On the Brighter Side, Educating the next generation, the Pemba International School visits the Reserve and Luwire Safaris

A brief report on the trip, I believe written by Derek or Paula.

The International School of Pemba (ISP) was invited by Luwire Safaris to pioneer an Educational trip to the Niassa Reserve. The upper grade students: Noorian, Aidan, Rayan, Iliescu, Goncalo, Nissa and their teacher Jesse came from the 1st to the 6th July to visit Block L7 in Niassa Reserve. A fantastic time was had by all, students, teacher and Luwire staff included.
The objective of the trip was to create awareness in the kids and community of Pemba to The Niassa Reserve, its operations and the conservation and anti poaching programs involved in the area. This event has been in our heads for many years and it was time to make it happen. The fee paid per child will go to a Mussoma community school project.

Most of these kids were born in Northern Mozambique but this was the first time that they had a real idea of the bush and indeed of the Niassa Reserve. Before the trip they were told to do research on the Reserve and its wildlife, on which very little information could be found. On the first day, the kids had an introduction to the Reserve, to the actual boundaries which have altered over the years, the management, the SRN’s role, the anti poaching activities, the blocks and their operations and finally the wildlife. The children were also asked to choose an animal and to produce five questions, and to write an article on their chosen animal, and also about the Reserve which will be published in their own Newspaper.
The Students flew by aircraft to Lugenda Camp where our team: Derek, Nic, Dave and Paula met them. From there, they began their 6 days of wilderness experience. They had the opportunity to visit Lusingi camp, to walk in the bush and to climb the Ngolonge inselbergs. They visited the Batwa paintings, travelled a short way down the beautiful Lugenda River in canoës and swam in the safe places. We preselected a camp site on top of an inselberg and they assisted with putting up a fly camp where they slept around the fire. On the last day, they visited Keith and Colleen Begg and learned about their research on honey badgers, lions and leopards. Guy Balm, a world authority on leopard behaviour, gave a extra little touch to the trip. On the shooting range the kids proficiency posed the question of what their fathers get up to in their spare time! Keith and Guy were intimidated out of a display when even little 10 year old Norain showed exemplary skill on the darting exercise!
Some of the subjects that they covered included ecology, animal and plant identification; they gained a great deal of extra information about each animal chosen with their searching questions to the specialists (Derek, Nic, Dave, papa and mama Nculi and Guy). They learned how to behave in the bush and on the river, read maps, and about the communities that live in the reserve. The guides and instructors were very impressed with the level of maturity shown by the students, as well as the humour and inquisitiveness displayed – in fact a number of questions were bloody difficult to answer! Sadly, one of the field lessons which had real impact was about the reality of commercial poaching.
During the same week the Reserve had a most depressing poaching situation. More than 10 elephants were killed for their ivory. We saw the opportunity to show the kids the atrocities that man commits for greed, as with the reality of where ivory that is sold daily in the streets of Pemba comes from. They were shocked and horrified by what they saw and each of them wrote few lines about their own feelings. The strongest sentences will be used to make a poster to be used in the airports and publics areas in Pemba and Lichinga. Perhaps the words of children will reach where sophisticated prose misses the mark.
We would like to thank the parents for having the confidence to entrust their little monsters to us, to Keith and Colleen Begg, who are always so willing to share their time and knowledge and to Guy Balme who also helped turn the day at Nculi Camp into something special. Jesse their teacher who immersed himself in the program whole heartedly, and indeed spent a sleepless night helping us recover an AK 47 and 3 poachers, and last but definitely not least, the students, for their inquisitiveness, fun and effort. For the compassion they showed for the plight of the poached elephants, they made our endeavour more than worth it. They are the budding custodians of this planet.

We would like to think that this is the first of an annual tradition that will become a feature students can look forward to in their final year at ISP. We also hope that through an educator such as Jesse we can offer a similar program to students within our block.




























I remember the first year I was in Mozambique Sandi my girlfriend then, now my wife, came over for several weeks and she volunteered to teach the children gymnastics at the school. Happy to see several of her students in these photos, a very cool bunch of young people. Hats off to all involved!