Celebrating our wildlife heritage by supporting rhino orphans on World Rhino Day

In South Africa, our Big Five; Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard, and Rhino, is the crown of our world famous wildlife heritage - and under immense threat of extinction.

It’s estimated that there are only between 4,000 and 5,000 black rhino alive on earth - and 12,000 white rhino.  

It is up to South Africans to preserve our heritage and turn this around, amid the onslaught from poachers, who slaughter rhino for their horns.

The Rhino Orphanage in Limpopo - the first of its kind in the world - was started by Arrie van Deventer in 2012, to turn this tide around.

The Orphanage has been caring for the victims of the senseless scourge of rhino poaching that has been devastating South Africa’s rhino population for the past decade. Now, the demand for their care and rehabilitation care has become so extensive, that they run a full-time operation with a team that care for these vulnerable animals day and night.

After a mother rhino is poached, her calve, usually only found days later, is left hungry, thirsty, dehydrated, often injured, and always completely traumatised and unable to care for themselves. The Rhino Orphanage in Limpopo recognised the need to care for these vulnerable little creatures. People send injured rhinos to them from all over South Africa. 

As an NPO, the orphanage is self funded and needs all the help they can get, to keep doing the valuable work they are doing. 

YOU CAN HELP: To donate towards the work of the Rhino Orphanage, click on the donate button on www.jacarandafm.com 

ANGEL 1: David Masureik, CEO of New Southern Energy 

SPONSORING: As one of South Africa’s leading Solar Energy Companies, New Southern Energy will assist the Orphanage to build their own solar plant. They will put R600,000 towards the plant to ensure stable electricity supply amid load shedding and power outages, while saving them a large chunk on their monthly expenses.   

ANGEL 2: Maria Pavli from LottoStar

SPONSORING: LottoStar will assist the Rhino Orphanage with a donation of R100,000 to help them with their amazing work to preserve our rhino heritage.

ANGEL 3: Good Morning Angels Fund

SPONSORING: Good Morning Angels will contribute R30,000 towards the Rhino Orphanage's expenses.

ORIGINAL REQUEST:

Background – why wildlife is about more than just the animals 

South Africa has 19 national parks, more than 20 regional parks, and literally dozens of smaller private reserves, as well as hundreds of game farms. We are extremely fortunate to live in a country that is home to not only the big 5 but also a huge diversity of wildlife, bird life, sea life and many other creatures that few other countries have. Our national parks that are home to an abundance of iconic wildlife take up only approximately 3% of South Africa’s land. The rest is for humans. 

What people don’t always realize is that it is not only about one species. Nature is an ecosystem, and that entire ecosystem functions as a whole. If you take one animal out, there is always a knock-on effect on others. We need to look after all of the animals in it. 

While many people think animals exist on their own, people don’t always think about how many jobs are created because we have this wildlife. All of our game reserves have teams of people working there, totaling thousands & thousands of jobs. SANParks alone (who manage our national reserves) employ approximately 13 000 people, and this is not including the regional parks and the privately owned reserves that employ thousands of others.

We have entire industries of jobs created by wildlife include lodge staff, campsite staff, chefs, cooks, housekeeping, security, game rangers, field guides, wildlife vets, ecologists, gate staff, drivers, the staff in the gift shops and reserve management teams. Our reserves create jobs for many people in rural areas who live far from the cities. Drive to any game reserve and you’ll see craft shops & farm stalls on the way, who benefit from the people driving into these areas. 

There are also other industries which depend on wildlife such as the wildlife photographers or wildlife journalists who write about them for magazines, or film them for TV programmes. Think about the camping shops, the companies that make the uniforms for the rangers, or the food companies that supply the lodges. 

South Africa is also a research hub as scientists come here from all over the world, and our youth have the unique opportunity to formally study wildlife anatomy, endocrinology, communication, habit studies and more. Our wildlife colleges and tracker academies provide South African learners with the best training they can get to become wildlife rangers and trackers and also create umpteen jobs for the teachers that have knowledge to pass down in these fields. 

So you can see, that looking after our wildlife is not only about the animals, it’s about the people too. 

The Rhino Orphanage

Since 2012, the Rhino Orphanage, a unique non-profit facility in Limpopo, has been caring for the victims of the senseless scourge of rhino poaching that has been devastating South Africa’s rhino population for the past decade. Now, the demand for their care and rehabilitation care has become so extensive, that they run a full-time operation with a team that care for these vulnerable animals day and night.

Their team of volunteers including vets, nurses, scientists and other great people with huge hearts work tirelessly to restore confidence and health to these wonderful animals. They work long days, long nights and have performed many a miracle. Over the years, dozens of rhino orphans have been nursed back to health and rehabilitated to the point that they were able to reintegrate into African bush life. 

The Rhino Orphanage uses a tremendous amount of electricity for their milk fridges, veterinary machines, air conditioners, heat lamps, electric fencing, security systems, staff housing and more. When load-shedding strikes, it causes disruption to these already traumatized animals and poses a security risk. 

We all know that the costs of electricity in South Africa have become exorbitant, and this places huge strain on the Rhino Orphanage. Not only this, when there is load-shedding, it causes havoc and jeopardizes their security which includes things like electric fencing. They also can’t keep the fridges for the milk on, and they can’t put the heaters on, which are hugely needed for the baby rhinos in winter. 

The stress of high monthly bills places the Rhino Orphanage under huge strain and causes a lot of stress. They need to be able to continue their great work uninterrupted so that they can focus on nursing the rhinos back to health, and get them back into the reserves where they belong.