Kayleigh Boardman, who is well known to many of our members as a dancer with the Jenkins School of Highland Dancing, came along to give a talk on her month-long volunteer placement with the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust in Malawi.
The talk took place at the Odenwald Association’s meeting on March 14, 2017.
Malawi is a very friendly place to visit, in fact it is known as ’the warm heart of Africa’ , but it is an extremely poor country, which leads to many instances of wildlife crime such as poaching and selling baby animals as pets.
The Lilongwe Wildlife Trust is an animal welfare and conservation charity which also carries out research, and an education programme aimed at preventing crime in the future. Kayleigh is a qualified Veterinary Nurse but she also found her Highland Dancing skills in demand, teaching steps to some of the other volunteers and being filmed as part of an advertisement video. The Trust relies heavily on volunteers and Kayleigh is now one of seven ‘companions’ who give talks to other potential helpers. Her enthusiasm must bring in quite a few new volunteers. Her own experience was a mix of hard work in sweltering heat, sometimes primitive living conditions, interspersed with once-in-a-lifetime moments as she worked at the centre and travelled round Malawi on her days off with the other volunteers who have become good friends.
If anyone wishes to find out more about the the Trust, they can access their website
Chairman Andy Christie gave a vote of thanks to Kayleigh for the interesting and well illustrated talk. which was enhanced by personal anecdotes
Falkirk Twinning 