THIS TOURISM WEEK Number 45 - Monday, 24 July 2006

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Children in the Wilderness

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PROUDLY BAREFOOT AND FULLY SOUTH AFRICAN

Every once in a while you come across a project that makes you stop and think: wayda-minnit! That’s it!

The Children in the Wilderness programme is one of those projects.

Endorsed by Wilderness Safaris, the programme has taken root in Botswana, Namibia, Malawi and South Africa and is “dedicated to helping children whose childhoods have been disrupted by life threatening conditions such as disease, poverty and the HIV/AIDS epidemic” (all quotes from the report “A Brighter Future” by Children in the Wilderness, 2006)

Now in its fifth year of operation, the programme grew out of a suggestion which actor Paul Newman made when he visited Africa for the first time. In August 1988 Mr Newman had founded the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps (which now has camps in the USA, Ireland, England and France and plans to open another in Israel in 2007)  and he described the success of the organisation at a campfire in the Okavango Delta - “and in December of the same year the Children in the Wilderness Programme was officially launched and the first groups of children were hosted. The Hole in the Wall Camps organisation agreed to assist in the funding for the first three years, after which the programme had to be freestanding and self-funded.

“Wilderness Safaris closed Vumbura, one of its safari camps in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, to paying guests and invited groups of schoolchildren and orphans from local communities who lived in villages bordering the Okavango Delta to participate in the weeklong camps. Trained councillors were flown in from the USA to assist in running these initial camps, aided by senior Wilderness Safaris guides and staff. In that first year over the course of five weeks, 150 children were hosted in a programme that successfully combined the missions and expertise of both Wilderness Safaris and the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps in delivering a wonder-filled and inspiring experience.”

I went onto the Wilderness Safaris web site and read about Vumbura. You have to get your head around this: the company closed a luxury lodge (and I mean real luxury) to its paying guests … and invited the poorest of the poor to come and stay there.

I wonder how many would do that?

The report says that “in the summers of 2002 and 2003, the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps and Wilderness Safaris continued their partnership and expanded their operations to five Children in the Wilderness programmes at Wilderness Safari camps in Botswana, Namibia and Malawi. Prior to the camps, local Wilderness Safaris staff were flown to the USA for training at Hole in the Wall camps, and once again, Hole in the Wall counsellors assisted staff with the running of the programmes on the ground. Nothing was left to chance in making these African camps a resounding success.”

And more: “one of the biggest measures of success has been to motivate the children to continue with their schooling… after participating in a Children in the Wilderness camp, a large proportion of [the] children have immediately enrolled back into their schools, as they have learned a little of the way education can benefit them. In 2003, Wilderness Safaris hosted a group of 24 ‘street children.’ These homeless children had left school and eked out an existence, scrounging and begging on the streets of Maun in Botswana. After their week in camp, 18 of these children immediately returned to school - and today are still enrolled and continuing their studies.”

The camps are well organised and have clear objectives: “Using environmental education, therapeutic recreation, counselling, mentoring and ‘old-fashioned’ fun, the Children in the Wilderness programme and curriculum opens up the minds of children; exposes them to what life can offer them; increases their self-esteem; inspires them to continue with their education; teaches children skills, crafts and sports they would never have the opportunity to experience in disadvantaged, poor and often rural environments; builds and strengthens their capacity to cope with life’s challenges; educates and equips them with life skills that are necessary to realize their greatest potential; and increases awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and in overall health.”

But this isn’t just a once off “intervention” (hate that word): this is a properly designed programme with a 5-year strategic curriculum and follow-up plan which aims to “provide participants with an initial program that focuses on leadership, environment, health, and practical skills; to provide [them] with continuing programming within their communities… access to justice and human rights advocacy… the opportunity and enthusiasm for higher education … [and] the opportunity of job experience.”

Now, because of the programme’s success and the “large number of kids that need to be hosted each year,” the organisers have decided that “there is a clear need for some ‘year-round camps’ … dedicated camps that would not only ease the logistics and operations of the programme” but would also allow “for a lot more children to be hosted and ensure that the much needed further development of ‘Outreach/Follow-up’ programmes can be run… throughout the year.”

This programme excites me for a reason that the organisers might not have intended: I see it as a valuable way of introducing tourism to people who would otherwise never have experienced it. And, besides the positive effects it must have on its participants, surely this will have a positive effect on tourism as a whole? Especially with so much of our current ‘development thinking’ stuck at the level of cultural-villages-and-arts-and-crafts-projects and seemingly unable to move toward a point where truly new and exciting products can begin to emerge. And especially when you hear comments like a recent one from a tourism practitioner who said that black people “can’t get into the tourism industry because they don’t have land to inherit and develop as game farms or safari lodges.”

Surely there’s more to tourism than that?

And if you can get outsiders in, maybe they’ll think out of the box and open up new avenues to explore.

… and that’s another reason why the Children in the Wilderness programme sparked my “wayda-minnit!!” response.

http://www.wilderness.org.za/

Based in KwaZulu-Natal, the Wilderness Action group aims to foster an awareness of the value of the wilderness and to promote wilderness conservation both in their region and further afield. It was founded by a small group of people who attended the 3rd World Wilderness Congress in Scotland in 1983.

The group runs university-accredited five-day wilderness training courses around South Africa. Suitable for people working in wilderness areas and students at master’s degree level, they are also of interest to people living on the boundaries of protected areas and anyone who has a love for wilderness and the outdoor experience.

An important repository of expertise, the group also contributes to the development of legislation relating to protected areas and works with other NGOs and interest groups to secure the long-term survival of the wilderness.

Visit them at http://www.wilderness.org.za/

…Have a Great Tourism Week!

 

MARTIN HATCHUEL - BarefootWriter

p.s. The Whales are here!

I spoke to my friend Dave, the whale-watching boat skipper on Friday:

seems the migratory humpback and southern right whales have arrived early this year

and were out in force on Thursday afternoon

(there was a South-Easter blowing here in Knysna and they love that) .

There they were, breaching and lob-tailing and spy-hopping and just resting there and being mellow…

Oh man, I think I’ll go down to the beach with my binoculars right now.

See you there?

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