For immediate release
Cotlands partners with the Johannesburg Zoo to keep Mandela’s legacy alive.
JOHANNESBURG – July 19, 2019
Cotlands, in collaboration with the Johannesburg Zoo, celebrated Mandela Day with 128 children from five of our early learning playgroup sites in Gauteng; an informal settlement in Cleveland, Johannesburg’s inner city, Turffontein and two sites in Soweto. For most of the children, this was their first-time experience at the zoo and it brought a lot of smiles to the children’s faces.
The Johannesburg Zoo opened the event with a warm welcome which was followed by Cotlands’ children singing the national anthem. Our children were then treated to a Mandela themed puppet show; performed by the well-loved characters from Takalani Sesame; puppets Zuzu and Kami. The children also engaged in creative art activities, imprinting their hand prints in primary colours on to the South African flag in honour of Madiba.
The Johannesburg Zoo arranged a driving tour around the zoo where children were excited to see their favourite animals. Cotlands would like to extend a special vote of thanks to all our partners who were responsible for the following:
• Johannesburg Zoo sponsored the zoo tickets, buses and zoo tours,
• Takalani Sesame provided the children’s entertainment and the audio-visual equipment ,
• St John’s ambulance were on-site for any on-site medical support,
• Johannesburg Emergency Services for checking in on our event on the day to ensure the children’s safety and
• Edcon for sponsoring the children’s refreshments and snacks.
Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo’s acting Managing Director, Mrs Lindokuhle Ngcongo commended Cotlands for caring for the most needy children in the City and reinforced that every child has a right to hear and see animals to grow their eco-consciousness, here at the Joburg Zoo.
END
Contact:
Media contacts:
Natalie Frank
Cotlands
Jenny Moodley
Johannesburg
About Cotlands
Cotlands is a registered non-profit early childhood development organization with a rich heritage of over 80 years of experience in serving young, vulnerable children. Cotlands vision is to see children thrive in their pre-school years by increasing their access to play-based early learning opportunities. Cotlands provides scalable and cost-effective toy libraries and early learning playgroups targeted at children from birth to six years. The organization also focuses on enabling parents and educating early learning facilitators on play based learning and best practice principles. Cotlands has presence in six provinces across South Africa (Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and North West). For more information, visit our website: www.cotlands.org<http://www.cotlands.org>
About Johannesburg Zoo:
The Joburg Zoo is one of the most popular local and tourist attractions situated in the leafy northern suburb of Johannesburg. The Zoo covers 54.7 (55) hectares of land and was founded in 1904, as a piece of land donated to the public for recreational use by the firm of the late Hermann Ekstein. The Zoo is managed within the Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo entity and is part of the Community Development structure of the City of Johannesburg. The Joburg Zoo is committed to playing an important role of conservation projects for indigenous and worldwide endangered animals.
As a popular tourist attraction for edutainment, the zoo offers visitors day and night tours, school holiday programmes, venue hire and regular events for the public. The Johannesburg Zoo is a Not for Profit company and in order to maintain and improve every day running services at the zoo we appreciate private and corporate sponsorship and donations. Programmes that assist in our ongoing fundraising efforts include the annual membership and Adopt an Animal initiative.
Leave a Reply