04 Feb 2014

Miss Universe 2013, Tsaone Macheng says working with primary school children creates an environmentally conscious and socially responsible generation.

The beauty queen said this at her inauguration as the goodwill ambassador of Feline Fields Trust in Maun recently. “Children have displayed an incredible amount of enthusiasm, which is the kind of attitude we aim to nurture with regard to career development in the industry and general social awareness in contribution to our pillars of Vision 2016 of being an educated, informed nation and a prosperous, productive and innovative nation,” she said.

She said Feline Fields developed a syllabus around wildlife and conservation, a profundity considering Maun’s centrality to the tourism industry in Botswana. Macheng said she appreciated the opportunity to assist in developing a brand that would not only empower individuals but the nation at large.

For his part, the Operations Manager of Feline Fields Okavango, the company that runs the trust, Tebogo Monnaaphuthego, said they were pleased to introduce and welcome Macheng into their fold as she was passionate about environmental issues and educating children about the issues. He said she toured schools they worked with and visited projects they were involved in.

One of these projects is a mini bus that Feline Fields bought to transport Sexaxa school children to Matlapana Primary school. The children used to walk an average of 20 kilometres everyday.

Monnaaphuthego further said they bought two computers and a printer for Matlapana primary, as well as taking 10 students who did well in wildlife quizzes from the five selected primary to Moremi game reserve. He further said a wildlife conservation youth empowerment centre in Sexaxa was in the works. The center will teach children about wildlife and conservation.

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) assistant regional director, Jonas Moteti commended Feline Fields trust for the work they are doing, more so that they were implementing what the Adopt-a-school initiative called for. He urged them to continue in the spirit of corporate social responsibility and nurture the partnerships they had with government as that will not benefit only the pupils of Okavango but the nation at large. ENDS