Latest news with #Terblanche
The Citizen
21-05-2025
- General
- The Citizen
Rhino whisperer fights poaching with drone campaign
Justin Terblanche lives among rhinos and is raising funds for a thermal drone to protect them from poachers. Justin Terblanche, the guardian of the crash of rhinos. Picture: Justin Terblanche In the quiet rural stretch between Patensie and Humansdorp, where citrus orchards roll into game reserves, lives a young conservationist whose life has been shaped by the heartbeat of the wild. Justin Terblanche, 27, affectionately known as the 'rhino whisperer,' has launched a crowdfunding campaign on BackaBuddy to raise R176 000 for a thermal drone that could be a crucial tool in the fight against rhino poaching. His campaign, titled 'Eyes in the Sky for Our Last Rhinos,' has already raised over R47 000 through the support of 37 donors – but there's still a long way to go, and the urgency couldn't be greater. 'Rhino whisperer' Terblanche's love for animals started long before he ever saw a rhino. Growing up in Patensie, he was the child who stopped to help injured birds or nursed stray animals back to health. That instinct only deepened with age. 'My early fascination with the natural world led me to a career in anti-poaching, where meeting my first rhino solidified my dedication to their survival. 'Now, as the co-founder of Rhino Whisperers NPC, I fight to ensure these majestic creatures can thrive in safety,' Terblanche said. ALSO READ: 70 South African white rhinos to be relocated to Rwanda 'Our mission is to save the lives of these critically endangered creatures before they vanish forever. This isn't just about saving a species – it's about preserving a legacy. Rhinos play a vital role in their ecosystem and their extinction would leave a gaping hole in the wild, one that can never be filled. If we don't act now, future generations will never know the majesty of rhinos roaming free.' When Terblanche joined the anti-poaching unit at Lombardini Game Farm in the Kouga region, it was home to 19 rhinos. Years of relentless poaching and illness have reduced that number to just four: Amanda, the cautious matriarch; Brittany and Tiffany, inseparable best friends; and a young newcomer, Herbie. Poaching and illness reduce number to just four 'I saw what these gentle giants go through just for existing,' Terblanche said. 'Poachers don't care about the suffering. They take what they want and leave death behind. That was it for me. I knew I had to give everything I had to keep them alive.' But rhinos are wild and traumatised. They don't trust easily — especially after witnessing the loss of their companions. Protecting them meant more than just patrolling the fences. Terblanche needed to be close enough to intervene – but for that to happen, they had to accept him. Justin Terblanche has learnt rhinos' rhythms, moods, and quirks. Picture: Justin Terblanche ALSO READ: 'Relentless threat to wildlife': Here's how many rhinos were poached in SA in 2025 so far So he stayed. He left his family and former life behind, moving into the bush to protect them. 'I started spending time out in the bush, far beyond my normal shifts – sometimes for days, sometimes weeks. I didn't talk. I didn't move too fast. I just stayed present,' he says. It took a year and six months of patience, silence, and consistency before the turning point came. The rhinos began recognising him – not just visually, but by his scent, his voice, his energy. Six months of patience, silence, and consistency They stopped running. They started watching him with curiosity instead of fear. 'That's when I knew,' he says. 'I had been accepted into their crash. They had accepted me as one of their own.' From that moment, Terblanche became their protector from within. He can now walk beside them, monitor their movements and respond immediately to any sign of danger. ALSO READ: Inside South Africa's wildlife CSI school helping to catch poachers He's learnt their rhythms, moods, and quirks – their behaviours and personalities – like Amanda's quiet watchfulness, Brittany's playful nature, Tiffany's loyalty and Herbie's youthful curiosity. Rhinos are being slaughtered at an alarming rate, with poachers driving these giants towards extinction. In recent decades, their population has plummeted by more than 90% and every loss brings the species closer to disappearing forever. 'At Rhino Whisperers, we are the last line of defence,' says Terblanche. 'We risk everything to protect them, because if we don't, no-one will.' 'We risk everything to protect them' Despite these deep bonds, the threat of poaching – especially at night – remains constant. The farm receives no government support. To close the surveillance gap and protect the rhinos during their most vulnerable hours, Terblanche is raising funds for a thermal drone. 'This drone will let us see what we can't hear. It gives us eyes in the dark – and eyes in the sky,' he said. NOW READ: Mozambican man sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for rhino poaching in SA
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Africa's vaccine hubs disrupting the manufacturing landscape
Petro Terblanche still remembers her emotions when she first got an email saying the World Health Organization was looking to build a 'tech-transfer hub' for the new mRNA vaccines against the coronavirus. At the time, her fledgling Cape Town vaccine venture, called Afrigen, was on a knife edge, struggling to set up labs and get to work in a world that had come to a halt. The WHO wanted to start making mRNA vaccines in developing countries left without jabs when rich countries hosting the manufacturing hoovered up all the doses. Under the plan, a big mRNA vaccine manufacturer would share its know-how with the hub, which would replicate the process to train up and help manufacturers around the world open new production lines. None of Afrigen's 20-odd staff had any experience working with mRNA, but as soon as the email landed, Ms Terblanche, chief executive, thought they could do it. 'I will never forget it. I was sat here at my desk and I saw this and I looked at it and I thought, this is our break. It was something in my tummy which said this is our break,' she told the Telegraph. Teaming up with Biovac, an established South African vaccine manufacturer, and the country's medical research council, Afrigen was chosen and in June 2021 the WHO's mRNA Technology Transfer programme was launched. The following four years have seen Afrigen grow in size several-fold and come close to changing the global landscape of mRNA vaccine manufacture. It has begun transferring mRNA vaccine technology to 14 other partners as far afield as Argentina, Indonesia, Serbia, Vietnam and Senegal. Yet, the path has not been straightforward and has seen the hub given the cold shoulder by the mRNA pharmaceutical giants who had originally been expected to help. What had first been envisioned as a joint venture, has instead evolved to see the hub having to forge its own, but more ambitious path. While no Covid vaccines have been mass produced by the hub in the end, the members are now hoping to take what they learned to make new mRNA jabs for diseases such as Rift Valley Fever, Leishmaniasis and H5N1 flu. The sovereign expertise they have gained means they will not have to rely on making vaccines developed elsewhere, and can target diseases which are not financially attractive to big European or US pharma giants. The hub is now a 'a pioneering example of consortia from regions left behind during the Covid pandemic, developing much needed vaccine research and development capabilities,' says Dr Frederik Kristensen, managing director of the Regionalised Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative (RVMC), which aims to widen out manufacturing. 'This will be a basis for regionalised vaccine manufacturing in the longer term and help move from just manufacturing vaccines developed elsewhere.' Dr Matthew Downham, manufacturing and supply chain director at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), said the hub could 'fundamentally challenge the disruption and delays seen with the inequitable supply of vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic'. He said: 'With mRNA platforms proven to be both fast and flexible, the hub's approach could enable multiple disease vaccines to be produced locally at rapid speed. 'For emerging infectious diseases, it could allow vaccine production to take place closer to the source of an outbreak thereby potentially enabling faster vaccine distribution where it is needed.' The progress has come despite the hub facing a major blow almost as soon as it was formed. It had hoped that Moderna, a US mRNA manufacturer, would share the technology for its widely praised Covid-19 jab, but by September 2021 it became clear that a deal could not be done. Pfizer also declined. 'It was scary,' says Ms Terblanche. 'We said, 'shit guys, we are on our own'. 'But it also mobilised an enormous energy in the team. We said look, we can do it. We are a biotech start-up, we are resilient. We know how tough it is when sometimes you don't know where your salary is going to come from.' The hub decided to go it alone and make their own version of the Moderna jab. The vaccine sequence was already available and much of the process was in the public domain. Moderna had already said it would not enforce Covid-related patents during the pandemic and such reverse engineering is permitted under South African law. Other institutions lent their expertise and equipment manufacturers stepped in with kit. By February 2022, the hub had already made its own replica of the Moderna shot, without any assistance or approval from the developer. It was also the first mRNA vaccine designed, developed and produced at lab scale on the African continent. Moderna's response was dismissive, likening what Afrigen had done to making a knock-off designer handbag. Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive, said at the time: 'They are claiming it's a copy of Moderna's product. I don't know.' 'It is like when somebody makes a copy of a Louis Vuitton bag. Does it look like a Louis Vuitton bag? Does it last like a Louis Vuitton bag? I don't know.' Making a version was only the first step. It had to be trialled and tested and validated to ensure it was safe and up to the same manufacturing standards as the original. Ms Terblanche said: 'We have not reinvented the wheel, we have used publicly available information to forward innovate. But what we have also done is improve the process.' But as time went on, the hub came up against another obstacle. The pandemic had ended and no one wanted Covid jabs any more. So the Afrigen Covid mRNA jab is now not being manufactured as a jab, but has become a model used to teach the technology to other partners so they can learn the ropes and meet international benchmarks for quality control. The aim for each new manufacturer is to show they can make the vaccine on their own, to world class standards. The technology has already been passed successfully to Biovac in South Africa and the transfer is underway to companies in Argentina, Serbia and India. Others will follow in the coming years. By the end of 2025, Afrigen and Biovac could between them make 200 million doses of vaccine if another Covid-type pandemic came along. By the end of the decade, the whole network could make 2bn doses a year. However, with thankfully no sign of such an occurrence, the ambition now is to keep the mRNA labs up and running just in case and that means using them for other mRNA products. Charles Gore, executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool, said: 'In order to keep this warm for a future pandemic, it's absolutely critical that all the partners continue in the meanwhile to produce mRNA 'something'. 'Clearly if there's no demand for Covid vaccines, it may turn out to be therapeutics, maybe vaccines for other diseases. 'There's a lot to be said for producing vaccines for things that are of particular interest to low and middle income countries.' Whatever they work on has to bring in enough money to keep them in business. In January Afrigen announced it was working on an mRNA vaccine for Rift Valley fever, a mosquito-borne infection that affects livestock and people. Other partners in the network are working with researchers to look at potentially developing mRNA vaccines or drugs for hand foot and mouth disease, HPV, or leishmaniasis. Ms Terblanche said one day Afrigen hopes to work with the mRNA giants who spurned them at first. She said: 'In the beginning, there was resentment towards us and we were being accused of stealing intellectual property. All of that has gone calm. Now we find that the interactions are respectful.' Their progress means Africa has gone a long way in preparing for any new pandemic, or mystery new 'disease X', said Morena Makhoana, chief executive at Biovac. He said: 'I don't think we will be like 2020 where we say, 'oh my word, where are we going to start'. 'I think we would get into a room, knuckle down and try and understand this disease X. 'We would definitely be able to stand on our own two feet provided that disease X can use mRNA.' Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
