Children in the Wilderness Rwanda (CITW) organised a two-day workshop for the teachers involved with the CITW Eco- and YES Clubs in our seven partner schools. In total, 21 teachers and three CITW colleagues participated in the training on Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 September.
The schools are Bisate Primary School, Bisate Secondary School and Rushubi School from the Wilderness Bisate and Sabyinyo area; Akayange Primary School and Rwabiharamba Secondary School from the Wilderness Magashi area; and Gisunzu Primary School and Kinihira Secondary School from the Gishwati Forest area.
The training was held at the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Kinigi – the perfect training location, as we could use the educational centre and also visit the Conservation Gallery and the surrounding indigenous gardens.
For the teachers from the Gishwati and Magashi areas, it meant a long journey from the other side of the country, but accommodation and transport was organised for this two-day adventure. For some of the teachers it was their first time in this part of Rwanda – an exciting opportunity for them.
The workshop was packed with information on Children in the Wilderness and an in-depth explanation of the Flow learning principal, and the teachers prepared several lessons from the curriculum to kick off their first Eco-Clubs this coming school year.
It was great for all the Eco-Mentors from the different schools to meet each other, exchange ideas and brainstorm about the best ways for the Eco-Clubs to thrive and flourish. The new school year starts on Monday the 25th of September, so this get-together was perfectly timed to ensure all schools are ready for an environmentally friendly start to the first term!
Wilderness Rwanda is excited to announce that one of our most loyal Eco-Mentors will join our team from the 1st of October 2023. Damascene previously worked at Bisate Primary School and has run the successful Eco-Clubs at that school since 2018. More recently he was transferred to another school, but he misses CITW, and consequently, we have appointed him to our team as CITW & Community Assistant. He will be working with Aline Umutoni to implement all our community and CITW projects in Rwanda.
With Damascene joining our CITW & Community team, and with the 21 teachers from the seven schools now freshly trained and motivated, we believe that we are heading towards a very successful 2023-24 school year!
