Great news this month for our Children in the Wilderness programme in Rwanda is that the schools are open, and the students have returned, after a closure of more than seven months due to COVID-19.
This means that the 80 students at Bisate Secondary School, who are sponsored with a scholarship through generous contributions from our guests, are back at school. Their Youth Environmental Stewardship (YES) programme kicked off with its first meeting, held by our own Aline on Wednesday, the 2nd of December.
This first get-together was more of a catch-up meeting and general get-together to find out how everybody is doing. From now on the YES Club will meet every two weeks, and continue to implement their environmental awareness programme at the school and in the community.
The six CITW Eco-Clubs at Bisate Primary School, Akayange Primary School and Gisunzu Primary School are also active again, and the 184 Eco-Club members across the three schools had their first lesson on Friday the 27th of November. The different Eco-Clubs, who have named themselves the “Mountain Gorillas”, “The Lions”, “The Giraffes”, “The Rhinos”, “The Chimpanzees” and the “Blue Monkeys” are so excited. The first lesson focused especially on the importance of social distancing, “What are germs?” and the importance of hygiene.
We are looking forward to continuing with these young conservationists, and needless to say, we will keep you up to date with their progress!
Report by Ingrid Baas – Wilderness Safaris Operations Manager and CITW Rwanda Programme Co-ordinator
