Prepared by Leslee Maasdorp
Co-ordinator of Programme

Programmes for schools have developed to meet the needs of our clients and exploit the rich biodiversity of the Middle-Zambezi. Core topics like sustainable hunting and management issues of the Zambezi catchment are studied by all groups often through play roles or debate. The rest of the course is tailor-made to meet each school's requirements. Both junior and senior school groups gain in many directions from the course. Advanced level students have been heavily targeted as they will provide many of the leaders of society. However, it is often the learners at primary level who may become hooked on the wilderness becoming the conservationist of the future.

To support the breadth and flexibility of the courses, the co-ordinator and many other specialists produced written material on local natural history and the earth sciences and devised projects to be conducted in the area near camp. With. this backing, Rifa has become a field centre where advanced and intermediate level students come to do curriculum practical work, especially in biology, geography and social science fields.

Some groups cover a section of their syllabus while others devote part of their time to this aspect of their work. In all cases the Rifa programme has been developed around curricula and it has been interesting to note that over the years more emphasis has been placed on biodiversity. One item of a syllabus is devoted to the African Elephant, its biology and management.

Teachers, often nervous of the practical side of the curricula, have gained immensely from the course and many act as resource persons for their groups. Some articipants, having trained as teachers, are now bringing groups to Rifa so assisting in sustaining the programme.

Top rate classroom lessons can never replace an outdoor experience. Environmental education is regarded as a broad approach to education, more learner/centred and less authority driven. It emphasises the actual hands on experience (encounter) in learning. This experiential learning is a kind of learner-centred approach.

At Rifa much of the learning is done co-operatively in real life situations. Issues like poaching, land and water use become interactive processes of learning and planning together at times followed by action-taking to bring about change. The teacher/resource person is an active mediator of knowledge and values with students. The hunter plays the same role often coupled with a charismatic personality which helps win groups of learners over to appreciate the wilderness. The scout provides links to indigenous culture and language which many school children readily identify with.

But another piece of the puzzle in providing good education in the environment (and for sustainable development) needs to be fitted in. This is tire magnetism provided by certain places like Rifa. Rifa inspires with its landscapes and with its magnificent wildlife and habitats. The diversity of these is amazing and within walking distance of camp. Evidence of rifting is seen in the Zambezi basin with its faults, rocks, hotsprings and horsts, of river processes such as cliff erosion and channels and sandbars. The Zambezi River is seen as Africa's fourth largest river, as a boundary to the Zambian hinterland and as a connection to another country by means of two bridges. Wildlife with the Big Five, until poaching eliminated the Black Rhino, the antelope and ever busy termites breathe life into the bush.

Trees add to the spectacle and show amazing survival tactics - mopane woodlands, baobab and paper bark - their stark appearance in winter and green Eden look in the rains. Pans arising from dry depressions to hold rain and migratory birds, crocodiles and even hippo.

All this and stunning sunsets over the river and an outstanding wilderness make the place one of power, reconnecting children with the real world. Rifa as a venue shapes people's appreciation of wild places.