
Dear Friends of Golden Sunbeams
Friday the 13th – some believe this is a day of misfortune! For almost 70 little boys and girls from the Sikuthale Pre-Primary School, Friday May 13th, 2022 was one of the best days since the beginning of the Covid pandemic because they finally came on a trip with us and their kindergarten teachers! We went to Monkey Town, a wildlife enclosure where many different species of monkeys and other animals live.


There are more than 700 animals here, including 250 primates, 26 other exotic species of monkeys, little Sharpe’s Grysbock, parrots, emus and many other animals. And of course not to forget the three famous Chimpanzee sisters Sunny, Tammy and Ruby, who are now over 20 years old.






A bus fetched the children from the township of Asanda Village and drove them to Somerset West.

Our excursion started an hour late, so we had to fill in the time on the opposite adventure playground. But, in this case, there was no such thing as “had to”, because the children climbed and slid happily and marvelled in disbelief at the first little monkeys that were running around freely here.





Muriel, the principal brought her two-year-old granddaughter, who anxiously crawled after the older children and apparently went down a slide for the first time.


When the excursion finally started, everyone was very excited and a little scared, because the monkeys were over our heads, to the left and right of us, and were coming close to us.

Only taut nets separate the guests from the monkeys, who can move about freely in their large enclosure. The enclosure or cage aisle gives visitors a direct view of the monkeys and the many other animals without encroaching on their habitat.







Our tour guide made an exciting and instructive tour, explained the animals and their different living habits very clearly and always asked the children to think and participate.

After the guided tour, the boys and girls fortified themselves with sandwiches, fruit and juice and then we went back to the Sikuthale Pre-Primary School, one of our largest kindergartens, which we have been successively renovating and expanding since 2012. Sikuthale has official approval and will be financially supported by the government.

We learned on Friday May 13th that many children from the townships in the Cape region are just as excited, incredulous and respectful towards the animals as the children in Germany. Many of the children saw monkeys in nature for the first time on our excursion.

Many thanks to our friends, donors and sponsors who make trips like this possible with their financial support! This was the first excursion since the pandemic began and we hope many more will follow.
Greetings from South Africa,
Britta & Bernd