As part of its continued efforts to provide and support local education, Natural Selections Safaris this week officially opened a preschool in Shorobe enrolling 40 students from the catchment area.
‘The Learning Tree’ Preschool operates in Shorobe’s rented Village Development Committee (VDC) building and has enrolled students from Shokoma, Nhabe and Mochaba settlememnts as well as some from Shorobe.
The corporate social responsibility initiative came after the safari company approached the VDC to use its building that had remained abandoned since its construction, to which the latter agreed.
The batch of students that is enrolled at the preschool is selected by the Shorobe Social Workers who pick from the list of orphans and vulnerable children whose caretakers cannot afford to pay school fees.
Speaking during the official opening of the preschool, Community Outreach Manager for Natural Selection, Sandra Rubins noted that providing a preschool that is fully funded by the company is an effort to support local communities and expand education opportunities for children in that area.
Rubins further added that Natural Selection aims to establish and develop close relationships with the community to impact on local education and community development.
She indicated that they have collaborated with Elephant Havens Foundation, to help with the transportation of children from the settlements to school and back home. She added that they have also hired qualified stuff from Shorobe village.
For his part, the Shorobe VDC Chairpeson, Baleseng Gangwa expressed gratitude and appreciation for the efforts made by Natural Selection, highlighting that the initiative will develop communities as they create employment opportunities and improve the level of education for the kids in the area.
He added that allowing the company to operate a preschool at their building has opened opportunities for many locals. Gwanga indicated that so far Shorobe has 2 preschools and 1 primary school something which shows a village that is developing.
He added that they appreciate working with the Safari companies operating around their village as they have shown much support.” The effort made by Elephant Havens has shown determination, the company’s effort in transporting children including primary school leaners is their way of helping to avoid human wildlife conflict as many of the times, people use elephant corridors which is risky for them.”
