Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

School Children Come to the Park for Environmental Education Workshop

Jun 15, 2009 - Gorongosa National Park

The children and teachers who participated in the workshop proceeding from the Vinho Complete Primary School, Nhamatanda District, contructed by GNP and open since the beginning of 2008

On International Children’s Day in June 2009, Gorongosa National Park (GNP) held a 2-day children’s environmental education workshop for 100 students from the nearby village of Vinho in Nhamatanda district, Sofala province.  The workshop focused on environmental themes, including the importance of conserving protected areas like GNP, its buffer zone, and larger problems that affect the planet.

The program aimed to empower the students to take ethical, responsible and constructive attitudes toward preventing and solving environmental problems.  The workshop’s goal was to spark an interest in and a respect for nature in students and teachers from the community that borders the Park. The kids are from a newly built school that was handed over to the Government of Mozambique by the Gorongosa Restoration Project in July 2008. 

The primary school students were joined by six teachers, three representatives from the Parents Council of the Vinho Complete Primary School, and three members of the Committee on Natural Resources Management of the Bebedo community.

The workshop used a locally-based curriculum with topics that were appropriate for the community, such as uncontrolled burns, poaching, water contamination, and sanitation. Mateus Mutemba, Director of Community Relations of the Park appealed to the children not to litter because it causes pollution, not to burn trees because they supply oxygen, and to take these and other environmental messages home to other members of their families, classmates and the community at large.

In his turn, the Director of the Vinho Complete Primary School, Leonel José Domingos, emphasized the importance of developing an environmental conscience in children, so they can bring their knowledge home to their parents.

The workshop bolstered learning about environmental preservation in an easy and fun way through games.  The event was very dynamic and included games and teaching methodologies directly related to the environment, a lecture on an environmental theme, film sessions about GNP and its restoration project, and two safaris.  The students presented songs and dances and performed skits written by their professors about the damaging effects poaching and uncontrolled burns can have on the community in general.

GNP donated a soccer ball and a jigsaw puzzle for the Vinho school, as well as prizes won by the best participants of the environmental contests.  This environmental education workshop united GNP’s goal of providing educational opportunities for surrounding communities with the celebration of the International Children´s Day to educate the “flowers that will never wilt”  (paraphrasing the dearly missed first president of Mozambique, Samora Moisés Machel).

This workshop was one of 8 held this year with schools that surround the Gorongosa National Park.