The wildlife activist will spend 32 days on a scaffold at Montecasino’s Bird Gardens in order to raise funds for rhinos.
Stories like this truly warms my heart. Anton Fouche is a lover of wildlife and, much like all of us, it worried about the effects rhino poaching has on the rhino community and their possible extinction. In order to raise awareness and funds, Anton has already pulled ‘George the Rhino’ over 2000 km across South Africa in the past 2 years for his original campaign: “Walking for Rhinos and Rangers”. In his quest to make as much noise about the campaign as possible, Anton started the George2Vietnam campaign which consists of three phases to send Anton and ‘George the Rhino’ to Vietnam on a powerful visual Wildlife Demand Reduction Campaign.
After pulling ‘George the Rhino’ around the country, Anton has started the second phase of the campaign. With the aim of raising R1 Million in 32 days, Anton made his way up the scaffold tower located at the Montecasino Bird Gardens on the 22nd of March 2016.
“SA Scaffolding sponsored the tower and Tentco sponsored the tent where I’ll live for a 32 days”, says Fouche. “I will come down on the 22 April 2016 or after I will raise R1 000 000, whichever comes first”. ‘George the Rhino’ will be situated at the base of the scaffold tower for visitors to ‘meet’ and take photographs with George.
’George the Rhino’ is a life-sized fiberglass replica of a white rhino and is set on a wheeled trolley. George has 1213 red dots painted on him which represent the number of Rhino’s that were officially poached in 2014. Stopping at schools and public events, his awareness campaign was simply to visually demonstrate how many Rhinos are being poached.
Once Anton raises the R1 million, Anton will travel to each of the nine provinces in two months to will visit schools, malls and public events allowing South Africans in general to meet and take ownership of this campaign and add weight to his statement that ‘South Africans are sending George 2 Vietnam’.
“We are very excited to be welcoming Anton Fouche and ‘George the Rhino’ to Montecasino Bird Gardens,” Glenn Joseph, General Manager at Montecasino said. When it first opened in 2001, the bird park included an educational and rehabilitation centre and was primarily a “family-focused” entertainment offering. With the establishment of its own breeding facility In May 2010, it reached a new level of significance to conservation in South Africa and today is an important contributor to a number of preservation initiatives, including the Southern Ground Hornbill Project. We hope to inspire and encourage other businesses across all industries to do their part in contributing towards a more sustainable future whether implementing their own greening initiatives or supporting campaigns of this nature.”
Naturally, the public are invited to visit Anton and George at the Bird Gardens and take photos.
If you wish to donate and support Geroge2Vietnam, please EFT to:
The DOT Foundation NPC
Bank name: Standard Bank
Account number: 070117802
Brunch name: Thibault Square
Brunch code: 051001
Reference: George the Rhino
Visit the website: www.George2Vietnam.co.za or www.facebook.com/George2Vietnam for more details.
