ASKY marks May Day with a special African-themed gala dinner in Lomé
By Emily Kudze and Dr Carina Becker-du Toit
May 1st is a traditional holiday that is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is often associated with Labour Day and the struggle for workers’ rights.
May Day is also marked by parades and demonstrations organised by trade unions and employee representatives to demand workers’ rights. It is an occasion for workers to put forward their demands and to make their voices heard. This year, Lomé-based ASKY Airlines decided to celebrate it with great pomp.
As a prelude to this celebration, on Saturday, April 29, 2023, ASKY organised several activities including a 5km sports walk in the morning in collaboration with the Sports Association for Health and Education of the Mass (ASSEM).
In the afternoon, a football match between ASKY staff working at the company’s ‘headquarters and ASKY staff working at the Gnassingbé Eyadema International Airport, Lomé, took place.
On Sunday April 30, 2023, under the leadership of the General Manager, Mr. Esayas Woldemariam and the Commercial and Ground Operations Manager, Mr. Nowel NGALA, as well as all the Country Representatives, a working session was held with the aim of taking stock of the 2022 performances and defining the institutional and commercial strategy for 2023.
Later in the evening, a special gala dinner was held for all the staff of ASKY under the theme: “PanAfricanism”. All attendees were required to wear the traditional dress of their country of origin. More than 32 nationalities mainly from West and Central Africa, who are at the heart of Asky’s African success story, attended the event.
During the Country Representative Convention, some representatives were awarded for their performance for the year under review.
Awards:
Best Public Relations 2022 ALEMA Siyo
Best Customer Service & Service Collection 2022 - AHO Stella (Senegal)
Best Digital Services Promotion 2023 - KABONGO Jonathan (DRC)
Best Charter Seller 2022 AFADZINU Worlanyo (Ghana)
Best FFP Registration 2022 GOUNOU Béni (Burkina-Faso)
Best On Time Performance 2022 - ACCRA - (GHANA)
Best On Time Performance 2022 - FREETOWN - (SIERRA LEONE)
Best Non-Productive Reservation Removal 2022 - BENSON Henry (Liberia)
The fight against the illegal trade of succulents has been ongoing and has intensified since 2019, when it was noticed that there had been an increase in demand in the ornamental trade of succulents. The Succulent Karoo biome shared between South Africa and Namibia is one of the five semi-arid biodiversity hotspots in the world. There has been a recent update to the IUCN Red List assessments that revealed an unprecedented decline in a number of succulent species and with most succulents having small global ranges, the possibility of losing an entire species is great. Over the past three years, law enforcement agencies have made numerous confiscations from plant traffickers. This increase in succulent poaching triggered the
Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), with the support of SANBI and Worldwide Fund for Nature – South Africa (WWF-SA) to draft and develop a national strategic plan to tackle this issue. In February 2022, a National Response Strategic and Action Plan (NRSAP) was finalised from a collaborative effort between government departments, conservation authorities, NGOs, and local communities, to ensure the survival of succulents in southern Africa.
To ensure that targets from the NRSAP are met and milestones achieved, WWF and SANBI in their collaborative agreement hired a coordinating team (Senior Scientific Coordinator and Scientific Coordinator) to work on the administrative and field work aspects of the project respectively. This team is mentored and lead by Domitilla Raimondo (SANBI), Katherine Forsythe (WWF) and Jan Coetzee (WWF). The latest additions to the team include Dr Carina Becker-du Toit in the position of Scientific Coordinator and Emily Kudze as the Senior Scientific Coordinator. These two will be joining the rest of the WWF-SA and SANBI’s Threatened Species team, to address the succulent poaching crisis in South Africa.
Dr Becker-du Toit has always had a passion for arid environments, its plant life and people. She grew up in Namibia and completed a diploma in Nature Conservation. In 2010, she relocated to George to complete her B.Tech. and M.Sc.; the latter looked at restoration of Albany Thicket. Her Ph.D. assessed restoration of old farmlands in Namaqualand, and she spent three years doing fieldwork there. Dr Beckerdu Toit has worked as a field guide in Namaqualand and the Swartland, provided ecological consulting services and has for the last three years been working as the conservation manager for the Rooiberg Breederiver Conservancy, near Robertson. She worked with landowners on improving biodiversity management, running a nursery for restoration work and supporting Cape Nature with stewardship work. She joined the team on 1 February 2023 stationed at the Karoo National Botanical Gardens, to take up her role as the scientific coordinator on the illegal plant poaching response. She will be working closely with Emily Kudze to implement the national response strategy. Dr Beckerdu Toit’s focus areas will be assisting law enforcement with criminal cases, monitoring the plant populations in the wild and working with the landowners/ communities, as well managing the confiscated plant stock that is in the botanical gardens. She is looking forward to meeting the team, getting stuck into work and expressed gratitude to the WWF for funding this position.
Ms Emily Norma Kudze will be handling most of the administrative and reporting that needs to be done in accordance with the NRSAP. She will be dealing with the different stakeholders and reporting back to DFFE, SANBI and WWF on progress made. Emily, who was born in Ghana and raised in South Africa, completed her B.Sc. in Conservation Biology from the University of Venda, a B.Sc. Hons in Wildlife Management (topic: Stable isotope analysis on gerbils in the Free State) and has an M.Sc. degree in Wildlife Management, awarded for a project that investigated the distribution of bats in Ghana, from the University of Pretoria. She spent a couple of months in the succulent Karoo, Goegap Nature Reserve, assisting in the Bush Karoo Rat Project, to understand how the bush karoo rat adapted to the extreme weather in the succulent Karoo. During her time in the Succulent Karoo, she was exposed to the Goegap Nature Reserve’s struggles with poaching.
Emily has had opportunities to work on different projects such as the Sustainable Wildlife Economies Project (SWEP) with Matthew Child (SANBI). Recently Emily Kudze assisted in finalising the African Biodiversity Challenge 2 Project funded by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation that saw her managing and organising two workshops, in Ghana and Rwanda respectively, and assisted in the publication of Rwanda’s first Spatial Biodiversity Assessment. She has a passion for wildlife conservation, biodiversity and sustainable development. Emily is looking forward to applying her extensive knowledge of conservation practices to protect both fauna and flora, mainstreaming biodiversity information products’ inclusion in policy and contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals. Emily is grateful for the role she will play in tackling the illegal succulent trade and ready to help the team address any challenges. Both candidates are eager to embark on this journey and are grateful for SANBI and WWF for appointing them in these roles and especially to WWF for the funding. Hopefully with extra capable hands we can win the Dr Carina Becker-du Toit fight against the poaching of our precious succulents.