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Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre - Mfuwe
While anti-poaching operations and the monitoring of wildlife populations and habitat change continue to be vitally important, it is widely accepted within the conservation industry that these efforts are often holding exercises while other more effective long term approaches to conservation are being developed. One of the aspects of conservation work that is becoming more and more prevalent in the 21st century is the education of current and future generations of children in the value of the assets that the natural world provides and the importance of good stewardship of the resources that we currently have for our own future wellbeing. In March 2004, Afrikeye visited the Chipembele Education Centre located close to the Mfuwe gate outside the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. Steve and Anna Tolan moved to the location in 1998 and spent over two years constructing this special facility for the education of local schoolchildren in the importance of conservation and the value of the regions wildlife for the future support of prosperous livelihoods within rural areas of Africa. Using funds raised from Steve's British police officer's pension and their own savings, the couple constructed a facility that now caters for up to twenty students at a sitting, twice a week for forty weeks of the year. With regular visits from the local schools and more occasional visits from outlying schools the facility has quickly become an accepted and valuable addition to the education system in the region. The main facility consists of a single large classroom accommodating up to twenty children and their teachers, a library with a copious supply of reading material and reference works, a well designed interactive exhibition room which educates and informs the students about the environment around them using locally collected samples, video tapes, sound recordings and posters. Outside there is a shady covered eating area, toilets, washrooms and a play area for the students to play ball games during their dinner break.
Currently, Steve and Anna Tolan operate and run the Education Centre on their own with the students regular teachers sharing the teaching activities. The Centre is supported by the local community and Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) but does not receive any official funding. ZAWA have kindly provided a number of the exhibits used in the centre that would have not have been possible to display otherwise. Please take a look at the project page or feel free to pass on a message or comment through the feedback page. |
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© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner) |
The
students that visit are often members of Chongololo clubs. Chongololo [which
means millipede] clubs which exist in most Zambian schools are directed
towards students' interest in nature and wildlife. Although they are affiliated
to the Zambia Wildlife Society, the Society is not currently in a position to
actively provide resources for all the schools that would require support if
they were to be called upon and so alternative sources of activity and education
for interested students are a valued supplement to the stretched Zambian
education service.