Wilderness Rwanda’s non-profit Children in the Wilderness (CITW) recently held two children’s Conservation Camps – in partnership with Conservation Heritage-Turambe, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and Muhisimbi Youth in Conservation – teaching eighty young learners from four schools in the Volcanoes National Park and Kinigi area.
The first Conservation Camp in Rwanda took place in 2019, but the scheduled 2020 and 2021 programmes had to be postponed due to COVID regulations.
“We are absolutely delighted that in 2022 we have been able to continue with the Conservation Camps. To ensure that the students who missed out on the previous years could participate before they head to their secondary schools, we decided to make up for the missed programmes by running two back-to-back camps this year. We are now back on track for hopefully many years of Conservation Camps to come,” said Aline Umutoni, CITW and Community Co-ordinator for Wilderness Rwanda.
The students were divided into two groups of 40, each participating in a three-day programme. The children were transported daily by bus from their schools to the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, where a number of the workshops took place.
The children are all members of the Environmental Clubs at their schools.
During the workshops, the students learned about gorilla behaviour and ecology, the different national parks of Rwanda, threats to biodiversity in Volcanoes National Park and actions to help protect it, plus the importance of birds in ecosystems. They also took part in arts and crafts, games and singing.
On the third day of the camps, the students had the opportunity to visit Volcanoes National Park Headquarters, with a field trip to Buhanga Eco-Park. The Buhanga forest is in an ancient and sacred site that was used for the coronation rituals of Rwandan kings. It is biologically and culturally significant to Rwanda, and most importantly the surrounding areas of Volcanoes National Park. At the start of the park trails the children were divided into teams for a flora and fauna identifying assignment.
Ingrid Baas, Wilderness Rwanda Operations Manager noted the success of the camps: “The partnership between four organisations, which are equally committed to environmental education and protecting the surrounding Volcanoes National Park, makes the Conservation Camps particularly meaningful. By joining forces we can achieve so much more. The benefits of this partnership directly impact the learners and their schools and camp planning has already begun for the next school holidays.”
