GREATER   Zandvlei   Estuary   Nature   Reserve

 The Environmental Education Centre (EEC) – 2009

7. 5th November  –  Painting the centre all hands on deck. Everyone bailed in to helped give the EEC a new coat of paint.

Mark and Romeo busy at it.                                     The multi skilled Eddie showing how it is done.

6. September  – Corinna Keup  a volunteer student from Germany arrives for to help Mark in the EECentre. She wants to teach environmental subjects so she is in the right place to do so. She is part of the family for 9 months.

Corinna demonstrating an olive house snake to
the Rustenberg Girls Primary class. 

5. 24th July  – Simon a volunteer student from Wales building a large interactive snakes and ladders game board for the children at the EEC. They will be able to walk on it and move the discs around on the board. 
Well done Simon and thank you.

The card Simon is using to make the game board.    Busy laying out the text which is next to be painted in.

A nice sunny day allowed him to work outside.  His comment was "middle of winter this is a better day than a Wesh summers day". This project is inbetween his teaching art at a school in Grassy Park during the week.

4. 28th April  – GIS Trail for Group C started in the Nature Reserve and went to the mouth of the estuary. This was part of the Source to Sea trail co-ordinated by Alice Ashwell.

Romeo escourting this crew.

3. April  – Mark reports " The EEC has received 1471 children / learners for the quarter January to March from 15 different schools from around Cape Town area".

2. March  – The EEC now has air conditioning. On 11/03/2009 the air conditioning is operating. Next week is Water Week and many children are arriving.

The air con outlets in the EEC. This is progress, it was wonderfully cool inside on a hot afternoon.

1. February – The World Wetlands Week celebrated at Zandvlei, Monday 2nd to Friday 6th February.

Marisa de Kock with the girls from Prestwich               Mark Arendse with the girls from Chapel Street 
Primary School from Greenpoint.                                Primary from Cape Town.

A total of 432 pupils from 5 Cape Town schools came to the Reserve, one school per day. 

• Chappel Street Primary,

• Prestwich Primary,

• Rahmania Primary,

• Holy Cross Primary and,

• St Pauls Primary.

They did not come on the "Thembu" the Edutrain this year, as it is undergoing a 6 month rebuild in Durban. It should be back in service in May 2009. Regular suburban Metrorail trains were used, which logistically is not as easy as travelling on the Edutrain.

The City of Cape Town part sponsors the train expenses of getting the children to the Reserve and back home again. The weeks activity is planned months in advance, the schools are selected, and the pupils  have to be booked on the trains, with security personnel to travel with them.

Zandvlei Trust members assisted the staff each day as part of the celebration of  World Wetlands Week. The children spend about 3 hours in the Reserve learning about more than just wetlands.

See what happened on the days they visited the Reserve.

See what happened at the Centre in 2008.

See what happened at the Centre in 2007.

See what happened at the Centre in 2006.