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Children in the Wilderness - 2006

27-09-2010

Children in the WildernessWe caught up with Helena Fassen from Wilderness Safaris to find out how the project has been going since we first featured them in 2006. The Wild Child episode featured their amazing Children in the Wilderness (CITW) campaign that offered disadvantaged local children the opportunity to experience a safari in their beautiful Botswana nature reserve. There were encouraging signs that the initiative was inspiring the children to a life in wilderness conservation – and Helen was pleased to confirm that they now employ two park rangers who were once part of the programme.

One of these new workers, Goitseone Monnawaphuthego, notes that his early experiences with the programme made him ‘aware of the importance of nature conservation’ and he now wants to pursue a career in nature documentary film-making.

The programme has gone from strength to strength over the years, and now in addition to their standard programme we featured in 2006 CITW they also run 3 or 4 extra camps a year for ex-students that show promise and interest after their first go round. They’ve recently had to employ three new full time staff including an environmental education expert to help run the education programmes that they offer.

Children in the WildernessI put it to Helen that sustainable businesses can do well out of the recession – she said that in the safari world people are more aware of who they travel with – they ask themselves ‘If I spend my money with you, then where do you spend your money?’ She continued ‘I think that during the recession, when people had a certain amount of money to spend, they became more concerned with spending that wisely – and things like the wilderness safaris child participation programme helped people to see we were different to other companies’.

Does she still keep up with World Challenge? ‘Yes I do always have a look to see which finalists have made it on it each year’ she continued ‘we're really grateful for the exposure that the BBC World Challenge brought to us, especially during the broadcast. It's a certain type of person that is into wilderness conservation and child education and eco-tourism at the same time – so it's a small group of potential sponsors out there and World Challenge really helps identify us to them’.

Posted by Oliver Lamb

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We have looked back at some of the previous finalists to see how their projects are fairing. Click on the links below read about these projects.

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