An Action Year for a Kinder World!
Warm greetings to educators everywhere…
Nature-based Education is delighted to offer you an inspiring line-up of classroom activities to bring compassion, curiosity, and care for all living beings into your learners’ understanding of the world, throughout the year.
To launch this journey, we invite you, for a start, to enjoy the Five Freedoms for Animals Puppet Play. Watch below as it is performed by the learners of Forest Heights Primary School near Cape Town.
This joyful production introduces vital animal-welfare principles in a way that is engaging, age-appropriate for 10 to 12-year-olds, and deeply memorable for children.
You are warmly encouraged to download the script for the play here, so that your own learners can experience the fun of performing it themselves.
Many more fun activities will follow, so please keep an eye out. Together, these small lessons in kindness help build a more compassionate world.
2026
FIXING VIOLENCE IN OUR SOCIETY
by Louise van der Merwe
Editor | Animal Voice
Managing Trustee | The Humane Education Trust
Director | Nature-Based Education, Cape Town
Mobile | 082 457 9177
Email | education@naturebased.online | avoice@yebo.co.za
Website | www.animalvoice.org | www.naturebased.education
The grim reality that millions of South Africa’s children are exposed to violence every single day is deeply disheartening especially when we are now fully aware that witnessing violence harms the brain development of children.
The 2025 Child Gauge for South Africa, published by the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town in cooperation with UNICEF, rightly calls for an integrated approach to breaking cycles of violence. Integration is indeed the key. Yet at no point does the Gauge explicitly include the treatment of animals within communities, as part of that integrated strategy. Nor does it explicitly recognise that animal neglect and abuse is an early warning indicator of behaviour that will likely evolve, in adulthood, into domestic and child abuse.
The United Nations has acknowledged what psychological research consistently confirms: exposure to neglect or abuse of animals – the most vulnerable in our society – can erode the innate empathy with which children are born. When a child witnesses an animal being harmed, a process of desensitisation begins. Desensitisation leads to normalisation and ultimately to participation.
When introducing General Comment 26 to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 18th in February 2023, UNCRC Vice-Chair Dr Rinchen Chophel underscored a critical truth: psychological studies demonstrate that witnessing or participating in violence – including violence towards animals – profoundly harms children’s moral and psychological development, conditioning long-term behavioural patterns. See HERE.
If we are serious about fixing violence in our society, we cannot afford to ignore The Link. See HERE.
An integrated approach must mean exactly that: integrating all the environments in which children live, learn, and absorb behavioural norms – including how adults treat the animals in our care.
To exclude animals from the violence conversation is an oversight.
In Celebration of International Day of Education - 24 January 2026
Here, Zimbabwe learners build empathy and kindness for each other, and animals too, through presenting the Five Freedoms Puppet Play. The Humane Education Trust thanks Susan Chenaux-Repond of the CARE organisation for making it happen!
Says Susan: “I have derived much inspiration from your Nature-Based Education online platform. We are a small team providing free veterinary treatment for the animals of the rural folk. The children in this photos are from Victoria Falls Primary School. They come to learn about our work as part of their career guidance programme. After listening to the talk by Dr Isaac Moyo, they will get ready to perform the Puppet Play."
To support CARE or to contact Susan Chenaux-Repond, please go to:
+263 (0) 77 889 3370 (WhatsApp)
Puppets ready for action!
Dr Isaac Moyo talks to the learners about being a vet
Your school too can perform the Five Freedoms puppet play
05 February 2026
Kind Attention:
Mr Johannes Wedenig: UNICEF Representative for South Africa
Email: jwedenig@unicef.org; Pretoria@unicef.org
Dear Mr Wedenig,
I listened with great interest to the speech you delivered last month at the 2026 Basic Education Lekgotla about the need to put ‘earning’ into ‘learning’. As you so rightly say ‘Learning to Earn’ is also about empowering learners with core competencies like self-management, self-esteem, creativity and critical thinking”.
This speaks directly to General Comment 26 Para 35 and the Right of the Child not to be exposed to violence – domestic, societal or against an animal – because of the long-term psychological harm it does to the developing brain. In addition, as set out in my letter to you of 13th January 2026, exposure to any form of violence diminishes innate empathy and normalises violence in the minds of children.
I take the liberty of sending you free hard copy samples of some of our readers for primary school learners. They are all approved by the Department of Basic Education and fall into the Learning Areas of Life Skills and Life Orientation. They are specifically designed to nurture empathy and make violence – of any kind – simply not an option.
Of particular interest, perhaps, is that the reader titled Molo (meaning ‘hello’ in Xhosa) is our most popular reader in the 8 – 10 age group, and deals with the emotional violence inherent in bullying behaviour. Also of interest, perhaps, is that our Empathy Programme at Golden Grove School elevated the Life Orientation marks of the Grade 7 learners by a full 20%. (See the Principal’s confirmation of this as set out in ‘Earth Keepers’ in the parcel).
OPEN LETTER
It would be really wonderful if we could get these booklets into the hands of more children and if you are able to assist in this regard, The Humane Education Trust will be deeply indebted.
Kind Regards,
Louise van der Merwe
Editor | Animal Voice
Managing Trustee | The Humane Education Trust
Director | Nature-Based Education, Cape Town, South Africa
Mobile | 082 457 9177
Email | education@naturebased.online | avoice@yebo.co.za
Website | https://www.naturebased.education/ | https://www.animalvoice.org/
08 April 2026
Kind Attention:
Mr Brent Walters: Head of Education
C/O Personal Assistant: Noleen Nefdt
Email: Eduhead.eduhead@westerncape.gov.za
Tel: 021 467 9280
Dear Mr Walters,
I write in my capacity as Head of The Humane Education Trust (HET) to respectfully request an opportunity to present to you, at your convenience, a brief 30-minute overview on the educational significance of General Comment 26, Paragraph 35 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Through this clarification, the United Nations has taken a profound step toward recognising the importance of shielding children from exposure to violence in all its forms. It opens a vital pathway toward nurturing a more empathetic, compassionate, and socially resilient generation – and education is central to realising this vision.
For more than three decades, HET has developed and delivered educational resources designed to cultivate respect for all life, deepen learners’ understanding of violence – both physical and emotional – and foster empathy as a core life competency. In a country facing deeply entrenched societal violence, and where millions of animals live without care or protection, we believe such education is not supplementary, but essential.
The alignment between our work and the principles underpinning GC26:35 is both natural and urgent. We would value the opportunity to demonstrate how our resources can meaningfully support the Western Cape Education Department’s commitment to developing well-rounded, socially conscious learners.
OPEN LETTER
By way of background, I previously engaged with your predecessor, Mr Brian Schreuder, who facilitated an introduction to the Gauteng Department of Education’s Library Services. Since then, HET’s materials have been formally approved and repeatedly procured as Learning and Teaching Support Material (LTSM). While we are grateful for this recognition, we believe there is significant scope for broader institutional support within the Western Cape.
Our work has also received endorsement from respected leaders in the fields of child rights and education, including Professor Ann Skelton (University of Pretoria) and Dr Julie Reddy (CEO, South African Qualifications Authority; Deputy Chair, SA National Commission for UNESCO). The most recent edition of our publication, Animal Voice, reflects the growing support for this work. (see www.animalvoice.org) Notably, a recent survey among first-year Sociology students at the University of the Western Cape found that 100% of respondents expressed a wish that animal sentience had been included in their school education.
For your convenience, I have attached a sample resource aligned with GC26:35 to provide a sense of our approach and educational ethos.
Your support in this regard would carry immense value. It would be both a privilege and an honour to present to you and explore how we might contribute to strengthening education for a more compassionate and less violent society.
I thank you sincerely for your time and consideration, and I remain hopeful for the opportunity to engage.
Kind Regards,
Louise van der Merwe
Editor | Animal Voice
Managing Trustee | The Humane Education Trust
Director | Nature-Based Education, Cape Town, South Africa
Mobile | 082 457 9177
Email | education@naturebased.online | avoice@yebo.co.za
Website | https://www.naturebased.education/ | https://www.animalvoice.org/