Kawaza

Volunteer News

A stunning experience: volunteering for Robin Pope Safaris, under the Kawaza School Fund in Zambia

by Lise Broussard

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
Denis Waitley (American motivational Speaker and Author self-help book. B. 1933)

Assembly On the 15th April 2009, I arrived at Mfuwe airport where I was met by Robin Pope Safaris. Here started the big adventure as a volunteer for the Kawaza Basic School Fund.

Originally from France and having travelled extensively through out Europe, South America and Asia, I returned to complete a Degree in International Tourism. Through this, I have been lucky enough to secure a volunteering position of four months, as part of my studies, with Robin Pope Safaris.

Apart from being the leading Safaris Company in Zambia, Robin Pope Safaris also have a sustainable development project within the Luangwa Valley. My mission here would be to coordinate and develop this project with the schools www.kawaza.org and cultural village www.kawazavillage.co.uk ensuring that funding from RPS is utilized in the appropriate manner.

After a drive from Nkwali camp, I arrived at Kawaza, my home for the next four months, a safe and comfortable volunteer house built by Robin Pope Safaris, opposite to Kawaza School in the game management area.

The house was better that I expected with window glass panes to prevent insects to come in and a grill gate for extra security.

I was captivated by the villagers’ life and customs, the warmth of their welcome, the social life which makes you never be bored and the laugh kids know so well to incite.

April and May were harvesting season and all were busy in their cotton, maize, sorghum and rice fields. The landscapes offered incredible shades of purple, brown, green, yellow colours with wild flowers and tall grasses.

I understood what all describe as “the bright Africa”, a land where the sun shine brings morning and evening the most vibrant light in a peaceful day.

The next morning I was introduced to Kawaza primary school (the largest in the area) with 875 pupils! Whose students rage from age 6 to 17 years old (two classes in average from preschool to grade 8 and one class for grade 9). As there are ten classrooms the schooldays are split between morning and afternoon sessions. This is looked after by 26 teachers of whom 13 are volunteers supported by RPS.

The Library

One of my first tasks was the reopening of the library which had been closed for a few months. In these few months it was closed, it had started to be used as storage; a lot had to be done… After a thorough clean we began logging, referencing, tagging and created a roster and library guidelines. I introduced a head librarian, Chilembwe Chibwana, we conducted training sessions for teachers and pupils who volunteered for the library.

IT comes to Kawaza!

Kawaza Basic School was fortunate enough to be the only school with computers which had been donated by RPS and their donors. This consisted of six computers which are powered by a solar panel system.

I set about arranging for computer tables to be made and introduced basic computer classes for the teachers who in turn will soon teach students. This in effect would allow for IT classes to be introduced into the school curriculum.

Kawaza afterschool activities

Sports As most of the schools around the world, Kawaza has after school activities and this range from Sport, Production Unit (Agriculture), Conservation clubs, Science clubs (Jets), HIV/AIDS awareness, Arts, Choir, Chess and Red Cross.

I am currently involved in the Production Unit and conservation clubs and helped to develop the following:

Production Unit

The production Unit consists of a patch of land where pupils are introduced and taught vegetables growing.

Here nutritional awareness is emphasised in a fun environment and also opens the doors to sustainability of the pupils in the future as 90% of the people in the area are subsistence farmers. Surplus vegetables will also be sold to the community to help to raise school funds.

Conservation Workshops

Whiteson and trees Jo Pope, director of RPS, has introduced to the local community in 2008, the carbon offset program.

We had decided to involve the pupils with this program by conducting workshops once a week.

Many trees in Africa are being cut for a source of fuel for cooking as well as building, etc. By teaching how and the importance of growing trees, the pupils learn about desertification, soil erosion and destruction of the ecosystem.

This contributes to the sustainability of their environment for the future generations.

On the 5th June 2009, World Environment Day, the workshop program has started again, conducted by Mr Whiteson Daka who is being sponsored under the carbon offset program. He is the expert from the local tree nursery plantation and he is knowledgeable in organic fertilizer, pesticides and clay oven making. Whiteson is a great wealth of knowledge for the pupils.

Education sponsorship

Selecting pupils for sponsorship As part of the sustaining development project, Robin Pope Safaris sponsors 50 pupils a year for secondary and tertiary education. I had the opportunity to be involved with this during this sponsorship day. Here we took details and emphased the importance of the sponsorship, opportunity they were about to receive. For me this was a fulfilling experience as seeing the pupils’ enthusiasms and to date, this one of RPS most successful projects.

This has been my first two months and each day I spent at Kawaza and in the Valley has been full of wonderful emotions. The satisfaction of seeing the chances for learning accessible to all and the quality of education improved considerably, thanks to the efforts and time of Robin Pope Safaris and thanks to all the visitors who have been supporting the fund, make me believe that Responsible Tourism has found a destination here in the Nsefu Chiefdom.

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