As well as supporting those YES Club youth who have academic potential, CITW has a dual philosophy for educating and supporting those without academic potential in culture-based leadership development opportunities.
Academic-stream youth 
Village-based youth
The programme starts with the children becoming Eco-Club members while they are in primary school. Then the journey that they take – for some ten years – nurtures them, and creates informed leaders who can actualise sustainable conservation in their communities, and more widely, through their passion for wildlife.
When the two YES Club streams meet, they come up with workable and effective projects. The two normally meet and join active forces during school holidays, although they stay connected through social media at all times.
The YES programme provides them with curriculum guidance, the programme’s approach being to nurture them both, and then empower them to realise their potential in their specific potential leadership roles and responsibilities.
Learning from the current traditional leaders:
A YES Club member interviews Headman Kwenje, TA Kalembo Balaka District
When the village-based and academically focused YES members meet, one of their activities is to engage with the community’s traditional leaders.
The youth’s discussions with traditional leaders include appraising the current leadership strength, then looking at leadership opportunities and where improvements could be made, then discussing those opportunities. These encounters with our traditional leaders help open the youth to preparing themselves as future leaders in the various areas of their communities’ social and economic development.
Report by Symon Chibaka
