Zooming in on founder and owner of NGO, Blue Sky Society Trust, Carla Geyser

Born to be wild!

Durban North resident, Carla Geyser speaks out about protecting Africa's endangered animals

By Janine Moodley 

A woman who is extremely passionate about African wildlife and animals under threat, I decided to speak to Carla Geyser about the work that she is involved in, as well as the plight of some of Africa's most endangered species.

Geyser is the founder and owner of NGO, Blue Sky Society Trust which started a campaign called One In A Million. The campaign aims to increase the well being of wildlife in Africa. This includes animals like the rhino, elephant, lion, wild dog, cheetah and pangolin which are getting savagely poached. "We are sitting at about 826 rhinos this year. We are losing on average four per day, and about one elephant every 15 minutes due to ivory poaching in Africa. It’s devastating," she exclaimed.

The passion driven enthusiast said she first fell in love with Africa's nature and wildlife after she spent a few years living in the bush. " I have always wanted to be part of something, I remember at school I used to dream about joining Green Peace. But I think about two years ago my passion and dream was re-confirmed when I did the Put Foot Rally, which is a social rally which takes you out into Africa," she added.

Geyser says she struggles to get people to donate to the cause as well as getting the message out to the masses and urges people to get involved. "If you are passionate about doing something, don’t ever let anyone or anything stop you. If you can help financially then do, if you can’t then don’t worry,  you can also get involved by spreading the word about the campaign. Everyone thinks it’s so difficult to make a difference, but it’s not really. It all starts at home with your friends; there are so many things you can do to make a difference. You just need to be willing to get involved and not be one of those people that always sits on the fence and complains about everything. One of my most favourite quotes is, 'Let us be the generation that tells our grandchildren that we did something to make a difference',” she said.