The story of the Hwange Schools Project, Zimbabwe
One of the biggest challenges facing conservationists in Africa is reconciling poverty stricken villagers living on the edges of protected areas with the concept of conserving wildlife. The biggest threat to Africa’s protected areas is encroachment by burgeoning disenfranchised neighbouring communities. Tsholotsho Communal land borders Hwange Natio
nal Park, which is home to 35,000 elephant. This communal land is heavily settled and about 50% of the poaching that goes on in Hwange comes from this boundary. Communities living in the more remote parts closer to the park boundary are the poorest. A critically important initiative in the past 20 years has been to try to create a direct linkage of benefits to village communities from wildlife conservation. In Zimbabwe the program is called CAMPFIRE. The first phases of CAMPFIRE based rural development focused on domestic water supplies and primary schools and some great successes have been achieved. One example is Ngamo Primary School on the edge of Hwange NP. When Mark Butcher, Managing Director of Imvelo Safari Lodges visited it in the late 1980s it comprised a few very old buildings with collapsing roofs, dirt floors, few desks and major cracks in the walls. He remembers watching children sitting on the floor in pairs sharing halved pencils and then moving from shade to shade cast by the walls as the sun shifted in the sky. By 2010 through a combination of donated funds from visiting tourists, revenues from safari camp lease fees etc and funds and work by the local safari operators - it has become one of the best primary schools in the District. Its 270 odd students all have safe clean classrooms, including 2 complete new classroom blocks built by Imvelo Safari Lodges, with furniture, electricity and water. The teachers are housed in comfortable electrified cottages. The school has become the pride of the community and is a show case for the program. As the primary school began to function well, an issue became obvious - there was only a 5% recruitment of primary school leavers to secondary school. The biggest problem was that the nearest secondary school at Kapane was about 20 kms away. So, the plan for Ngamo Secondary School was hatched. In 2010 the first high school class room block built by Imvelo was and the enrolment was overwhelming. By the end of 2011 through the generosity of donors - international visitors and tourists visiting nearby safari camps, as well as revenue accrued from safari camp lease fees and royalties and a lot of hard work the school was a functioning high school albeit a work in progress. During 2012 Imvelo Safari lodges and their donors built 3 more teachers cottages and a teachers ablution block, drilled and equipped a well for the teachers and students and established a school library, and enrolment continued to increase. Projects for 2013 include: Fencing the school grounds, electrification of the teachers’ cottages and the school, expansion of the library collection and the establishment of a school science laboratory. What do they need and how can you help?
• Invite your friend to like this page – the story of the Ngamo Primary and Secondary schools is inspiring! There is an ongoing need for support, however big or small.
• We visited the school in July 2013 and identified that the most critical need is to improve English literacy levels –exams are taken in English and most children battle with this. Improving literacy levels involves creating a stimulating learning environment and on-going teacher training in new methodologies. Stocking the library with relevant and high quality educational books (including story books for all levels and grades) and learning materials is a key focus of our programme. In this way we hope to kindle a love of reading. We held a number of storytelling sessions and the children loved these!
• The teachers are dedicated and innovative and would love the opportunity to develop their teaching skills. It is our aim to provide teacher training either by sending skilled English literacy teachers to the district or making it possible for teachers to receive training locally or in South Africa.
• The provision of basic materials and equipment is also fundamental to improving literacy: there is an ongoing need for pencils, pens, erasers, blank notebooks, pencil sharpeners, rulers, glue, scissors, and so on.
• The provision of subject specific teaching aids such as phonetic posters, flash cards across all subjects.
• Something to aim for: A science laboratory for the Secondary School: At present there is no equipment with which to conduct experiments – many of the children have not even seen the basic equipment and this makes practical teaching very difficult. Electrification is not far away in this district and a functional laboratory would make the world of difference. You can also help by supporting Imvelo Safari Lodges who work tirelessly to provide support to the community in many different ways – in five years they have ploughed over $2 million into local communities. Take a look at their page (Imvelo Safari Lodges) or their website: www.imvelosafarilodges.com
