“Community Outreach” by Toyota and University of Johannesburg to Trelfall Primary School

School kids sang songs while getting ready for school

The team handed out pamphlets with detail of the project

Always time for a dance!

The schools kids

Barnabas teaching the kids a new song

Barnabas doing an excellent presentation

Everyone got involved to collect.

Planting the trees

Handing over the trophy to the headmaster.

Today one of the primary objectives of this year’s Toyota Enviro Outreach was achieved. To maximise impact and ensure sustainability of this project, the local community and specifically the youth was directly involved through a practical event at the local primary school.  The purpose of this event was to expose the 278 school kids to the importance of trees and insects and other living creatures, and to create awareness of the principle of sustainability as well as the “International Year of the Forest”.

In the 1980s the Teba mining agency was involved with the community in this area, to recruit local people for work in their mines on the Rand. When Kosi Bay area was declared a nature reserve at the end of 1999 the locals living in the reserve had to be relocated. Teba decided to contribute to the building of the new premises of the school for the community, and the new Primary School Trelfall was established.

Today was both an important contribution to science, mixed with a fun day at this school:

The Toyotas entered the gates at the start of the school day.

The learners were treated to a programme introduced by the UJ team. Barnabas presented the importance of trees and insects to them.

The fun grew when the school kids were divided into groups that collected insects and other small creatures around the grounds with the encouragement of the researcher accompanying each group.

Hundreds of new collected samples will keep the scientists busy for many hours.

The event closed with a tree planting ceremony and the three new mango trees will become “My Beautiful Tree” for the years to come.

The afternoon was spent sorting through the samples gathered by the children. They collected 1000 samples from 300 different species. A wonderful help to the project.