Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust - teaching Zambian children the value of conserving Africa's wildlife. wildlife, trust, wildlife trust, education, africa, conservation, zambia, sponsors, sponsorship, african animals, schools, conservation, charity, charitable, educators, children, preservation, help, rhino, elephant, hunting, hunters, poachers, poaching, prevention

Centre Activities...

What do the children do at the Centre?

…have fun!

Steve and Anna believe that if the children can associate learning about conservation with a pleasurable experience they’ll be more likely to remember what they’ve learnt and want to put it into practice.

So the day is fairly relaxed and with lots of interactive games and activities, a good lunch, sweets in the afternoon, a session on the adventure playground and prizes before they go home. It’s a great, fun day out. And if they learn something about conservation in the meantime all well and good!

In the early morning 20 pupils and one or two of their teachers are collected from their schools, which are 20-30km away, and brought to the Centre in the Trust's open-backed truck.

On the way they have a game drive, as the dirt road from Mfuwe follows the Luangwa River downstream through the Lower Lupande Game Management Area, a buffer zone to the National Park and one which is rich in wildlife.

Many of the children have never seen the animals before, such as giraffe, zebra or antelopes, though they have usually seen elephants and baboons as they raid the fields for crops. Sadly they often have negative views of these species and see them only as problem animals.

The Chipembele programme tries to reset the balance, teaching children the value of wildlife, in terms of ecology, aesthetics and economy.

Once at the Centre, they are immediately divided into teams and throughout the day scores are kept for each team. At the end of the day prizes are awarded to each member of the winning team; there is an incentive for them to listen!

The programme includes:

Interactive work in the Interpretive Room, a fairly traditional-style lesson with a slide show, a guided bush walk, outside practicals, a wildlife video, artwork, quizzes and competitions and word games, drama and assignments in the library.

Steve and Anna are currently doing all the teaching and believe the children enjoy it almost as much as they do!

The children enjoy lunch at the Centre and then get the chance to use the adventure playground (complete with 50m cable ride). For many of the children they have never even used a traditional swing before but they take to it instantly and usually laugh and scream all the way round!

The children are taken home in the mid afternoon, again enjoying a game drive on the way. Once they leave the bush and hit the tar road in Mfuwe they are allowed to sing……and there's no way then to stop them until they reach their school!