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11 July 2007

SANParks and Reach for a Dream Join Hands

The Reach-For-A-Dream Foundation, an organisation that has brought hope and healing to countless young South Africans, believes strongly in the power of dreams. It encourages children to use their dreams to fight life-threatening illnesses.

The dreams Reach-For-A-Dream receives are diverse and in every child there is a powerful dreamer. Three such powerful dreamers with life-threatening illnesses are Brendan Bilbrough [9], Bongani Banda [15] and Calvyn Morse [18], whose wishes to become involved in nature, were recently realised with the assistance of SANParks Veterinary Wildlife Services, when they were able to participate in wildlife captures.

Such opportunities would of course not be possible without the help of a number of individuals and institutions. A special thanks to Philips Medical Systems, without whose sponsorship such trips would not have been possible. Also the professional way in which the game capture team of SANParks handled the captures as well as Chris Jacobs of the Honorary Rangers (Pretoria Region), who successfully orchestrated the logistics of the whole experience.

Brendan [9] and his family were given the opportunity to visit Marakele National Park, whilst Bongani [15] and his family and later Calvyn and his family were taken to the Kruger National Park. For all the children it was an amazing and enriching experience –SANParks staff willingly imparted knowledge about the fauna and flora and no question was too difficult to answer.

Due to the success of the above and past experiences, it has been decided to make this an ongoing process, to so enable other dreamers to fulfil their dreams. The beauty of the whole venture is that anybody can become involved – no contribution is too small or too insignificant.