Speaker 1: South Africans doing great things.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: We're staying with the theme around conservation and animals, and
Speaker 1: it's a lovely theme because both of the projects that
Speaker 1: we have tonight are about nature and animals, but they
Speaker 1: are also about or linked to the Alexandra Township. Our
Speaker 1: next guest is Raymond Kramer, the founder of Guardian Angel's
Speaker 1: Wildlife and Marine Trust, and he's got an amazing story
Speaker 1: to tell us about the Mandelaity initiative. He joins us
Speaker 1: now on the line. Raymond Greebning and welcome to the
Speaker 1: Aubri Masang, Michelle.
Speaker 2: Hiko Marshall, thank you very much for having me on.
Speaker 2: That's appreciate it, yep.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is absolutely amazing to have you on,
Speaker 1: especially because you are doing wonderful things with your initiative.
Speaker 1: Maybe we should just start with just tell us about
Speaker 1: Guardian Angels Wildlife. It's a beautiful name.
Speaker 2: Okay. So about fifteen years ago, you know, iued to
Speaker 2: do a lot of business in Africa, in the continent,
Speaker 2: and you know I was in areas because of war,
Speaker 2: poverty and so forth, and you know, you know, real
Speaker 2: poverty and criminality and the whole story that goes with
Speaker 2: it that you find yourself in a forest where you
Speaker 2: don't even have a hear a bird, for example, and
Speaker 2: that left me with a very eery feeling. And I
Speaker 2: grew up, you know, as a young boy on a
Speaker 2: farm with freedom, with animals, with nature, and you know,
Speaker 2: I've always been a conservationist, keep at heart. So that
Speaker 2: was quite a while ago, and then I wanted to
Speaker 2: get into it, but I was too busy with business.
Speaker 2: And then in twenty twenty one I met with former
Speaker 2: President Ian Karn of Wotswana and we got on very
Speaker 2: very well, and I looked at the What'swan a model
Speaker 2: of how he basically turned photographic tourism into the second
Speaker 2: biggest industry after diamonds in the country. And we became
Speaker 2: good friends, and he became the patron of Guardian Angel,
Speaker 2: which we created, and I gave him the right to
Speaker 2: give it the name Guardian Angel. He has chose the
Speaker 2: name Guardian Angel while not a marine trust. And we
Speaker 2: specifically didn't want to talk about a particular animal or
Speaker 2: a fish or a bird because the word guardian angel
Speaker 2: is so powerful, because we should all be guardian angels
Speaker 2: of our mother Earth. And that's how we came to
Speaker 2: that particular name.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's so beautiful. And where does your love
Speaker 1: for nature stem from or do you have a particular
Speaker 1: story with how you fell in love with conservation?
Speaker 2: Do you know I loved animals, I loved the bush,
Speaker 2: I loved nature. It's just one of those things that's
Speaker 2: ingrained in me. And you know, I've got four grandchildren.
Speaker 2: I've worked my grandson who's eight years old, who can
Speaker 2: tell you probably ninety nine percent of all the birds
Speaker 2: that are out there in South Africa. So we go
Speaker 2: to game reserves very often, we go to the country
Speaker 2: areas very often. And I also thought about it, I see,
Speaker 2: you know, having looked at the decline in animal populations,
Speaker 2: wildlife bi diversity, I thought, you know, wow, you know,
Speaker 2: we've got to do something for the future generation. And
Speaker 2: one of my biggest motivators was looking at my grandchildren
Speaker 2: and saying, what's going to be left for them one day?
Speaker 2: And that is one of my biggest passions. That's actually
Speaker 2: one of my biggest motivators as well. And joh I
Speaker 2: love nature and I feel very passionate about it, and
Speaker 2: that's why I'm actually very very involved and excremely passionate
Speaker 2: about conservation in general.
Speaker 1: And tell me about your initiative, Raymond, that you are
Speaker 1: going to be running for Mandela day in alex Maybe
Speaker 1: let's start with why Alex.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we all live in the screen belt here,
Speaker 2: Come on, sir, you know here we live in people
Speaker 2: live in Sampson, the richest square meter in Africa. And
Speaker 2: I go back a long way in Alexandra township that
Speaker 2: we worked with taxi guys in the old days in
Speaker 2: the eighties. So you can call me like an alex boy,
Speaker 2: you know. So I've got that sort of history in
Speaker 2: Alex And I took an American visitor visiting the country
Speaker 2: into alex about three years ago and he was actually
Speaker 2: horrified and frightened. I actually have two policemen accompanying me.
Speaker 2: And the disparity between Alex and Santuon is just so huge.
Speaker 2: I mean, the paradox of the wealth and the poverty.
Speaker 2: And you know, you know, everyone thinks we start with
Speaker 2: wildlie conservation somewhere around a national park or whatever. I
Speaker 2: say to myself, No, we can start right here in
Speaker 2: Alex on our doorstep. We've got between one to hu
Speaker 2: those three million people. It's impublished, it's it's it's it's
Speaker 2: a let's call it. I just want to say it's.
Speaker 2: It's not a pleasant looking place when you're looking from Santon.
Speaker 2: And also a lot of the people from Alex also
Speaker 2: come from all over the country. So we started off
Speaker 2: with a couple of projects last year with a cleaning
Speaker 2: up of the XK River, getting the youth involved, getting
Speaker 2: the teachers and the schools involved. That went on to
Speaker 2: a second program we had last year for education where
Speaker 2: we introduced the tests to hosses, horse rides and education
Speaker 2: in a day, a full day program of conservation. So
Speaker 2: that was last year and for this year we decided
Speaker 2: to do something we're continuing. So also we're not we
Speaker 2: don't want to jump around. I don't believe in jumping around.
Speaker 2: So we decided we focus on Alex and we went
Speaker 2: over the community's hearts and minds and we're starting off
Speaker 2: this year with the the the actual we're calling it
Speaker 2: keep Gussie Clean. Now when I grow through Alex, you
Speaker 2: know every time I drive through, you know, sadly a
Speaker 2: lot of South Africans don't have pride in the country.
Speaker 2: You know that people throw litter on the floor after
Speaker 2: taxis and you know It all starts off with a
Speaker 2: simple discipline, don't litter and discipline and that is why
Speaker 2: we started off, and that is why this year we're
Speaker 2: calling it Keep Gussie Clean. And then I can elaborate
Speaker 2: about what we're going to be doing on the day,
Speaker 2: starting with the small things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, because I was about to ask, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, when you think kinds of you think the bush,
Speaker 1: you think, you know, you don't think urban, you don't
Speaker 1: think in a township, and you certainly don't think Alex.
Speaker 1: So what exactly are you going to be doing on Medelitay.
Speaker 2: Well, what we're doing is we're teaching the kids about
Speaker 2: the environment, you know, not to pollute your water, not
Speaker 2: to litter. We're giving them a whole host of things
Speaker 2: to think about in terms of environment. You know, a
Speaker 2: lot of the Alex kids have never been in touch
Speaker 2: with nature or conservation. Many of them have never been
Speaker 2: to the Cruder Park or actually come into contact with
Speaker 2: wildlife at all. So what we're doing is we're starting
Speaker 2: off with these programs to expose them and to get
Speaker 2: them to start thinking about the environment. And from there, obviously,
Speaker 2: from there it grows and kids get taken out to
Speaker 2: see animals and parks and so forth. But we have
Speaker 2: to start somewhere, and you know, we need to start
Speaker 2: influencing the youngsters at a young age. So one of
Speaker 2: the other reasons is that you know, with all the
Speaker 2: law enforcement we've got in the country, unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 2: we are still losing our wildlife. So the reason we
Speaker 2: decided with Alex as well is to focus on the
Speaker 2: youth in one place and start off having successes in
Speaker 2: one place and then move it out into other areas
Speaker 2: once we've been successful.
Speaker 1: All right, So the event where how who must come,
Speaker 1: how must they be dressed or what can they expect?
Speaker 2: Okay, so for the for them, it's an by invitation only.
Speaker 2: So what we've got on the day and is that
Speaker 2: basically we asked a lot of the teachers what would
Speaker 2: they like to see for these students, So you know,
Speaker 2: they said they'd luck to see people in uniform. So
Speaker 2: we've got the South African National Institute Suncy Cunning. They
Speaker 2: will be there. They were last in nineteen twenty four
Speaker 2: by the Deputy President His Excellency for Matritalian. This is
Speaker 2: an adminisiative that falls you know, under the leadership of
Speaker 2: the Department of Defense and Military veterans and SAMDA where
Speaker 2: youngsters have been trained and given a three month character
Speaker 2: building period and then obviously getting them ready for vocation,
Speaker 2: trading them in various locations and getting them ready for
Speaker 2: jobs to the job market. So we've also got the sps,
Speaker 2: we've got the Hawks, we've got Polo riots, we've got entertainment,
Speaker 2: we've got the South African Scouts arriving on the day,
Speaker 2: we've got industry arriving. So it's to expose the kids
Speaker 2: to a day, a fun day. It's a fun walk
Speaker 2: first of all on Mandela Day to celebrate the sixty
Speaker 2: seven minutes of service Global service. So we're started off
Speaker 2: with a fun walk around the yuch stay picking up
Speaker 2: some letter and that is part of the whole Mandetta legacy.
Speaker 2: And then we go into the day's events with all
Speaker 2: these type of things taking place. So the Suncy will
Speaker 2: be showing their marching skills. Now, remember these kids have
Speaker 2: been taken off the streets from very difficult backgrounds and
Speaker 2: they've been put through a character building course. So you've
Speaker 2: got youngsters that were lost that are now disciplined for marching,
Speaker 2: who can do pt and are coming to demonstrate on
Speaker 2: that particular day what they were and what they are today.
Speaker 2: And they now also going into vocations. So it's also
Speaker 2: an opportunity for the youngsters to look for job opportunities
Speaker 2: within the South African Army, you know, to look at
Speaker 2: what sons it can offer them. And so it's a
Speaker 2: combination of environmental awareness and creating jobs.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I love that. I love the fact that
Speaker 1: the idea is to bring opportunities to the people of
Speaker 1: alex because for many people, especially in townships, they may
Speaker 1: feel like they're locked in and in order for them
Speaker 1: to be exposed to opportunity, they need to leave the township.
Speaker 2: Well you know, you know, you know what, if you
Speaker 2: think about it, who are the role models today? You know,
Speaker 2: youngsters need role models and you know, one of the
Speaker 2: success formulas for life is I've got a little thing
Speaker 2: here chart. It might be out, but discipline. Fifty percent
Speaker 2: is disciplined, you know. And you know that discipline comes
Speaker 2: from when when these youngsters see people in uniform, it
Speaker 2: makes an edible impression on them. But what we've also done,
Speaker 2: from a guardian angel point of view, we bring up
Speaker 2: business angle. I'm on the coordinating committee of SUNSI for example,
Speaker 2: we've already lined up for the Sunsei graduates ten five
Speaker 2: to ten thousand direct jobs from a certain corporate in
Speaker 2: South Africa. That will basically when the kids have passed
Speaker 2: the character building phase. You know, obviously now they're a
Speaker 2: better type of disciplined youngster. It looks a hell of
Speaker 2: a lot better on the CVS. They will then be
Speaker 2: offered positions once it convened you've done their vocational skills
Speaker 2: and they will basically be often positions as for examples,
Speaker 2: drivers mechanics. They are going to roles as e commerce entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2: So one of the if I may mention the name
Speaker 2: one of the if our mad mensure, one of the
Speaker 2: names of the companies is Butler International Logistics. For example.
Speaker 2: You know that the people known Timu Shane, they've for
Speaker 2: example offered and tied in with Sansei to offer these
Speaker 2: type of jobs when the youngsters have completed the series.
Speaker 2: So what I did was I started, you know, there's
Speaker 2: no point in giving youngsters hope and then what so
Speaker 2: you train them? And then what so what we did
Speaker 2: was we work the other way. We said, look, let's
Speaker 2: find the jobs for the people, for the youngsters and
Speaker 2: let them look forward to knowing that at the end
Speaker 2: of the day they've got something to look forward to.
Speaker 2: You and within the sons, of course, Guardian Angel also
Speaker 2: brings him a wildlife conservation curriculum, so while they're getting
Speaker 2: the character building, they also learn about wildlife and generally, Aboso,
Speaker 2: I want you to ask more questions. But generally, a
Speaker 2: youngster that is in touch with nature, that respects wildlife
Speaker 2: and just understands more about the environment turns out to
Speaker 2: be a much better human being and is less inclined
Speaker 2: to get involved in crime and get involved in drugs
Speaker 2: and alcohol and all those things. Because this is where
Speaker 2: we try to keep them away. Do the right thing, guys,
Speaker 2: and then you can actually get these jobs in the future.
Speaker 2: So this is a very big program, Please God, that
Speaker 2: works out well, that actually has a very good ending
Speaker 2: for youngsters who tell you the line, who are disciplined
Speaker 2: and look forward to the future. We want to give
Speaker 2: them a future, give them real hope.
Speaker 1: Sure I love that you say that, because you know
Speaker 1: I was about to ask. You know, I mean often
Speaker 1: we have these events and a lot of the projects
Speaker 1: are event driven, but you know, we sell them and
Speaker 1: I wonder maybe a lot how or what are the
Speaker 1: long term benefits of this supposed to be? You know what,
Speaker 1: what are we leaving with the community of Alexandra there
Speaker 1: And I love that you say you're leaving that seed,
Speaker 1: you know around conservation, which will really help to form
Speaker 1: and make the young people better people in the future.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So you've got a million to civilian people and
Speaker 2: we keep, we keep, we stay within. We don't start
Speaker 2: the project or any event, and then it just appears
Speaker 2: like you have a concept, you know, singing concept. We
Speaker 2: we stay there within And for example, we are also
Speaker 2: helping the South African Scouts to recruit up to a
Speaker 2: thousand Scouts in Alexander Town, GIP and these are volunteers.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of work being done by Godian
Speaker 2: Angel d with a Marine Trust to bring the youngsters
Speaker 2: into the system where they volunteering and they learning basic
Speaker 2: basic manners and there's the Scout laws and all these
Speaker 2: sorts of things. And then we continue, we continue working
Speaker 2: with the schools and then what happens is we start
Speaker 2: taking these type of successes and we start rolling them
Speaker 2: out throughout our tent, for example, into other areas. Now,
Speaker 2: if we have to be very honest, with ourselves. Joebert
Speaker 2: is not a city that we should be very proud of,
Speaker 2: you know, in terms of letter and the way it is.
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of our leaders acknowledge this
Speaker 2: and we but we have to start somewhere, so, you know,
Speaker 2: instead of complaining, you know, I believe that we roll
Speaker 2: up our sleeves and we have there's no ego, and
Speaker 2: anyone that wants to join us organizations, people that want
Speaker 2: to work with us welcome to join with us where
Speaker 2: they've got their strengths. And we continue with these type
Speaker 2: of initiatives over weekends. Now, if we take an example
Speaker 2: of a country like Rwanda where there was a genocide
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety four, you can basically eat off the
Speaker 2: streets in that particular country because the whole country has
Speaker 2: changed its culture. You just don't lit in that country.
Speaker 2: It is to allow you with the plastic bag and
Speaker 2: the kids are taught conservation, environment, community, it all comes
Speaker 2: together and that is what we're doing. So it's a combination.
Speaker 2: There's no one recipe for everything. So what we bring
Speaker 2: is we bring in that business acumen, we bring in
Speaker 2: the entrepreneurship, we bring in the real hope with jobs,
Speaker 2: We bring in the education and the kids have to do,
Speaker 2: they have to work, they go through we have to
Speaker 2: go through a bit of a tough course in order
Speaker 2: to come out the other side. And let me tell
Speaker 2: you that, please God, you know, well, you could attend
Speaker 2: and have a look and see for yourself on that
Speaker 2: you invite it as my DRT guest as a matter
Speaker 2: of fact, and come and see for yourself what youngsters
Speaker 2: that might have gone in a completely different direction, what
Speaker 2: they has become. And I think that gives me a
Speaker 2: lot of hope that if we continue with this throughout
Speaker 2: the country and put the wildlife aspect in the late
Speaker 2: the environment, don't let it guys. You know, it makes
Speaker 2: a hell of a big difference. And this starts changing
Speaker 2: their way of thinking. So I want to end up
Speaker 2: in this sentence by saying we want to change the
Speaker 2: world view of the youngsters. We want them to start
Speaker 2: changing their minds and knowing that there's a big world
Speaker 2: out there. Besides looking at the wrong people in your township. Hey,
Speaker 2: there's huge opportunity in the world for you if you
Speaker 2: do things the correct way, say your drugs, stay away
Speaker 2: from crime, etc.
Speaker 1: There might be young people out there. Raymond In fact,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're young people out there who would like
Speaker 1: to get involved with Guardian Angel's Wildlife. So how do
Speaker 1: they get in touch with you? How do they get involved?
Speaker 2: Well, we've got our website, you know, and you know,
Speaker 2: they can reach out to us on ww We've got
Speaker 2: a coordinator for example in in alex Obviously it's it's
Speaker 2: quite a question, you know, it depends on what they
Speaker 2: want to do. So I think, yeah, they can just
Speaker 2: look at look up for it, look at look just
Speaker 2: look us up on the internet. They'll find all our
Speaker 2: details there. And I think what's important is is that
Speaker 2: I think, you know, we can only do so much.
Speaker 2: So for the youngsters, I think as we moved through
Speaker 2: these training courses and the exposure they get five the
Speaker 2: events that we have, that's where the opportunities present themselves
Speaker 2: for the youngsters, for example, the Scouts, they start off there.
Speaker 2: So that is what I'm going to suggest, because you know,
Speaker 2: within the organization obviously we're doing these type of things
Speaker 2: and we will meet the youngsters along the way.
Speaker 1: So just to make sure I have you right, So, Raymond,
Speaker 1: you're saying this event is by invitation?
Speaker 2: Is it? This is by invitation? Only because we limited
Speaker 2: to a certain number of people that we're hosting on
Speaker 2: the day.
Speaker 1: So what do I have to do if I'd like
Speaker 1: an invite?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, meal ready, so we're going to fetch
Speaker 2: you in.
Speaker 1: Yes, But for the people, yeah, the people of alex
Speaker 1: people that are listening that would really like to attend,
Speaker 1: how do they go about it?
Speaker 2: The you know, what we did was we focused on
Speaker 2: the students. So what the students had to do at
Speaker 2: the schools or sign an indemnity form it's there under
Speaker 2: the age of eighteen, and we focused on x amount
Speaker 2: of students because we catering for them, and also due
Speaker 2: to the limited space in the on the Altri sports field,
Speaker 2: you know, so we couldn't have tens of thousands of people.
Speaker 2: It could be chaos. So we're limiting it to around
Speaker 2: about one and a half thousand people and most of
Speaker 2: them will be students and the participants on that particular day.
Speaker 2: But obviously, you know, so sadly we couldn't. We can't
Speaker 2: accommodate everybody. It's not possible, sadly, but we will be
Speaker 2: doing more events in the future where the community, you know,
Speaker 2: can get involved in a larger scale. On a larger scale.
Speaker 1: All right, Raymond Kramer, thank you so much for coming
Speaker 1: onto the show and sharing, you know with our community
Speaker 1: about the work that you do. I think you're doing
Speaker 1: amazing work, and I think that the people of and
Speaker 1: the other communities that you work in really appreciate your contributions.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for spending your time with us this evening.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Commoso. And if I can also just say
Speaker 2: thank you very much to Toboco Moroke, he's a local
Speaker 2: man in alex for dominating us. He's been fantastic. And
Speaker 2: we have a wonderful team working with us and wonderful
Speaker 2: people in that part of the world that we're making
Speaker 2: very good friends with it. And thank you very much
Speaker 2: for being on the show. This is way past my bedtime.
Speaker 2: You get going. I hope I did.
Speaker 1: Okay, you did amazing and we wish you a good
Speaker 1: night's rest.
Speaker 2: Raymond, Yes, thank you, Thank you so much. Cheers, have
Speaker 2: a wonderful weekend. Thank you father.
Speaker 1: That's Raymond Kramer, founder of Guardian Angels, Wildlife and Marine Trust.
Speaker 1: That's our South African doing great things.