The Wilderness Foundation UK’s cross-culutral young women’s leadership programme – Wild Swans – was covered in the Knysa-Plett Herald today.  In an article focusing on the application and selection process that whittled down the initial 450 girls who came forward, to the four who earned the chance to join the trail in KwaZulu Natal, the story of their adventure in partnership with four similarly aged girls from the UK is retold.

Zintle Berma, Pamela Mbandezi, Busiswa Mabinza and Amanda Matha all attend Percy Mdala High School were chosen and then trained as amateur environmental conservations – the Wild Swans of the project name. They then embarked on a ten day wilderness trail in the Umfolozi and Drakensberg wilderness regions and together with their UK counterparts slept beneath the stars at night and walked in the footsteps of lion, rhino and elephant duirng the day.   Sian Davies, consultant and environmental education officer for Cape Environmental Assessment Practitioners – our partner in South Africa who was involved in coaching the girls before undertaking their wilderness challenge says:

You must realise that a wilderness experience of this sort is indeed life changing.  It’s all about back-to-basics and leave no trace principles, carrying everything you need in and out of the wilderness.

When they returned to school after their time in the wilderness with our highly trained, experienced and skilled guides from the Wilderness Leadership School, the girls started work setting up an environmental club in their school and will then go on to develop their own environmental initiative, utilising the skills that they have learned as part of the Wild Swans programme.

Congratulations to all the girls on their fantastic achievement.  We will continue to bring you news of their progress in the coming months.