Entrepreneur, 7, raises R100 000 for rhinos
INSTEAD of playing with colouring books and dolls, seven-year-old Alyssa Carter spent the past year raising R100 000 to aid the fight against rhino poaching.
Last week, all her hard work paid off when she handed her cheque to the South African National Parks honorary rangers in the Kruger National Park.
It all started with a lesson in school about endangered species and rhino poaching in May last year.
“I was very, very sad. I don’t want them [poachers] to cut off the horns. They are my favourite and I don’t want rhinos to be extinct when I’m older,” said Alyssa, a Grade 2 pupil at Cooper College in Johannesburg.
After school, she went to her room and cried. Then she decided that something had to be done.
She drew a picture of a rhino, called her parents, Brian and Natalie, into her room and asked whether they could put the picture on cards and sell them to raise money for the fight against rhino poaching.
The Carters decided that imbedding the image on chocolates would be more effective, so they got to work.
A year later, Alyssa, who states that she is now “seven-and-a-half years old”, has sold about 2 450 chocolates, 460 stickers, 80 chocolate lollipops, 380 suckers, 50 sweets and 1 121 packs of biscuits, raising more than R50 000 by herself. The balance came from corporate donations.
The feat earned her the title of “SANParks Rhino Champion”.
She said she wanted the money to be used to buy another sniffer dog for the rangers.
“I didn’t know how much I wanted to raise at first, but the honorary rangers told me about the sniffer dogs and how they help, and they told me the price.”
It costs about R100 000 for one fully trained sniffer dog.
According to the latest figures by the Environmental Affairs Department, 419 rhinos were poached across the country between January 1 and May 28. In 2013, 1 004 rhinos were killed in South Africa.
“When she started, we spoke to each other and thought that we would get to R5 000 or R10 000 and then stop,” said proud dad Brian.
“We had no idea of where it would go. It’s incredible that she could achieve this by herself. She has made us feel incredible. It’s amazing to be a part of this.”
Last year, Alyssa was the winner of the corporate contribution to conservation award (individual) at the SANParks Kudu Awards.
SANParks honorary rangers spokesman Trevor Kolk said the money would be used for operations, training and equipment.
Alyssa has her own profile on the SANParks volunteers website and has created the savetherhinos.com website. Despite already having raised so much money, she is determined to do more.
“I’m looking forward to my next R100 000. I’m not stopping until all the rhinos are saved,” she said.