One lesson, six joyful stories as all 47 of our Eco-Clubs across Zimbabwe and Zambia celebrated the nature they love…
Every year on 28 July, the world sets aside a day to think about nature and what it takes to keep it healthy. For our Eco-Clubs, that thinking never really stops, and this year all 47 of our CITW Zambezi Eco-Clubs took part, each starting with an Eco-Club lesson to celebrate the day. What came after was up to each club: posters went up, a parade wound past the shops, and by day’s end new trees stood in the ground.
THE ECO-CLUB LESSON
Linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and FEE Eco-Schools themes, the lesson explored what nature gives us and what we can give back, ending with art made from the earth itself: paints mixed from soil and plants, turned into posters with a message.
HOW OUR CLUBS CELEBRATED – SIX STORIES FROM ACROSS THE ZAMBEZI
1 POSTERS WITH A PURPOSE
Most of our 47 clubs · Zimbabwe & Zambia
At most of our schools, the celebration took the shape of paper and paint. Club members sat together to decide what they most wanted the rest of the school to understand, keep the water clean, look after the trees, do not litter, and turned those ideas into big, bright posters, put up wherever the most eyes would find them. Every learner heading to class now passes a reminder, made by their own schoolmates, of why nature is worth looking after.
2 FROM WASTE TO WONDERFUL
Chidobe Primary · Hwange District, Zimbabwe
The Eco-Club at Chidobe Primary spent the day collecting used plastic bottles, and someone unearthed an old fan cover that had long stopped being useful to anyone. A few hours of measuring, threading and problem-solving later, the club had built the school a brand-new dustbin, sturdy, bright and made entirely from things that were headed for the dump. It now stands in the schoolyard doing its job every day.
3 A PARADE FOR THE PLANET
Ngamo Primary, Tsholotsho · Simoonga Primary, Zambia
At Ngamo and Simoonga, the clubs decided the message was too important to keep inside the school gate. Members set off through their communities, past homes and along the busy stretch by the shops, stopping every so often to give a short presentation on why 28 July matters. Shoppers put down their bags to listen; neighbours drifted over to see what the excitement was about. It takes courage to speak in front of your own community, and our members did it well.
4 ROOTS FOR TOMORROW
Mizpah Primary · Hwange, Zimbabwe
At Mizpah Primary, the celebration moved outdoors and into the soil. Eco-Club members were joined by their parents, and together, children and grown-ups sharing the digging and watering, they put new trees into the ground around the school. The learners will watch these trees grow year by year, and long after this class has moved on there will be shade to sit under because of this particular morning in July.
5 HEALING THE LAND, TOGETHER
Mtshayeli Primary · Tsholotsho, Zimbabwe
Mtshayeli Primary’s Eco-Club started with tree planting too, then rolled up their sleeves for something harder. Nearby, rainwater had begun carving gullies into the land: the first signs of erosion. Learners and community members worked side by side to fill the gullies back in, load by load, so the soil can hold when the rains return. Heavy, dusty, satisfying work.
6 SEEING THE DIFFERENCE
Mtshibini Primary · Lupane, Zimbabwe
Mtshibini Primary’s Eco-Club wanted the whole school to see, not just hear, why trees matter. So they built a 3D model of their own school grounds, twice: as it is today, green and shaded, and as it would be with the trees gone, bare and exposed. The club presented both futures to the whole school, and standing in front of the two versions the choice explains itself.
THANK YOU TO EVERY TEACHER, PARENT AND ECO-CLUB MEMBER WHO MADE THE DAY SO MEANINGFUL.
‘Many small people, doing many small things, can change the face of the world.’
