Children in the Wilderness camps back in full swing

Now in its 22nd year, Children in the Wilderness (CITW) has hosted more than 270 children, teachers and eco-mentors at its annual eco-camps.

According to the Wilderness Group, these four-day environmental leadership camps host the most deserving CITW eco-club members from its partner primary schools across all Wilderness’ areas of operation in Africa.

“As our flagship programme for the education pillar of our impact strategy, these eco-camps form an annual focus for our regional CITW teams. We either close our camps, or partner properties, for the duration of the camps, during which a tremendous amount of fun and learning takes place, instilling an unshakable ethos for conservation and the environment into the children”, Vince Shacks, Wilderness Group impact manager said.

In addition to their 2 378 eco-club members, and 567 children on the scholarship programme, they have dozens of food security eco-gardens in schools in Botswana, Namibia and Rwanda, he added.

Unforgettable highlights

The 2023/24 eco-camps took place in diverse settings such as southern Namibia’s Hardap Region, 100 kilometres south of Sossusvlei, Botswana’s legendary Chobe area, Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park area, both sides of the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe and Zambia, as well as Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.

Highlights included Miss Teen Namibia joining the children on their Namibian camp, the Rwandan campers marching in a conservation parade all the way from Wilderness Bisate to the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the Botswana campers enjoying their first thrilling light aircraft flights to Kasane International Airport, and the Zambezi children all becoming certified Pangolin Africa 'guardians'.

All the camps covered biodiversity-themed topics and included team-building activities, eco-quizzes and many highly entertaining educational games.

“On arrival, the children are understandably shy and uncertain, but after just a few days, they leave confident and inspired to follow their most daring dreams. What’s more, being set in all Wilderness’ areas of operation means we are ideally placed to create not just pathways out of poverty by providing them with life-skills and knowledge, but a secure future for the wilderness itself,” CITW Group coordinator Lindy Nieuwenhuizen said.

In addition to the eco-Clubs and scholarship programme, CITW runs a youth environmental stewardship (YES) programme for children who show conservation and leadership potential on the camps and in eco-clubs. The YES curriculum focuses on career guidance, leadership, team building, communication and further environmental education.

“Perhaps we are proudest of the scores of successful graduates of the programme who have gone on to forge meaningful careers as field rangers, tourist guides, pilots and chefs”, Nieuwenhuizen noted. In addition to pursuing tourism-industry vocations, other graduates are now qualified as journalists and teachers.