Kids Back at the Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp

*Songwa Primary School kids at Painted Dog Conservation*

The Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp closed its first quarter and first school term on a high note after starting up late in Mid-February. We had to ensure that all necessary recommended health protocols were put in place, to make sure the children and our staff were as safe as possible.

The delay in opening schools didn’t dent the hard-working spirit of the staff at camp. St Francis A and B classes that missed camps in 2021 were the first this year although they were already in grade 7. This excited the students quite a lot as they thought they had been left out, “it’s nice to be here” they kept saying throughout their stay with us at the Bush Camp.

*Kids learning at Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp*

Songwa and Chezhou were the first grade 6 class of the year. Affected by lockdowns and delayed school openings we noticed the kids had an even greater challenge in reading and writing which slowed down the pace of teaching and learning at the camp. These are kids from rural areas, with no access to the internet or ways of smart learning. When everyone else was doing online lessons they were not, they were home ploughing fields and helping look after livestock. We hope, with the necessary support, we will be able to do more in-school programs and build teacher capacity programs to help bridge the gap.

Completing the generation circle?

Nelson Mandela said, “education is the most important tool we can use to change the world.” But it takes time, it’s an unending process. As if to underline this, we are now seeing students coming to the camp who are children of parents who came to camp while they were grade 6, some 16-17 years ago in what we have termed ‘completing the generation circle. We have had children shout and say, “My mother stayed in room 3 and this is the room,” this is usually met with smiles all over the face. This is an indicator that our goal of having a conservation-conscious generation in the locality is becoming a reality.

The faces of excited children are always a delight to observe and this keeps us going and wanting to do more.