capacity to return, but with strict regulations, and additional protocols. (Read more about this in the Covid-19 update below). We are certainly missing our students from the region but you can imagine our joy at being able to welcome some of our South Africa-based students back to campus.
We would like to sincerely thank our board members, staff, students and especially our donors for their ongoing support and understanding in these extraordinary times. The team work and willingness to adapt has been both incredible and heart-warming. Our approach has been to look for the opportunities for positive change that can emerge from this situation, whilst also keeping the College running. This approach includes pivoting to a blended learning approach and upgrading our IT infrastructure to be able to facilitate this. Here our thanks must be extended to GIZ and to the MAVA Foundation for enabling this.
Apart from keeping our own “ship afloat”, which would not have been possible without our anchor donors Friends of African Wildlife and the Ivan Carter Wildlife Conservation Alliance who help support the College’s institutional costs, we’re also exceptionally humbled to be able to assist vulnerable community members with food parcels at this time. We have a long road ahead and must, now more than ever, walk it together.
To this end, we remain steadfast in our vision to inspire every person we train and engage with, to conserve our natural world, as we fulfil our mission: To equip people with the necessary knowledge and applied skills to conserve and protect Africa’s natural resources and biodiversity in viable, inclusive and economically successful ways.
Thanks for reading and we look forward to staying in touch.
Jeanné Poultney
Executive Manager – Marketing, Fundraising and Media Relations
Read the Bateleur - Quarter 3 2020
