Sponsorships and donations in support of our wildlife corridor rehabilitation and assisted reforestation endeavours come in a number of ways. One of these is our Gift-a-Tree platform where you can gift a tree to a bio-mimicked forest pocket planted out in one of our wildlife corridors in honour of a loved one… honouring a birthday, a promotion, an anniversary or a life lived.
Gifting a Tree in our wildlife corridors in celebration of another simultaneously supports the ongoing rehabilitation activities in our local wildlife corridors. So, if you would like to Gift a tree to a special person in celebration of a birthday, an anniversary or in honour of their life, simply click here.
In 1999, children living in poor and dysfunctional communities in George, South Africa, started attending Sunday School at a local church. After an investigation, the church set up an informal wooden structure in the community where they lived to feed the children once a week. Two years later, Philip and Maryna DeVries from the USA accepted the challenge to come to build on this foundation as an NGO, and LIFE Community Services was born. They developed an outreach program and mobilised local and overseas churches, foundations, businesses and individuals to assist communities suffering deprivation. George is an area that has a high TB death rate, AIDS crisis, a high per capita alcohol abuse problem and escalating divorce rates.
LIFE was registered as a Non-Profit Organisation in March 2001 and in 2008 as a Public Benefit Organisation and is committed to developing and implementing Christian-based interventions that transform the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children in George, South Africa. The Centre is located in Conville, Thembalethu in and currently has approximately 290 learners.
There is a small established food garden on the premises and volunteers who run and maintain the vegetable garden and grounds in collaboration with the groundsmen.
The staff and learners of Life Community Services Centre & The Precious Tree Project Team Say THANK YOU WMO!
Rondevlei Learning Centre is a small community centre based in Rondevlei, George, and is the brainchild of Vinessa van Rensburg. The Learning Centre consists of 9 children who reside as weekly boarders at the Centre’s hostel rooms. RLC has been set up as a non-profit and public benefit organisation in order to assist, guide and educate underprivileged youth and to provide alternate and stimulating forms of education for those struggling with mainstream education.
The organization, as a non-profit organization, relies on sponsorship and donations and the dedicated teachers/staff and general assistants continuously involved in the Learning Centre do so on a voluntary basis.
The Centre has recently started a food and vegetable garden to supply the in-house kitchen which feeds the learners daily.
The grounds around the Centre are visibly absent of trees; the majority of the trees growing on the surrounding parts of the property are non indigenous trees (that require removing in terms of the Invasive Alien Management requirement) and that will be harvested for firewood for the Centre’s needs.
The staff and learners of the Rondevlei Learning Centre & The Precious Tree Project Team say THANK YOU WMO!
The school is located in a low socio-economic area called Parkdene in Thembalethu, George. The school has approx. 1400 learners (Grade 1 to Grade 7). The school is a Section 21 primary school and is allocated some level of funding by the Department of Education. The school itself is responsible for ordering stationery, textbooks, paying utilities (water and lights accounts) and undertaking their own maintenance. It is a no fee institution and the school is reliant on outside funding to cover its running costs.
There is an existing well-run food kitchen that feeds a certain percentage of the learners two meals per day. There is no vegetable garden to support the kitchen yet but this is on the school’s wish list as increasing numbers of the learners attending the school are not bringing pre-packed lunches and do not come to school having eaten breakfast.
The staff and learners of Parkdene Primary School & The Precious Tree Project Team say THANK YOU WMO!
The school is located in Conville, Thembalethu, in George. The school has approximately 1600 learners (Grade 1 to Grade 7). The school is a public primary school and as a Section 21 school and is accordingly allocated some financial funding by the department but remains responsible for ordering stationery, textbooks, paying water and lights accounts and undertaking their own maintenance. It is a no fee institution. Community fundraising to bring in additional income into the school is not a possibility, given the low socio-economic bracket within which the community falls. The school relies on external funding for the upkeep of the school.
There is an existing food kitchen that feeds all the learners 2 meals per day. The intention of the school is to invest in a vegetable and fruit garden that can support most of the vegetable needs of the school kitchen.
The staff and learners of Conville Primary School & The Precious Tree Project Team Say THANK YOU WMO!
The Touw River Conservancy (TRC) is a local conservation body focused on increased conservation efforts on private and municipal property in the Greater Wilderness Area. Much of their volunteer efforts in conservation are geared towards clearing invasive vegetation as a first level priority step in any rehabilitation or reforestation process. Clearing invasive trees is a labour intensive process and a labour of love by the TRC team who put their own time and effort into it.
The TRC has been clearing a site in Wilderness Heights which has been identified as one of many vital corridors for wildlife in the area, most of which are shrinking as a result of rising higher density development in the area and overrun by non-indigenous invasive vegetation. This site used to be an old cattle dip for the farmers many years ago, but neglected from disuse as farms were subdivided into smallholdings. It become heavily infested with pine, wattle gum, bugweed, to name a few of the highly invasive non-indigenous species dominating the competition for space and water.
In 2022, the TRC joined the George Municipality’s Adopt-a-Spot program whereby it has undertaken to continue to clear, maintain and rehabilitate the site – now recognised as a heritage site in the Garden Route. When Precious Tree Project was donated funds by the Wilderness Ratepayers and Residents Association (WRRA) and George Tourism as part of the Wilderness Centenary and Beautification Project, we allocated the funds towards planting out in a mini-forest pocket on the site.
Since many of the leaves of indigenous trees are a vital food source for many of the wildlife species in the area, irrespective of the age of the tree, we got creative in our tree protection methods structures giving the trees time to take root and ground themselves.
A big round of applause to the TRC and its committee members involved in the rehabilitation of this site and for all those local community members who joined in and gave a helping hand on the day.
The school is located in Touwsranten, Hoekwil – in the George District. The school has 432 learners (Grade 1 to Grade 7). This quaint little school is well maintained on the limited funds provided by the Dpt. of Education and is a public primary school. The school is a Section 21 school meaning it is allocated finances by the department and is responsible for ordering stationery, textbooks, paying water and lights accounts and undertaking their own maintenance of the school.
There is a small food kitchen that feeds all the learners 3 meals per day which is supported by a small scale vegetable garden (currently not sufficient to supply the food kitchen with all of its requirements). The majority of the learners attending do not have a pre-packed lunch as they reside in a low-income bracket community in which the school is situated. The school grounds are visibly absent of trees.
The staff and learners of Touwsranten Primary School & The Precious Tree Project Team Say THANK YOU WMO!
Wattle, pine, blackwood and gum are the predominant invasive species that have infested much of the region in which we operate. While wattle is a nitrogen fixer, invasive species such as pine and gum have more negative effects on the soil composition and consequently retard the regrowth of any endemic vegetation. Where pine and gum trees have pervaded an area, it is often necessary to regenerate the soil as part of the rehabilitation process, since natural soil regeneration post pine and gum removal can take many years. Time biodiversity in the area can ill afford…
Adding biochar in its activated form to the soil is a highly beneficial method to achieve good soil composition in which our indigenous trees can regrow and thrive. We were given a short talk and demonstration by Kevin Clack, at one of our tree planting sessions in the Eastbrook Corridor, where he gave us a demonstration on Activated Biochar and highlighted the numerous benefits of using biochar: improvement of soil structure and fertility, enhanced water absorption around the root bowl, carbon sequestration.
We’ll be comparing the rate of growth of the trees using biochar vs. those where biochar was not included in the mix. Watch this space!
Rock the Route and PANGEA Trails are local ECO Adventure Tourism businesses who have been ongoing supporters of Precious Tree Project since 2018. Both companies offer tours around South Africa and include multi-day tours to the Garden Route. Both companies recognise that the tourism services they have on offer come with an environmental footprint and remain committed to sponsoring trees with Precious Tree Project for every seat sold on every tour they conduct. This means that as the seats add up, so do the numbers of trees we get to plant out in one of our wildlife corridor rehabilitation projects.
This month we selected Eastbrook Wildlife Corridor as the site to plant out these trees in our usual “biomimicked forest patch” way.
Thumbs up to Rock the Route/PANGEA Trails for their contributions and making this planting session possible! This mini-forest will help restore biodiversity in the corridor, provide a valuable source of food and a safe haven for wildlife passing through.
Thumbs up to them also pitching in and helping us plant out their trees on the day!
Thumbs up to our very important planters for showing up every time to plant a mini-forest!
The school is located in Dellville, Pacaltsdorp – in George. The school has 1400 learners (Grade 1 and Grade 7). One percent of the learners come from the Dellville community itself. Ninety nine percent of the learners come from Thembalethu at large – which falls into a lower economic bracket than the Dellville community itself. The Department of Education provides limited funding to the school covering staff salaries as well as education fees for 100 out of the 1400 learners). The balance of learners are funded by a range of small fundraising initiatives the school holds on a monthly basis, which is allocated to funding the learners’ education itself.
There is a food kitchen that feeds 500 of the children. These children are given three meals each day from the kitchen (feeding those learners who do not have pre-packed lunches). The numbers of learners attending the school without a pre-packed lunch is on the rise and the school has been in need of additional fruit trees and vegetable seeds to fulfill the requirements of the Nutrition Program
The staff and learners of Dellville Park Primary School & The Precious Tree Project Team Say THANK YOU WMO!
