All of us at Whale Coast Conservation were delighted and honoured to host Mr Sershan Naidoo, Beneficiary Relations Manager at the National Lotteries Board. The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund has invested more than R4 million over 3 years in WCC to raise awareness of sustainable living and development in the Overberg region.
Mr Naidoo was most encouraging about the WCC’s efforts to protect the precious environment of the Cape Whale Coast and to spread awareness of how we can all contribute to this goal.
The main aim of his visit was to attend our Expo at the Hermanus Flower Festival and to launch the stories of Stripes the Eco Cat.
As in previous years, the Hermanus Flower Festival was a feast for the eye and a challenge to our botanical knowledge. The historical theme highlighting the various famous botanists who came to the Cape to document our fynbos, was innovative, and fascinating. Continuing the theme of exploration, WCC highlighted the energy and technology explorers.
The WCC Expo tent had a steady stream of visitors, even on the cold and rainy days. They showed great interest in the technology that’s now available to reduce our energy consumption. Our technical expert, Rob Fryer, was kept very busy over the entire four days giving advice on how households can keep essential comforts going during future “load shedding” and how we can eventually become completely independent of Eskom power.
WCC now offers a service to the public to assess their homes and their requirements in terms of sustainable electricity supply and then compiles a report on various technology options and the price of each installation. This is a new WCC initiative to generate an income stream for its environmental education programme.
Mr Naidoo’s visit was the ideal opportunity for him to launch the new WCC educational initiative to promote environmental awareness among children. The stories of “Stripes the Eco Cat” were officially introduced to children at the Expo. In his speech Mr Naidoo said that he was particularly taken with the concept of a cat (that is not traditionally considered to be eco-friendly) struggling to be “green” and telling children what he is learning so that they can learn it too.
A group of interested and knowledgeable learners from Hawston Primary and Lukhanyo Primary Schools gathered to hear stories of how Stripes learns about the “eco-thing”. They agreed to help WCC to further develop the concept by giving feedback on the stories.
When Olivia Verster, aged 7, heard she was to attend the launch of Stripes, she drew her impression of Stripes being “launched” to stardom. Since Stripes has ambitions to be a celebrity, he couldn’t have wished for a better send-off than in a rocket to the stars.
The Sustainable Energy Expo was funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.