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ZCTF
Report - August 2011
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF)
August 23, 2011
Donations Received
We recently
received a one ton truck load of assorted donations from Syd Kelly
in South Africa. Thanks very much to Syd and also to Martin Bam
who transported the goods to Zimbabwe. Amongst the items donated
were blankets, clothing, shoes, medical supplies, cooking pots,
rice, coffee, mealie meal, dog food, a brand new wheel chair and
a couple of walking frames for invalids. Martin was on his way to
Mana Pools so I met him in Kadoma to transfer the donations to my
vehicle.
We shared the gifts between the Harare Children's Home, Homefields
and Athol Evans Old Age Home, all of whom were exceedingly grateful.
We were extremely impressed with the children's home. The staff
took us on a tour of their premises and although it is desperately
in need of repairs and rennovations, it was spotlessly clean. It
was with great pride that they showed us all the bedrooms, bathrooms,
lounges and kitchen. They care for 100 children ranging in age from
birth to 18 and the most impressive thing of all was the fact that
all the children go to school. We asked who pays the school fees
and buys the uniforms and they said they do - with great difficulty.
Sadly, some of the junior school children have recently been sent
home because they were not able to raise enough funds to pay all
of the school fees. We would like to appeal to anyone who is planning
on throwing out any old furniture or clothing, to donate it to the
Harare Children's Home because they will make good use of it. We
noticed that some of the babies don't have cots and some of the
cots that we did see were broken. They will also collect any items
from you so you won't need to worry about transporting the goods
to the home.
News
from Sharon Pincott
The Minister of the Environment, Francis Nhema - on behalf of President
Mugabe - recently reaffirmed the Presidential Decree that protects
the elephants known as The Presidential Elephants of Zimbabwe, that
roam the photographic tourist land bordering the Main Camp section
of Hwange National Park. This positive reaffirmation was recently
celebrated in a ceremony at the Forestry Commission's Ganda Lodge,
and will form part of an international television documentary currently
being filmed on Sharon Pincott's life, relationship and decade of
work with these elephants. It is very encouraging to now see many
officials and authorities backing Sharon's ongoing work. We have
heard that some in Hwange are still trying to frustrate her important
conservation/monitoring work with these elephants, but we trust
that these groups will be quickly silenced.
Sharon says that the award-winning film-makers are getting brilliant
footage - filmed primarily in the Forestry Commission Ganda Lodge
and Dawn Properties (Khatshana) areas - and that all favourite Presidential
Elephants are cooperating particularly well!
Illegal Hunting
We have recently received reports that illegal hunters in the Charara
area of Kariba have come up with a plan to try and prevent the authorities
from discovering their activities. It came to their attention that
when they shoot an animal, vultures circling in the sky above have
been giving them away so in order to overcome this problem, they
are now shooting animals and spraying them with a poison such as
DDT. When the vultures feed off the carcass, they die from the poison,
hence reducing the number of vultures available to give the game
away.
Thank you
A very big thank
you to the following people who have assisted us with funds recently:
- Liz Grainger
- John &
Helen Buckle
- Hugh Atkinson
- Anne-Marie
Faiola
- Teddy Fowles
- Suzanne House
- Keith Lewis
- Magic Travel
Visit the ZCTF
fact
sheet
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