Traveller Love: Yenza the Rhino

The story starts when the eTekweni Durban bought a Rhino - a moulded one and commissioned a group a community groups/artists and craftspeople to decorate said Rhino. The name of the Rhino - is Yenza (she is a girl) which means "just do it" in Zulu - slightly similar to the Nike slogan! The Rhinos are based on a similar concept of the Cow parade, where life size cows were given to artists who decorated them and then they were paraded round the city. The cows travelled nationally in herds to graze in shopping malls and art galleries. The Cows made people smile and the kids loved them. It was also great to see how all the different artists interpreted the decoration of their cow. It also made art accessible to the public.

The Rhino's are slightly more serious in nature as we have a huge Rhino poaching problem - huge is most probably an understatement. I found this graph on the Stop Rhino poaching site which is horrific. So Yenza the Rhino is really about educating and bringing awareness to the general public. The arrest statistics for poachers are very impressive, but it seems that the extent of poaching is almost uncontrollable in South Africa. Yenza the rhino when faced with the horrifying facts seems frivilous, but she will be a great ambassador for Rhinos and will keep the Rhino plight in the forefront of everyones mind- unless they are blind. Yenza has had a lot of BLING applied onto her body and is not easy to miss.

So it was a real challenge for Robin Opperman the co - ordinator of all the craft groups to get everyone working together on one project and to keep the serious nature of the project at its heart. Unbelievable that the meeting of all the artists/crafters went very well, we all got a piece of Yenza and went about "just doing it" without fuss or bother. Wendy Chatterton (Ukhamba), Magda van der Vloed, Woza Moya, Refugee Social Services, Ubunye Co-Op and HIV911, Sydenham Community Centre and Umcebo Design all contributing to the whole.

Yenza is nearly completed , Woza Moya's Tholakele and Ukuleleko are finalising the Woza Moya part of the Yenza. She is a true beauty, and we thank the eTekweni and Kathryn Kure of the community foundation for spearheading and driving the project. Will keep you poste re Yenza Travells -