By Sarah Venter

Saving the Big Tree from graffiti monsters

The Madifha (Sagole) Big Tree is the biggest known baobab tree in the world with a girth of 34 meters.  The tree is managed by the Madifha-Zwigodini community who allow visitors to the tree every day for a small entry fee. Unfortunately, there are some insensitive visitors, that when no one is looking, spray their names on the magnificent bows [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

Teaching kids about baobabs

Tshokotshoko Primary School A talk on the ecology of baobabs was given at Tshokotshoko Primary School which was attended by the Grade 6 and Grade 7 pupils.  Each pupil was given the Tshivenda version of  “Little Big Baobab Book”. Tshokotshoko Primary School is a small school, situated in a very remote part of Niyani (northern Limpopo) and is surrounded by [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

Baobab Books to 1000 Primary School Learners

On completing my PhD on the ecology of baobabs in northern Venda I decided to write an easy-to-read booklet on baobabs.  The purpose of this booklet was to share the importance knowledge of baobabs I had gained with South Africans and in particular the people who live in the area I did my research.  In 2016 I completed the booklet [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

Lets learn about baobabs

Surrounded by majestic baobabs, Domboni Primary School is situated on the edge the remote village of Domboni in northern Venda.    I arrived at the school in the middle of one of their English lessons.  It must have been a relief to the children, when I switched to TshiVenda, their home language,  to talk about environmental conservation and baobabs.  I’m sure [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

I live under a baobab, don’t know much about it, but now I do!

Nearly every child in Africa knows what a baobab tree is.  Nearly child in Africa eats baobab powder.  But beyond knowing what the tree looks like and that it has a nutritious fruit, very little is generally known about their ecology.   The Little Big Baobab Book (free pdf download available here) addresses FAQ’s of baobabs.  Translated into TshiVenda and easy [...] Continue Reading
By Elthea Schlesinger

A culture of caring, fun and rewarding!

Our local newspaper, Zoutpansberger, recently partnered with the Baobab Foundation, to launch a school project to boost the region’s wild baobab population.Coined the Baobab Champion competition, more than 230 baobab starter-kits with 15 seeds each inside, were distributed to participating pupils of 4 local schools. That amounts to 3450 potential new Baobab trees for South Africa! Youth excited to create […] Continue Reading