From the Project Coordinator Reflecting on 2009

“My goodness first we had no pupils and plenty of teachers, now we have plenty of pupils and not enough teachers! Thank you, thank you.” Comments from Moses Mpofu, Headmaster of Ziga Primary School.

I can remember thinking at the beginning of 2009 ‘How on earth are we going to make a difference?’ But looking back, we HAVE made a difference. This was so apparent in the comparison of Mpindo and Dete children’s appearance, general health and wellbeing at the Children in the Wilderness camps in November 2009 to that of 2008‘s waif-like, hungry children. We have fed 430 children each school day for the whole of 2009 – what an accomplishment, Thank you, thank you to all our most generous donors.

Zimbabwe is on the up, with the dollarization of our currency. Food and goods are more readily available, visitors are returning to our beautiful country, the wheels of industry are beginning to turn and there is a sense of cautious optimism throughout the country.

When planning for 2010 I have had to check myself and not run before I could walk, as there are so many projects in need of funding and attention. I have learnt on this Children in the Wilderness journey that we need to be careful not to create a dependency syndrome. Communities and schools need sustainable projects and we need to help them help themselves. They are willing - we need to give them the tools. This is the way forward for Children in the Wilderness and its children’s programmes in 2010.

“Thank you, you have now helped our children, please help us help ourselves – we want to work.” said the Headman of the Mpindo Community.

The success of Children in The Wilderness Zimbabwe and all its projects is solely due to the wonderful response we have had from our Donors. 2009 was a very difficult time for Zimbabweans and for the world in general, the support that we have been given is truly commendable.

I hope that when you read this Newsletter, you will see that funds were well-spent and sincerely appreciated by the communities that benefit from them.

I will be highlighting our previous fundraising efforts and plans for the future; please stay with us and any canvassing for further funding will always be appreciated. Help us take care of our planet and nurture the disadvantaged children

Thanks must be extended to our generous sponsors: Makila, AAC, Pharmacie Laurent Taleux, Richard Kirkland, Marice Ossin, Terence and Ilana Ossin, Lisa Ruch, Liora Glazerson, Tamara Friedman, David Frankel, Barbara and Barry, Schoub, Adina Port, Suzanne Wright, Karen Wilson, Roleen Katz, Andre Steynberg, Keith and Maureen Vincent and Angeline Mhlanga

The majority of our funds come from private donors and sponsorship, but we have a number of successful fundraising initiatives within our organization namely:

Tour de Tuli – This is a four-day mountain bike cycle ride through Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Funds are raised through entry fees and sponsorship. Children in the Wilderness Zimbabwe’s contribution is to host the cyclists with true Zimbabwean hospitality, good food, good humour and comfy beds, for two of the nights.

This has gone a long way towards financing 2010 Children in the Wilderness camps for the disadvantaged.
“Riding the Tour de Tuli is incomparable to anything I have every done on a mountain bike, so to say I was blown away by the entire event would be an understatement of immense proportions. It was an amazing privilege to play cricket for my country for 11 years, but it was an even bigger privilege to ride through some of the most amazing country side that the Tour de Tuli had to offer.” Jonty Rhodes, Springbok Cricketer

Voluntourism – All over the world there are young people who wish to make a difference. Wilderness Safaris offers a means to do this and an opportunity to discover Africa at grass-roots level. Our volunteers pay to participate and these funds go to Children in the Wilderness. We take in young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 for one to three months at a time where they experience a well-balanced environmental and community-based programme.

Anna Orban “I don’t know of a better way to get a sense of country than this volunteer programme. We saw life in Zimbabwe through the eyes of children, through national parks workers, through camp managers, and socialising with other young volunteers and Zimbabweans.”

“Highlights of our experience were seeing disadvantaged children experience things for the first time. Eating an apple! Seeing a plane! Fishing! Despite some being children of game wardens, seeing lions and herds of sable were new experiences for them. It has made me really appreciate the taste of an apple!”

Self- Funding
Children’s Camps – our aim here is to expose children from more affluent communities to the wilderness environment. They, along with the disadvantaged children, will be the custodians of our flora and fauna in the future. The emphasis at these camps is on environmental awareness, conservation, team building and leadership skills. They pay to participate in a five-night, six-day programme. The funds raised go to the Children in the Wilderness camps for the disadvantaged.

In April 2009 we had our first pilot camp. We hosted 16 children from Harare schools between the ages of 9 and 12 and the children’s response was outstanding. We feel confident that this is a programme that we can move forward with.

We aim to create a stewardship partnership with children from both programmes, which we feel sure will create life skills for all the children involved, and most importantly will produce leaders and caretakers for the wildlife sector.

Village and School Visits – Guests from Wilderness camps within Hwange National Park are offered, as part of their activities, visits to schools and communities on the boundary of the park. These visits to the schools are interactive and a marked improvement in the confidence and fluency in English by the children visited has been noticed. The local community benefits with the selling of crafts and curios and Children in the Wilderness receives funding from these visitors either in the form of donations on the spot, or upon returning home when many of them become regular sponsors.

Children’s Camps
Looking back, seeing the Wilderness through eyes of wonder!

One of most exciting sponsorships from the Village and School Visits has come from the Science Institute of America. They are donating Science Programmes and Kits to our schools and are sending two teachers over the American summer period to come and train our local teachers. The joy of science is coming to the Wilderness!

Challenges –
2008 - One of the biggest challenges was selecting children. Attendance was poor at the schools (see Education Rehabilitation Programme). Logistics – fuel for vehicles, and getting food and educational equipment to camps due to unstable currency and the general malaise of Zimbabwe

How we uplift the children - Every year Wilderness Safaris closes the doors of two of their camps to full paying guests for four weeks and allows Children in the Wilderness sole use. Children come in groups of 20 for 6 days. Using environmental education, therapeutic recreation, and good old-fashioned fun, Children in the Wilderness opens up the minds of children, increases their self-esteem, builds and strengthens their capabilities to cope with life's challenges and educates them with the life skills necessary to realise their greatest potential.

Looking Back – First Years 2008/2009
In January 2008 Wilderness Safaris Zimbabwe launched Children in the Wilderness Zimbabwe.
2008: Two camps hosting 20 children each, location Linkwasha, Hwange National Park. Participants: Children from Mpindo Primary school and Dete Children’s Home.
2009: We planned to have four camps of 20 children each, three at Makalolo and the first one at Ruckomechi. The first three went off well with children from Mpindo, Ziga and Main Camp Primary schools and Dete Children’s Home. Unfortunately the Ruckomechi one had to be postponed to April 2010 because of inclement weather.

Children’s’ Camps
2010 Plans – another year, a chance to make a difference…
• Host 100 children this year – April - two camps in Mana Pools National Park, November - three camps in Hwange National Park.
• Spread our network and include two new schools into the system. One from each of our catchment areas.
• Establish our follow-up programme which will focus on tracking the progress of every child that has experienced a Children in the Wilderness camp since inception. (See Education)

School Projects
Zimbabwe used to have one of the best education systems in Southern Africa; however with the instability of Zimbabwean politics, education has paid the price. Good teachers have immigrated looking for greener pastures and the ones left behind lack the motivation (due to appalling teaching conditions -no materials to perform their duties satisfactorily, and very poor remuneration). It was decided that instead of establishing a Follow-up Programme from the first Children in the Wilderness camps, Children in the Wilderness Zimbabwe would be better off going back to the source and helping the children in their communities and in their schools. From this came the birth of our education rehabilitation programmes.

Education
Rehabilitation, hope and optimism …
Teacher Support - As stated by headmaster Moses Mpofu, the schools were now full of students, but sadly poor remuneration for teachers had taken its toll and Ziga and Mpindo were struggling to find dedicated teachers; at one stage there was only a headmaster. Children in the Wilderness Zimbabwe decided that the school was nothing without the teachers. Out of desperation (as we could not find teachers) we pulled in the help of ‘O’ and ‘A’ level school leavers from the community to come and teach under instruction from the headmasters. We supplied the wages. The system worked perfectly. We found qualified teachers started reappearing and we continued to assist with salaries (supplementing the government wages to make the remuneration more attractive). Teachers who were also supported were coming to work despite country-wide strikes. Visits to the schools were a joyful occasion with singing and clapping and hugs of gratitude.

Plans for 2010 - We will endeavour to support the teaching body throughout 2010. Plans for this are twofold:

• Teacher incentive programme to continue but on a bigger scale – the schools are dysfunctional if we have no teachers.
• Teacher Training and Workshops – we have various plans to improve and update the teachers’ skills. One very exciting programme is to bring science alive in the wilderness. This help is coming from the American Science Institution

Improvement of Facilities and Educational Tools – The main focus for 2009 was to feed the children and help the teachers. But we did manage to do a full survey of Mpindo and Ziga schools to establish the enormity of the rehabilitation of these schools’ facilities. This incorporated the buildings, classroom equipment, textbooks and stationery. We also managed to supply lap desks to the children in both schools 100 for each school.

Plans for 2010
• Repair the school buildings and facilities at Ziga and Mpindo.
• Supply textbooks – Maths, English and Reading - to Ngamo, Mpindo and Ziga so that there is a textbook per child for each subject.
• Assist the communities to repair and build benches and desks for the classrooms.
• Repair boreholes at both Mpindo and Ziga and restart the school vegetable gardens at Ngamo, Mpindo and Ziga.
• Formalise the Secondary School Sponsorship Scheme. At the moment we are funding a couple of gifted children who have completed their primary school and are unable to continue to secondary school due to lack of funds and parental support. Through the school visits by our guests a number of donors have come forward to assist with this. We are looking at finding further funding for more children.
• Research the possibility of building, equipping and running a practical training college focusing on environmental and hospitality skills in the Tsolotsho Community in order to provide a tertiary education for school leavers.