In Zimbabwe, schoolchildren face threats from animals. Now they are learning how to spot the dangers

SAVE VALLEY CONSERVANCY, Zimbabwe — On the impoverished fringes of a wildlife reserve in southeastern Zimbabwe, 14-year-old Esther Bote wakes at dawn with a practiced daily routine.

She cleans the house, lights the fire, cooks, bathes and puts on her impeccable gray and white school uniform. Then it’s time for what she considers the most dangerous task: the 3-mile (5-kilometer) walk to school through bush and forest trails where she can stalk dangerous animals.

The teenager has been living with this type of threat for some time, but he does not get used to it. Children as young as five, some holding hands with peers or slightly older siblings, walk briskly through thick forests to school and then back home.

“Sometimes we see animal tracks. We see their footprints and we can tell the elephants are still out there,” she told The Associated Press from her home, where she is staying with her elderly grandparents.

In this humid, densely forested area of ​​a semi-arid district of Zimbabwe, repeated droughts, aggravated by the natural climate phenomenon of El Niño and those caused by man climate changeThey have caused food and water shortages, leaving people and animals in competition for resources. Wildlife is getting dangerously close to human populations and children have to learn how they can live in this new reality without taking too many risks. To adapt, schoolchildren are now taking basic lessons in animal behavior.

On a recent July day, when Esther and her friends saw elephant tracks on the road from school, they reported it to a ranger. The animals had crossed a crop field and a bush path that they usually use to get to and from school. A few days earlier, a child was seriously injured by a crocodile attack.

Although no fatalities have been reported, Esther and her friends remain cautious.

“We normally walk in groups to feel safer,” Esther said.

Since last year, the private Save Valley Conservancy and the country’s parks agency have been running a program for schoolchildren on how to recognize danger signs and how to coexist with wildlife. Dozens of students like Esther can now identify different wildlife tracks, animal sounds and can read the direction of the wind through the sand and know how and when to take cover.

“The person who is most affected is the child. He’s the kid that goes to school, he’s the kid that goes to get water, he’s the kid that goes to get firewood,” said Dingani Masuku, community liaison manager for the Save Valley Conservancy. “That’s why we go to schools so they can know how animals behave and what to do with them.”

He said they are trying to teach “a sense of ownership in the children” so that “they do not see the animal as an adversary, but rather see it as something beneficial to the community, something that should be respected.”

On a recent sunny day, more than two dozen children sat outside on a dusty floor in the scorching heat for one of the sessions at Chiyambiro Secondary School. An 18-year-old girl who recently left school and is now part of a new corps of young community rangers was teaching them animal behavior and how to protect themselves.

“Do not approach an animal. If it’s a lion, it looks for food. That’s why he’s in the community. He’s looking for cheap and easy prey, and you could be the easy prey,” she said, dressed in a green military-type uniform. Some of the children said they travel up to 15 kilometers (9 miles) to school and are forced to walk before dawn, when animals such as hyenas would still be lurking.

A national parks agency official spoke about the benefits of wildlife to the community, such as tourism. He pointed to the recently recruited female rangers as an example of how wildlife can create jobs for locals. He encouraged them to take the message to their parents, many of whom view wild animals as enemies or a source of food.

Alphonce Chimangaisu, chairman of the Chiyambiro Secondary School School Development Committee, said parents hoped the initiative would make children safer.

“Some parents have stopped their children from going to school because they don’t know what could happen,” he said.

Although there is no concrete data yet on the effectiveness of the initiative, Chimangaisu said the school has been using it to convince some previously reluctant parents to change their attitudes. Many agree with the training, but still ask for concessions, such as the school allowing their children to arrive later to class, she said.

School authorities in affected rural areas are often forced to delay the start of classes and end them early to allow affected children to walk to and from school during the day, when wild animals are unlikely to roam the streets. communities, said Obert Masaraure, president of the Amalgamated Zimbabwe Rural Teachers Union.

“We have reports of students who have completely withdrawn from school fearing for their lives,” he said, adding that teachers who live far from schools are also increasingly not coming to work. “These challenges are compounding other existing vulnerabilities for rural students, further denying them access to quality education.”

The country’s parks agency is now pushing to start conservation and animal behavior training in schools across the country in areas where people are increasingly forced to coexist with wild animals that make regular forays into communities in search of food. and water due to droughts related to climate change. said Tinashe Farawo, spokesperson for Zimbabwe’s National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

In addition to learning how to stay safe, schoolchildren can be a helpful way to get the message home, she said.

“We have created environmental clubs in many schools where we create awareness and education,” Farawo added. “When children are taught about these dangers and animal behavior, they too come home and teach their parents. “We have found that parents find it easier to listen when their children talk.”

He said the conflict is likely to worsen due to the increased frequency of droughts, noting that the parks agency has received between 3,000 and 4,000 distress calls from communities fighting wildlife in the past three years, compared to around of 900 calls in 2018.

For Esther, although the training has not eliminated risk, she said it could be useful when danger arises.

“It helps, we now know a lot about animals that we didn’t know before,” he said, adding that as long as the animals are still there, he won’t be able to fully enjoy school.

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