IDODI SECONDARY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE

EMI - ELIMU MAZINGIRA IDODI

LINK: WONDERFUL SUPPORT FOR IDODI
SECONDARY SCHOOL FROM ALASKA!

Greetings from a very beautiful Ruaha.

Our village programs are coming along well, thanks to the tireless
efforts of Dr Dulle. This is the first year that we have embarked on
various new schemes. Now that the Environmental Center in Idodi
Secondary School is up and running we are able to concentrate on the
Primary school children again plus the villages themselves.

In June I sent out an update showing our Environmental Day
celebrations, which was really successful and much enjoyed by all the
participants. Part of the celebrations included giving prizes to the
top 3 students in the 7 primary schools that we support. In addition
to the books and geometry sets, the prize included and over-night
stay in Ruaha National Park.

So in July, these 18 students plus 6 teachers had their over-night
stay in the park. It was a huge success. The Parks were extremely
helpful and went several extra miles to make the stay memorable for
the students. They had various special lectures, game drives and a
film show in the evening. All the students were thrilled by the
lions they saw plus all the other animals.

The previous week, we arranged for all the teachers from the 7
schools to have an overnight stay in the park. (A total of 60
teachers, 30 on each week-end trip) I talked to them just
before they left to go back to the village. They had all enjoyed the
stay and commented on, that not only was it good to see all the
animals but that they all felt 'refreshed' after a 2 day break from
their normal routines! Both these over night stays were held over the
week -end so as not to interfere with school! We feel that if the
teachers are enthusiastic about the Park it will encourage them to be
positive to the children about the value of the environment.

The lucky winners: Idodi primary school team

We also held inter-primary schools football matches, as we had
generously
been given, by Harry Vlek and Ans de Winter, 2 complete sets of football
gear for the 2 winning teams. Idodi Primary and Mahuninga schools were
the winners of this wonderful prize.

In December we were able to take 530 Standard 6 students into the
park. Dr Dulle collaborated with Mr Mwangosi, who is the Education
Officer for Idodi Ward. This event is always a big high light for
the children. It was spread over 5 days. They left home early, so
as to make the most of the day with an early game drive to park HQ
where they had breakfast. They then went on an extended drive to
various areas, most of the children saw lions, and they all saw
elephants, giraffe and all the more 'normal' animals. Returning to HQ
for lunch and a lecture, after which they trundled back to the gate
via the hippo and croc pools and headed home in the late afternoon.
Everything went well, most of the time, however one day the bus got
stuck near Mwagusi Camp, for almost 2 hours, however the parks came
along with the tractor and managed to pull them out of the sand! I am
sure it only added to the adventure for the children. But Dr Dulle
and Mr Mwangosi have come to the conclusion that next year, despite
the much higher cost, a smaller bus will be the better option. We
would like to take this opportunity to thank the Ruaha Park staff for
being so helpful and making these trips such a success. I have
received letters from all the schools thanking us for making this
trip possible.

On the 23rd December we held our first EMI meeting for all villages
(EMI stands for Environmental teachers of the village). Each of the
6 villages have formed a committee incorporating, two teachers, two
village officials and two ordinary village residents. These
committees will be monitoring the environmental status of each
village and its surrounding areas. Eg, starting a tree nursery,
policing the illegal felling of trees for charcoal, water management
etc etc. This meeting was held at the Idodi Environmental Center. As
it was the first meeting of its kind, much of the time was taken up
with deciding on how to operate the new committee. However on their
return, each village has established a tree nursery at the primary
schools. We supplied seedlings and the equipment with which to start
this new venture. They will meet quarterly each year to discuss
problems and find solutions for the environmental issues that arise.

On the 27th December 2008 we hired the new film van from the Iringa
Regional Office. Over the course of 7 days, we went to as many of
the villages as possible starting with Mlowa and ending with
Mahuninga. We showed our Wild Dog Film in Kiswahili, plus other
environmental films by Simon Trevor also in Kiswahili. The wild Dog
film was made especially for us by Ben Please. The film aims at
highlighting the problems Wild Dogs face in rural areas. Using Dr
Dulle as the spokes person the film interviews the local village
residents and finds out why Wild Dogs are seen as a pest. Then the
film interviews firstly, the Chief Park Warden,Mr Mtahiko, of Ruaha
Park and then the Ecologist who at that time was Gladis Ngumbi. Gladis gives
an excellent overview of the the delicate nature of this rare endangered
species and why it is so important that we protect it. Park wildlife
guides for Jongomero Camp and Mdonya Camp, then explaine to us why Wild Dogs
play an important role in their work and why they feel it is important to
protect them. This film was a huge success, mainly because the audience
recognized many of the key people in the film!

However, we think that the message got across well, as everyone
certainly listened attentively! We hope to show more films over the
course of this year at regular intervals. Dr Dulle works closely with
the HIV programs that are active in our area, and so we hope to team
up with them and share the costs of hiring the van for films. We
think that a combination of films about HIV followed by an
environmental one will be most helpful to the communities at large.

Jongomero Camp continues to sponsor 9 students in the Idodi
Secondary School, plus helping 25 poor families with the uniforms and
books needed for Primary school. We also arranged for 2 wheel-chairs
to be made on their behalf. The two men who received these chairs
are extremely delighted as they are now able to extend their
activities a great deal. We thank Jongomero for their very
valuable participation with our programs in the surrounding communities.

Finally I would like to say that all of the above programs have been
made possilbe by the extreme generoisty of Mr Harry Vlek and Ans de
Winter of the Netherlands. We are unable to thank them adequately for
their extraordinary support.

For more information on this project, please email sue@ruaha.com

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