Friends of Tenikwa

We rehabilitate endangered African Penguins. We are proud to report that on Saturday 20 March 4 African Penguins that were received between October and January were released back into the wild. These penguins were in a weakened state and would have died if they had not been removed from the beach and brought to Tenikwa for rehabilitation

Tenikwa provides rehabilitation facilities for small predators which are very important in maintaining a natural ecosystem.

Pictured below : The African Penguin

The main challenge with predator rehabilitation is that you need to keep the animal wild whilst in captivity so that it can retain its natural fear of humans and not become habituated. And it is important to consider this when release sites are chosen so that we can avoid human-wildlife conflict by the

released animal returning to farms or houses in search of food. We currently have a young caracal in rehabilitation.

Wildlife Rehabilitation is a very expensive and long-term undertaking. You have to have specialised facilities and staff standing by on the off-chance that an animal may need help. Unlike an animal sanctuary, if you are successful at rehabilitation, you have empty cages to show for it. For 15 years Tenikwa has been able to fund this through tourism. Since Lockdown, Tenikwa has received virtually no income and has had to retrench many of our staff.

We have not been successful in receiving NPO CoVid grants as we were not prior recipients of Lotto funding. As an NPO, we haven’t been eligible for most other grants, and have literally fallen through the cracks.

Despite this, we have still been able to help 254 animals with rehabilitation since Lockdown in March 2020. From 27 full-time staff, we are now battling to keep open with 7 staff on reduced time and no financial reserves left. We have been forced to start winding down the rehabilitation facilities and only accept exceptional cases for the rehabilitation of endangered species. Personal savings and the little income received through domestic visitors is being used to care for the non-releasable animals at Tenikwa, so we still have monthly costs of over R100,000 to cover each month until tourism recovers.

Pictured below : Hand feeding a turtle

Our most important need: The Friends of Tenikwa Fundraising initiative has been launched primarily to keep the rehabilitation facilities open and re-employ a veterinary nurse and we are asking as many people as possible to donate a small amount each month R50 – R100, or whatever they feel that they can afford. Our goal is to raise R37,000 per month of secured funding for the next year to cover these costs which will mean that injured wildlife still have a place where they can be taken to get help and sufficient time to heal and be prepared for return to the wild.

Pictured below: Our animal hospital

We have a page on our website www.tenikwa.com/friends-of-tenikwa where people who want to help, can sign-up and let us know how much they can donate and how they would like to donate – monthly credit card donation/PayPal/debit order etc. Whilst once-off donations are appreciated, in order to keep the rehabilitation facilities open for the next year until tourism picks up, a small monthly commitment will help us to budget for the monthly costs that we have to cover.

Other Needs :

· We need help fund-raising to support the above initiative as we no longer have administrative staff to do this.

· If you are a family or have friends visiting the Plett area, please consider staying in our accommodation or visiting our

Awareness center and doing a tour to support us. Details on our website www.tenikwa.com

· If you are a business, perhaps you will consider sponsoring the care and food of one of our non-releasable animals

for a year, and we can display sponsorship signage.

· If you are planning to visit The Garden Route, you can buy an Annual Pass to Tenikwa which gives unlimited complimentary tours and great discounts. Details on our website www.tenikwa.com

Mandy Freeman – 071-5385250

Email: friends@tenikwa.co.za

Tenikwa Wildlife Awareness Centre

Forest Hall Road

The Crags

6602

Account Name: Tenikwa Wildlife Rehabilitation and Awareness NPC

Bank: Investec

Branch: 580105

Acct Number: 10012697932

Reference Number: Algoa Cares+Name

Although we would prefer people to sign up via the friends-of-tenikwa page with their details so that we can