32-day scaffold tower challenge raises funds for rhinos
MAGALIESSIG – Wildlife activist, Anton Fouche made his way up a scaffold tower located at Montecasino Bird Gardens on 22 March as part of his 32-day scaffold tower endurance stunt.
The stunt is a fundraising exercise for his George2Vietnam campaign, a wildlife campaign geared at anti-rhino poaching.
Fouche’s aim is to raise R1 million in 32 days for the campaign.
“South African Scaffolding sponsored the tower and Tentco sponsored the tent where I will live for 32 days. I will only come down on the 22 April or after I have raised R1 million, whichever comes first,” Fouche quipped.
George the Rhino, a life-sized fiberglass replica of a white rhino set on a wheeled trolley, is situated at the base of the scaffold tower for visitors to meet and take photographs with. George has 1 213 red dots painted on him which represent the number of rhinos which were officially poached in 2014.
Stopping at schools and public events, Fouche’s awareness campaign was simply to visually demonstrate how many rhinos are being poached locally and internationally.
Fouche has already pulled George the Rhino over 2 000km across the country in the past two years for his original campaign, Walking for Rhinos and Rangers. George2Vietnam is a campaign comprising three phases to send Fouche and George the Rhino to Vietnam on a powerful visual wildlife campaign.
After the money has been raised, Fouche and George the Rhino will travel around the country for two months through nine provinces. They will visit schools, malls and public events allowing South Africans to meet and take ownership of the campaign as well as to add weight to his statement that ‘South Africans are sending George to Vietnam’.
Inspiration to take George to Vietnam came from Vicky and Vanessa Wiesenmaeir’s cycling expedition from Hong Kong to Singapore last year. The expedition was called Buy no rhino.
Based on the success the expedition achieved through educating people in Vietnam, Fouche decided to follow in their footsteps, except to take George the Rhino with as an additional visual educational aid.
The campaign falls under the Do One Thing (Dot) Foundation umbrella founded by Braam Malherbe, an international motivational speaker and a well-known conservationist who endorses and supports this initiative.
“The foundation recognises applicants that are actively protecting threatened and endangered species. Its aim is to fund these initiatives to ensure long-term results. I founded The Dot Foundation because of the vital need to fund best practices in the conservation of our biodiversity. What Fouche is about to do is a big Dot and, hopefully, each one of us will perform our own Dot and support him. Together we can raise the money and help to save our rhinos,” Malherbe said.
If you wish to donate and support Geroge2Vietnam, you may EFT to:
The DOT Foundation NPC
Standard Bank
Account: 070117802
Branch: Thibault Square
Branch code: 051001
Reference: George the Rhino.
Details: www.George2Vietnam.co.za; George2Vietnam on Facebook
