- S
- S
- N
Hello friends and family, as my bar mitzvah day is coming soon, I wanted to let you know about my Mitzvah Project. As many of you know, cheetahs are my favorite animal. I fell in love with them when I was a little kid because they are the fastest animal and I always adored them.
Sadly, their population is rapidly declining. For my Mitzvah Project, I want to do what I can to help the cheetahs bounce back so that my kids have a chance to see cheetahs in the wild just like I did. In 2019, my family took an amazing trip to South Africa and we were able to go on a few safaris. After loving cheetahs only in books, on TV or internet videos, I finally got to see my first cheetahs in the wild! I thought, “Whoa, this is SO cool!” I was able to see cheetah cubs playing with each other too. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
Sadly, their population is rapidly declining. For my Mitzvah Project, I want to do what I can to help the cheetahs bounce back so that my kids have a chance to see cheetahs in the wild just like I did. In 2019, my family took an amazing trip to South Africa and we were able to go on a few safaris. After loving cheetahs only in books, on TV or internet videos, I finally got to see my first cheetahs in the wild! I thought, “Whoa, this is SO cool!” I was able to see cheetah cubs playing with each other too. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
We also went to a cheetah conservation center called Cheetah Outreach. While we were there, I learned all about the problems that cheetahs are currently facing and about a program that is directly helping to save these wonderful endangered cats. Cheetah Outreach has developed a creative program to help protect farmer’s livestock from cheetahs in order to reduce conflict between the farmers and cheetahs. This is one of the major risks that cheetahs are facing today. Farmers end up shooting predatory animals like cheetahs in order to protect their livestock. Cheetah Outreach helps solve this problem by giving a large guard dog to the farmer for free. These amazing dogs, Anatolian shepherds, were originally bred to protect livestock from bears and wolves. The puppies are given to farmers at 6 to 8 weeks of age and are raised exclusively with the flock or herd, instinctively protecting them from a variety of predators, including cheetahs. By deterring predators, this makes sure that farmers don’t need to kill this fantastic, endangered cat. In similar programs, this guard dog practice has reduced livestock losses from between 95 to 100%. It really works!
100% of the money that I am raising will be donated directly to Cheetah Outreach’s Livestock Guarding Dog Program. This money will help to get more dogs to give to the farmers, thus saving more cheetahs. Cheetah Outreach provides the dogs for free to the farmers and pays for all dog food and medical expenses for the first year. Today I reach out to you to ask for support in raising money and awareness for this program. No amount of money is too small. Whatever amount you feel comfortable giving is the right amount. In addition to your generous donations, I am also donating a significant amount to this project that is so important to me. Thank you so much for helping me with my Mitzvah Project!
- Simon Gunzberg
P.S. All of these photos and the video below were taken by me and my dad during our trip to South Africa.
- Simon Gunzberg
P.S. All of these photos and the video below were taken by me and my dad during our trip to South Africa.