Art for a cause

THE Kingsley Holgate Foundation has adopted a Rhino Art Campaign that is gathering tens of thousands of children’s Rhino Art pieces from all over Southern Africa.

The clear objective of this hearts and minds project is to gather the biggest rhino art voice from Afrika’s children.

School children, living close to areas of Rhino protection and in urban areas, are given art materials and a blank A3 paper, with an outline of a rhino.

Their challenge is to colour in the rhino, write a message about whatever they think about the rhino crisis and fill the page with rhino art.

It’s a great research project,with messages that read: “Let’s move our rhinos to a safe place outside the Kruger National park,” writes a concerned young artist from the Makuleke community. Another short message simply reads: “Tell the Chinese to stop.”

Rhino art, gathered by volunteers from all over Southern Africa, will be handed to Kingsley Holgate before world Rhino Day on 22 September.

This messaged rhino art from Mozambique, Swaziland and from across South Africa, will be showcased on World Rhino Day and be used as a further call to action in support of rhino protection.

“To win this rhino war we also need to get into the hearts and minds of the children,especially those living in communities close to wildlife sanctuaries,” said Kingsley Holgate.

“Then the challenge will be to take these rhino art voices from the children of Africa to the rest of the world, especially the people of South East Asia, who are subverting our people with more money than they’ve ever dreamed of, to slaughter a species that’s been with us for more than 50 million years, all in the useless belief that their horns are valuable traditional medicine,” he added.

If you would like to be apart of this Rhino Project, email Carla Geyser at carla@blueskysociety.co.za