The Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve (CWBR) team has partnered with Action Volunteers Africa (AVA) to collaboratively create and implement monthly Mobile Career Cafés (MCC’s). The initiative is an opportunity for unemployed and non-studying youth (in particularly rural areas) to learn job-readiness skills and explore careers through hands-on activities and fun interactive engaging games.

“Bone-chilling statistics reveal that 65.50% of youth in South Africa are currently unemployed - and only 65% of our students are completing high school. In rural South Africa, young people are not able to access as many services as those in the cities. These young, unemployed rural youth are especially vulnerable to socio-economic exclusion - and the wider, long-term impacts to South Africa's economic and social future is deeply concerning.” Action Volunteers Africa

The CWBR mobile educational trailer STEAM-Y (Science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics - for youth) is transformed into a one-stop-career-shop, with pop up gazebos creating multiple shaded spaces for three different sessions that the youth rotate between during a four-hour workshop. This includes two sessions by AVA: Identifying possible immediate resources to generate income, and employability skills including CV building, interview skills and preparing for the job interview. Complimentary to AVA’s sessions, are hands-on activities at STEAM-Y where CWBR facilitators and volunteers share environmental awareness through hands-on activities and a careers discovery session. Introducing youth to possible careers relevant to their area and employment opportunities in conservation.

To prepare for the MCC visit, partner NGOs are identified in the area to reach the most marginalized youth and strengthen impact and sustainability of ongoing support after the MCC has taken place.

Since June last year, nine MCC’s have reached two-hundred-and-fifty-four youth in Wolwekloof (Wolseley), Caledon, Swellendam, Darling, Khayelitsha, Atlantis, and Haut Bay. Two awareness workshops, in partnership with CapeNature, have been held for thirty Community Development Workers at Wolwekloof Day Camp (Wolseley) and Assegaaibosch Nature Reserve (Stellenbosch), sharing the educational resources that AVA and the CWBR have available.

Youth learn while having fun and all have stayed until the end of the Workshops, rain or shine!

AVA Introductions

Igniting Curiosity

Learn through play

Binoculars

• 97% of youth felt confident that they now know how to prepare for a job interview; compared to 46% who knew what to say and do in a job interview at the start of the workshops.

• 86% could identify potential employers and learning opportunities in their communities; compared only 15% prior to attending the mobile career café.

• 64% was very confident that they could identify and list their skills and experience on their CV at the end of the workshops, compared to 30% at the start.

In response to the question, “I am interested in learning about the environment and nature”, 35% of the participants who attended the MCC in Atlantis (June 2022) strongly agreed at the start of the event and 12% were not interested in nature at all.  At the end of the workshops that day, 82% strongly agreed that they were interested in the environment and nature.  There was not one not interested in learning more about the environment at the end of the MCC.

Intro to Science

Whose career?

MiniSASS

Resourcefulness Session

Check out the below videos to see the first Mobile Career Café Workshop which took place in Worcester, for Youth Day, June 16th, 2021. This year, the CWBR team and AVA got together on the 16th and 17th of June, to celebrate the Mobile Career Café’s first birthday, and facilitated Workshops in Darling and Atlantis, reaching seventy-two youth.

Mobile Career Café Darling 2022. Action Volunteers Africa is a non-profit organisation that empowers youth to be ready for the world of work.

Marking the end of 2021, it was highlighted that partnerships, collaboration, and passionate mentors invested in their communities are the cornerstone for long-term solutions in outreach and relevant meaningful impact. This holds true to Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve team’s involvement in Villiersdorp, where we met a woman passionate about bettering the lives of children, young mothers, and pregnant girls in the community.  

Villiersdorp, an agricultural town in the fruit-packing industry of the Western was severely affected by the Covid pandemic adding to the already existing poverty problem. Through a local farmer who works closely with the community, the CWBR team distributed 100 food parcels on a bi-weekly basis and were invited to meet the key role players of the community-driven initiative, one of them being Sophy, who we later discovered was also a Flourish* Host working with young mothers.

The CWBR team visited the community-run soup kitchens, who with Sophy and a group of ladies, had grown from 3 to 10 locations to meet the rapid increase in hunger due to loss of jobs. Over 3000 individuals were fed three times a week and family members also supported the project by assisting with sanitizing, serving food, or delivering food to those who were unable to walk to the distribution points.

Increasing need

Homecooked meals

Sponsored equipment

Meals on wheels

Recognizing that food parcels were not a long-term solution, the CWBR team was asked for assistance by Sophy to start up community gardens to promote dignity, health, nutrition, and food security within the community. Ongoing Food Security Workshops were facilitated firstly on a weekly, then monthly basis. The CWBR team helped implement two community food gardens and several private home gardens.

Learning practices

Being an example

Sharing with youth

Flourish Garden

An additional community food garden was established last year together with the mothers participating in Flourish classes and overseen by Sophy. The harvest will contribute to a local soup kitchen and mothers with young children and babies, encouraging health and nutrition.

As the relationship has grown, so has the CWBR’s volunteer involvement in the Flourish Workshops facilitated by Sophy.

In October 2021, a mental health workshop was facilitated with the participants of the current Flourish class in honour of Mental Health Month. The workshop took place during a weekend retreat for fifteen mothers, some expecting and with young children. The Workshop was facilitated by a local psychology student and unpacked what mental health is, ways of looking after oneself and nurturing one's mental health. The mothers asked for more similar initiatives where they could share their experiences, learn more about themselves and bond.

Since then, an Athénée Action Humanitaire volunteer and a local retired teacher have become more involved in the Flourish Workshops on a bi-weekly basis. Contributing through breath-work, pre and postnatal yoga classes, presentations on health and nutrition, and teaching jewellery making as an alternative form of income. The programme culminates in graduation ceremonies for the mum and baby, as well as a much-needed baby shower. 

Bonding

Postnatal Yoga

Mental Health

Workshop

An outing for the most recent Flourish mums was arranged in April at the farm in Franschhoek. The mothers were inspired to grow their own veggies, made a toy mobile for their babies, and had time to enjoy the beautiful environment at the farm and the sound of the birds. Each mother received a gift pack with seedlings and a pregnancy journal.   

Celebratory lunch

Exploring

Digital microscope

Flourish Mothers

Not forgetting the men in the families, a workshop was also hosted for the fathers of the children earlier in the year by Sophy, fostering the importance of their presence and bond with their child.

Through this collaboration, and what the CWBR team has learned from the community, additional funds have been raised to implement a project addressing the rise in young pregnant girls since the start of the pandemic; the Yvonne Zeimen Young Mothers Support Programme. Via the Blossom Café, the CWBR will organize a mobile support system to reach out to these pregnant girls and young mothers in the different communities. It will be a space to bond, learn new skills, and offer time with a psychologist who is not from the community. This project will build onto an existing service of Flourish hosts, who are a partner of the team. Partnerships also include school educators, social workers and local NPO.

The project was introduced at a local primary school to girls from grade four to seven and the first visit with the Blossom Café is due to take place later this month.

It is a privilege to know and work together with such dedicated women who are involved in their own community’s health, dignity, and future.

* Flourish is an NPO who, through trained hosts, facilitate post and prenatal classes for young pregnant mothers and mothers with young children. Focusing on the first 1 000 days of a child's life. They support and empower mothers to establish a solid foundation for their baby’s success, health, and wellbeing.

A peek at Sophy’s garden at home and the Flourish Community Garden which have a variety of vegetables growing. The CWBR team assists with Food Garden Workshops regularly and provide seedlings on a needs basis.

We would like to share some exciting news from our biosphere reserve! In 2021, the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve (CWBR) team joined the iNaturalist community. A project page of our biosphere reserve was created, promoting Citizen Science. This year we entered the worldwide City Nature Challenge and alongside other members of the Stellenbosch community in different areas of Stellenbosch, we competed together for the title of most biodiverse city in the world.

Each year, the competition takes place over four days, from the end of April until the beginning of May. The goal is to have the most participants in the competition, and photograph as well as identify as many species of fauna and flora as possible. The rich beautiful biodiversity we are surrounded by is shared globally, while also having the opportunity to contribute to important research through the iNaturalist app. 

On Saturday, with the educational STEAM-Y* unit, set up outside of the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve entrance, the CWBR team spread awareness of the City Nature Challenge and engaged with the public to part-take in the competition. Before entering the reserve, people passing by could see the live statistics on the TV screen by STEAM-Y, as the competitors photographed and uploaded different species of plants, reptiles, insects, and birds. The CWBR team photographed the biodiversity in the area to contribute to the competition. 

On Sunday, together with the CWBR facilitators, eighteen participants from the Mbeko Eco-Club, based in Mbekweni Paarl, part-took in Franschhoek at Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve. Hiking up the mountain, the group contributed to the City Nature Challenge by photographing the biodiversity which sparked curiosity in them. They also did a miniSASS exercise in the river to explore the biodiversity present there.

*Science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics – for youth

Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve

MiniSASS

MiniSASS

Citizen Science

The Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve team, invited to speak about the City Nature Challenge event on RSG Sondergrense Radio on Friday morning, spread more awareness of the event and Citizen Science.

Check out how we did in the competition!

Links

City Nature Challenge Stellenbosch Project page, Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve Project page

Biodiversity gathered by Citizen Scientists within Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve

Highlights

The classroom can be a safe space for curiosity, investigative learning through play, and building confidence in a child.

In the last year, the CWBR team discovered the need for preschool teachers to have a similar experience, especially after a very difficult couple of years due to Covid-19. The need to come together and have exposure through different shared activities, igniting their own inquisitiveness as well as gaining access to resources to take back to their classrooms and share with the children.

The Bonnie People Project, based in Bonnievale, asked the CWBR team to share the opportunity of the teach-the-teacher outings and to host a group from Bonnievale in April 2022. The outings were originally offered to early childhood development (ECD) teachers in Franschhoek as part of a development programme in 2021. The Franschhoek teachers were given the opportunity to attend monthly outings to educational institutions and pristine areas in nature reserves to broaden their perspectives and gain insight into how and where to obtain educational resources, tools, and services.

The impact of the outings so far has not only had a positive impact at the ECD Centres but in their personal development and immediate families as well.

The monthly teach-the-teacher outings inspired a packed weekend programme for the ECD teachers based in Bonnievale.

The Bonnievale ECD Teachers Weekend

Thirteen nervous but excited Early Childhood Development teachers arrived in Franschhoek on a late Friday afternoon, ready for the weekend’s activities. A traditional South African braai and live music set the mood for the weekend. 

After dinner, the teachers were split into two teams and played games to encourage team spirit, with lots of small prizes won by all. The games, which could also be used in their classrooms, involved balance, coordination, and speed! Balancing as many apples as possible on a plate, as many cookies as possible on the forehead, picking up macaroni with a piece of spaghetti held between your teeth, putting together a puzzle, and many more.

On Saturday the group set off to Cape Town. First on the programme was Iziko South African Museum, and a show at the Planetarium. The screening was followed by a guided tour of the museum’s exhibitions and then a visit to the popular Discovery Room filled with tactile experiences and encouraged exploration through sensory learning. The group also explored the Company’s Gardens before venturing to Cape Town Science Centre, where they took part in two workshops that included making instruments from recycled materials and an introduction to the Lego activity, Six Bricks. The teachers were treated to a Science Show and the Camera Obscura experience as well as exploring the exhibitions open to the general public.

Learning

Life-size giraffe

Discovery room

Before heading back to Franschhoek, the group made a last stop at the Two Oceans Aquarium and went on a guided tour facilitated by a Marine Biologist, exploring ocean systems and life below the water. This activity gave them an insight into their rocky shore outing to be held on the Sunday.

Cape Town Science Centre

Two Oceans Aquarium

In the moment

Upon returning to Franschhoek, the day ended with a common kid’s favourite, Spaghetti Bolognaise, and a quiz on the day’s activities. Each teacher received a goodie bag which included a cooler bag, a set of Six Bricks, a notebook, colourful pens, and an Afrikaans and English version of Footprints in the Fynbos (a book recently published by the Cape Leopard Trust).

Packed and ready to return to Bonnievale, on Sunday morning, the group headed off to Betty’s Bay where they were met by Marine Biologist Dr M Boonzaaier-Davids and Anton Fortuin, a biology teacher who runs an ocean program at the Centre for Conservation Education with youth from the Cape Town area. Together, the group explored the rocky shore were allowed to carefully touch and learn about the creatures that call it home. The teachers were encouraged to take their classes out on discovery journeys in Bonnievale, and that learning about the wonders of the environment does not only have to be at the beach.

Hands-on learning

Sharing knowledge

Resources available

Lunch was at Harold Porter Botanical Gardens and became a guarded affair as the CWBR facilitators had to keep a lookout for the opportunistic baboons. What an experience! After lunch the group explored the wonders and uses of South African indigenous flora.

Before heading back home, the teachers had a final meet and greet with another ocean inhabitant at the Stony Point Penguin Colony; the African penguin.

With such a packed programme, the teachers had a lot to digest, and feeling inspired by the activities they had taken part in over the weekend, they expressed that they were excited to share their experience and use what they had learned in their classrooms.

Bonnie People Project started in 2003 and will celebrate their 20 years next year.  It was built-up from a 2-room building where all the children were accommodated.
Currently there are 3 ECD schools: Bonnie People with 117 children, Teletubbies with 50 children, and Kapteintjies with 83 children. The Bonnie People Project also has an aftercare program that runs from Monday to Thursday where extra attention is given to 30-40 children.

To find out more , check out the articles about the Franschhoek teachers outings and how NPO’s and organizations are investing resources in education.

Further reading

A New Outlook in the Classroom, published 28 May 2021

The ECD Legacy Project: Educational Outings Continued…, published 12 November 2021

Teacher Development Workshop: Sharing Environmental Education, published 23 July 2021

Much of the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve (CWBR) environmental outings take place at the source of a river and in the mountains, in and around the Cape Winelands. Through collaboration and meaningful partnerships, groups are also taken to the ocean for rocky and sandy shore environmental education.

Dr Melissa Boonzaaier-Davids, the newest CWBR board member, has received a National Geographic Society Early Career Grant to perform research on the marine invertebrate communities of the rocky shores of South Africa’s understudied coastal regions.

As part of this research project, the CWBR team will facilitate Marine Science Engagement outings at some of the rocky shore sampling sites, in particular where the hand collections will take place. Because of its accessibility, visiting groups can see the marine biology team collecting specimens and in doing so, may also learn about different sampling methods in the field. In addition, visits to the Iziko South African Museum (who are also a partner in the project) will be facilitated for the groups. The youth will learn about the research done at Iziko Museums, have a guided tour of the museum and explore the exhibitions. 

The first marine outing took place on Friday last week, alongside Melissa and her team who were completing their first week of sampling in Gordons Bay. The Helderberg Eco Rangers Club, based in Helderberg, joined for the morning to explore the rocky shores, learning hands-on about the biodiversity and life that resides there. A local marine scientist joined the CWBR team and facilitated the educational component.

Introduction to the research and teams

Gordons Bay Rocky Shores

The group was briefly introduced to the research project led by Melissa, where she explained who her team is made up of and the marine sciences work done at the museum. The group was treated to a preview of an Edubite on the use of Scanning Electron Microscopy in natural history collections within Iziko Museums.

The children and CWBR facilitators were excited to see the marine life exceptionally up-close, using a handheld digital microscope with a 1000x magnification. The latest addition to our mobile educational unit STEAM-Y.  The microscope can be connected to cellphones, iPads, computers, and used to take videos or photos while on hikes.

Digital microscope

Underside of dwarf starfish

Dwarf Cushion Starfish

Exploring Rocky Shores

To find out more about the NatGeo Grant, read UWC Alumna Receives National Geographic Society Grant To Study Marine Life Of South Africa’s Coastline

And stay posted for an article by Melissa sharing about the research!

Hands-on learning

Mobile Education

Exploring

Biodiversity

In January 2022, the CWBR management team partnered with the new and growing Youth Programme at Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, based in Kleinmond, to introduce the mobile classroom STEAM-Y (Science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) and its different hands-on activities. The outing was hosted by SANBI at Harold Porter Botanical Garden. The event was facilitated by all three parties sharing knowledge and engaging the group in meaningful discussion about their immediate surroundings and biodiversity.

What does one need when going on a hike in a Nature Reserve? This was a question posed to the group before embarking on the morning of exploration through the various biomes represented in the garden. A hat and sunglasses to protect the eyes and face, insect repellent to keep the pesky bugs away, a bottle of water to quench thirst, a sandwich and fruit for lunch, and sunscreen lotion of course!

With this in mind, the group ventured out into the garden and were led by the SANBI Senior Environmental Officer, along with CWBR and Kogelberg facilitators. The group explored the space with the binoculars and magnifying glasses given to them after an introductory session at the Mobile Classroom STEAM-Y. The necessities for a comfortable hike became the symbolic activity of sharing hands-on and explaining how trees, succulents, and other plants have different features that perform the same purpose.  

The CWBR volunteers from Luxembourg (Athénée Action Humanitaire) spent the day with the group and shared the fascination of the plant, insect, and birdlife at the garden.

Learn togetehr

Magnification

Igniting curiosity

Taking it all in

The CWBR is also assisting a Community Upliftment Project in Stormsriver Village, Tsitsikamma, which started in early 2019. The Project is run by a local lady, born and raised in Tsitsikamma, who has seen the changes in her Village as time has gone by and especially since Covid-19. 

Noticing the lack of curiosity in the children, she had an urge to make a difference that effects their every-day activities. With no resources she looked around and thought about what she could do, then realized what she had to offer – her passion for the environment. She started by inviting children from the village for a nature walk every Saturday morning. The walks, taking place on a regular basis, encouraged dedicated attendance of the children who started asking more and more questions. Curiosity and excitement for their immediate surroundings was ignited, while finding more opportunities to explore in and around the surrounding areas of the village.

In December 2021, the CWBR team travelled up to the Garden Route to meet with members of the new Garden Route Biosphere Reserve board to connect and share the fantastic educational initiative happening in Storms River. The board members expressed full support for the initiative and of the existing collaboration between her and the CWBR team. As part of the December trip, an outing for the children to Tsitsikamma National Park was arranged, in collaboration with SANParks.

An educational trailer was sponsored for the project through CWBR partners Athénée Action Humanitaire, to expand on the existing nature walks and create a pop-up learning environment for the children to read, do hands-on activities, and art. A celebratory event to launch the trailer is planned for 2022 in collaboration with Garden Route Biosphere Reserve, SANParks, and partners.

Her long-term vision is to acquire a Resource Centre, where children and youth can take part in educational activities and expand their minds through reading and hands-on activities, complimented by the regular weekly nature walks.

Her Community Upliftment Project has been established one day a week with a volunteer facilitation team of five. Twenty-five children attend regularly on weekends.

She has 15 years of tourism industry experience, local and abroad, and has sat on the board of the Tsitsikamma Tourism Association. The CWBR team are honored to know her for ten years and reconnected through the CWBR facilitated FGASA Culture Guide & Life Skills course which she completed in May 2021.  

The CWBR team are excited for the collaborations in youth initiatives between Biosphere Reserves and the new developments which are taking place in 2022!