Wild Nights Out

Remember the first time you did an overnight hike and slept under the stars? Remember when you first felt that shift — when being active in nature became more than just exercise, and you realised how wild places can change you?

Wild Nights Out is an initiative that gives recent matric graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds access to their first deep wilderness experience. The programme runs annually in the Cederberg and it needs both financial support and hands-on support.

You can donate via GivenGain: https://www.givengain.com/cc/wildnightsout/
If you know of a corporate CSI contact who may want to back a proven youth development programme, please reach out. Details below.

More information

Wild Nights Out is a project supported by the Masiyembo Association (NPO). Every year, it provides 16 scholarships for matric school leavers — mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds — to spend several days hiking and sleeping out in the Cederberg mountains. For many of them, it’s the first time they’ve ever left the city lights behind.

The wilderness journey is deliberately timed to sit between “school” and “the rest of your life.” The hike becomes a rite of passage: walking into the mountains as a metaphor for walking into adulthood.

But it’s not just a once-off trip. After the ‘Wilderness Passage’, participants enter the ‘Self-Leadership Year’. During this year they’re supported in their transition into adulthood through in-person and online mentoring, internship opportunities, and life-skills training.

Wild Nights Out partners with other organisations working in nature-based youth development to build that long-term support structure. The goal is not a camp. The goal is a doorway.

To make this possible, Wild Nights Out raises the funds for all 16 scholarships every year.

If you’re willing to make a small donation (or if your company has a CSI budget and wants to fund part of the programme), please consider supporting them. You can donate directly via GivenGain: https://www.givengain.com/cc/wildnightsout/

If you’re keen to get involved as a mentor, have access to internship opportunities, or want to help in other creative ways, please get in touch with Jess Tyrrell:
info@wildnightsout.co.za
http://www.wildnightsout.co.za