WORLD RHINO DAY

Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia has been successfully protecting the unique, desert-adapted black rhino for 30 years.

Following last year’s successful World Rhino Day, Save the Rhino Trust is getting ready for a “bigger and better” World Rhino Day 2012 celebration!

We feel an enormous sense of responsibility towards this last truly free-ranging black rhino population in the world. This year, we again plan to commemorate World Rhino Day and to go bigger and better than we did in 2011.

Save the Rhino Trust Namibia participated in World Rhino Day last year through the following events and activities:

• A banner advertising World Rhino Day was carried on the website.
• A free editorial in The Namibian newspaper on September 2^nd, which resulted in a donation from a Canadian visitor and a subsequent donation from his 9 year old daughter.
• Sunshine Tours, one of Save the Rhino Trust Namibia’s sponsors, donated a much-needed 4×4 vehicle.
• On September 22^nd, various suppliers of both Sunshine Tours and Save the Rhino Trust attended a function where SRT gave a presentation. From this event, an individual Swakopmund girl decided to sponsor a rhino calf and Tacho Namibia decided to donate two vehicle tracking systems!!
• Posters advertising World Rhino Day were displayed at strategic places and folded bookmark-size brochures raising awareness of the plight of rhinos were distributed to all travellers on Sunshine Tours shuttle buses on World Rhino Day.

World Rhino Day 2011 messages and posters created by the children of Mondesa Youth Opportunities

Save the Rhino Trust Namibia visited three different schools on World Rhino Day 2011, giving presentations on rhino and the threats they face. At one school, four posters were made by the children with messages about saving rhino and were distributed to the President’s Office, as well as the offices of the Minister of Environment and Tourism, the Minister of Mines and Energy and the Minister of Justice. Subsequent to this, one child spoke out for the rhino on a school visit to the Houses of Parliament — so the message really got through!

Message to the Prime Minister:

“We would like to thank you for putting so much effort into protecting and preserving one of our most spectacular wonders of nature for future generations’ economy and education. We are really determined to stop poachers. By using the media, there is a great chance of educating Namibians about these AMAZING ANIMALS. We hope you will prioritize this issue because RHINOS will otherwise go extinct very quickly and our children will not be able to see these AMAZING ANIMALS OF AFRICA!”

Message to the Minister of Environment and Tourism:

“We would like to thank you for taking the rhinos into consideration and caring about them. Even though the rhinos are becoming extinct, we understand that you are doing everything in your power to prolong the lives of the rhinos. Thank you for making farmers and people aware of poachers that want to destroy the rhinos for personal purposes.”

Message to the Minister of Mines and Energy:

“We would like you to join us in a way that you can HELP us by just doing your part. Mining is something good and fun, we think, but part-time nature is crying because we don’t take care of its valuable creatures including rhinos.”

Message to the Minister of Justice:

“Namibia is very proud of our rhinos, but rhinos are being poached every day across Africa. We hope that if the poachers steal our rhinos, you will punish them very strongly. Their motive is to make an income, but poaching is not the solution!”

Visit www.savetherhinotrust.org to learn more about Save the Rhino Trust Namibia.

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Source: Sue Wagner, Save the Rhino Trust Namibia

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