Spirit of the Wild Trust

"I want people to experience how their inner power can be directly connected to the natural environment and to the awareness that we are all part of the plant and animal world"
HRH Princess Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld of the Netherlands

The Trust is established in 2016 to ensure the continuity and the sustainability of the Spirit of the Wild Programme at Bergplaas Nature Reserve.

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The aim of Spirit of the Wild Trust is:

• To present courses to students of South African universities to enhance their training in nature reserve management as field guides and trackers and more particularly to equip them as Intuitive Guides in the program known as “Spirit of Wild” endorsed by the Field Guides Association of South Africa (FGASA);
• To provide training in the Trusts Tracking Academy for young people from the disadvantaged communities of the Republic of South Africa as trackers aimed at providing the students with formal qualifications thereby empowering previously disadvantaged people and enhancing their employability;
• To improve literacy through education;
• To reduce poverty through the creation of opportunity through formal qualifications;
• To promote skills development and career opportunity whilst improving gender ratios in the workplace;
• To bring about social change and integrated community development;
• To promote environmental awareness and integrating nature through a deep connection with self thereby assisting participants to realize their true and full potential, integrating spirit and matter;
• General training will be provided to unemployed persons for the purpose of enabling them to secure employment;
• Providing educational enrichment, academic support, supplementary tuition for the poor and needy;
• The advancement, promotion or preservation of the arts, culture or customs;
• The protection and preservation or maintenance of areas of historical or cultural interest, including the preservation of heritage sites;
• Through the provision of the aforesaid course and services to provide for youth leadership development and the promotion of education and training programs relating to environmental awareness;
• The ancillary object of the Trust shall be to achieve, through the promotion and pursuit of the main object, the general upliftment of young persons from previously disadvantages communities, such activities being primarily funded by donations.