Teaching kids to be environmentalists in Ethiopia

I guess the tipping point was when I saw a boy kick a plastic bottle over the cliff.

He had no use for the bottle anymore and so he had decided that the best thing was to discard it 1000 meters down the Simien escarpment. He did not realise that plastic takes hundreds of years to weather.

Only a few years ago, children asked tourists for empty plastic bottles which their families would use for water storage. Now they no longer need them.

 

With over 22000 tourists coming to the park every year, the saturation point has been reached. There are no litter points or dustbins. So just like everywhere in the world, plastic bottles have become disposables.

The other issue that got me thinking was when I went for a trek with the Simien resident Wolf Man– a guy called Getachew Assefa. I discovered that over the past two years, wolf numbers are down by about 40%.

Poaching is the new dynamic in the conservation story, the other problems of rabies and canine distemper virus are well documented. For the moment it is just rumours but the story goes that the wolves are being poached and their skins are being sold to Sudan.

Together with my colleagues at Simien Lodge, we struck on the idea of holding some conservation classes for children. We believe that if we can persuade the local kids that wildlife is better alive rather than dead then we might be able get the message through to adults. The same applies to the plastic pollution problem.

So for three days in mid-June, we decided to invite 60 children to the lodge. This meant that at least 180 children received the training. It is just the tip of the iceberg because there are probably 10,000 children living around the national park.  But at least it is a start.

Merely entering the lodge was a treat for most of the children. They had lunch in our restaurant, for most the best meal they have ever eaten, and they were all be provided with tee-shirts which they could take home. We decided that the tee-shirts would have the image of a wolf.

Over the three days of the 14th, 15th and 16th June, about 200 children visited the lodge and took part in the classes. The sessions would be very different to their normal school days.

For example, no child was left on the sidelines and everybody had to participate. The teaching methods were new for them as well as some of their teachers who were watching.

Everything was achieved through drawing, music, dance and fun. There were prizes for the best performers too. Before they left at the end of the day, they all signed our conservation charter promising to respect the environment in future.

The event was a huge success and is probably the best event that Simien Lodge has ever undertaken. The intention is that the children will tell their brothers and sisters about the necessity of maintaining the Simien Mountains in a pristine condition for future generations to enjoy.

source fana