Over 500 school children, university students, teachers, Mukuvisi Woodlands Councillors and staff and high level VIPs, turned out in force for the 2015 Mukuvisi Woodlands Eco Schools Challenge on 14 October.  With the theme ‘A Healthy Environment – the Future we Want – Act NOW for Climate Justice’, this all-day event was a tremendous success on every level, and was made financially possible through the generous assistance of the European Union. Unicef provided additional sponsorship, while the French Embassy generously funded the production of 5000 booklets on Climate Change, a copy of which each participating child received, with additional copies being disturbed via the Eco Schools Programme in the year ahead.  Each child at the event also received a T shirt and special branded bag.

Over 40 schools participated in the event which wrapped up a very busy, active year in the Eco Schools Programme which is run by the Mukuvisi Woodlands Environmental Education Centre, headed by Co-Ordinator Gibson Nhokwara, who organised the event, spoke at the prize-giving and made an excellent Master of Ceremonies throughout. Other Mukuvisi Woodlands speakers at prize-giving were Chairman Simon Pitt and Vice Chairman Allain Chimanikire. The Eco Schools Programme was launched by Mukuvisi Woodlands Association around six years ago, following a model that is used successfully across the globe. It is a flagship of excellent hands-on experiential environmental education in Zimbabwe.

The afternoon prize-giving celebrations were graced by the presence of their Excellencies the Ambassador of Portugal Dr Ricardo Pracana, the Ambassador of France Mr Laurent Delahousse, the Head of the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe, Phillippe van Damme, the Acting Head of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in Zimbabwe Mr Martin Ager, a representative from the Dutch Embassy, and several other high ranking French Embassy, EU and UNDP officials and Unicef representatives. The Ministries of Education, Energy and Power Development and Environment, Water and Climate were well represented at the event, along with several tertiary education institutions.

The Guest of Honour was Professor Paul Mavhima the Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education who gave an upbeat speech at the prize-giving, extolling the Eco Schools Programme for their great strides and positive impact on environmental education in Zimbabwe. EU Head Mr Phillippe van Damme also delivered an excellent speech which focussed on the challenge of climate change and the need to ensure that today’s adults and the up-coming generations as represented by the school children there present had a tremendous burden to tackle this head on, and now, for their own sake and for generations to come.

During the morning, the children were kept extremely active and busy, participating in the Primary and Secondary Eco Schools Quizzes, and exploring the Woodlands in search of clues to answer environmental quiz questions.  It was a blazing hot day, and most children carried out this Treasure Hunt primarily at a run, so all were well hot and tired by lunchtime!  This hunt for clues included a fun interlude navigating a Maze while being timed, constructed by the Mukuvisi Woodlands team.

On display at the event were the amazing artworks and models entered into the Eco Schools Challenge by the children, inspired by the event’s guiding theme. The quality of these works was very impressive and the VIPS clearly enjoyed seeing what the children had produced which well demonstrated their full understanding of the devastating impacts of climate change to our futures if we do not act now, and many other burning environmental issues of our day.

This art competition, plus the hunt for clues and answering of questions in the Woodlands themselves, the sit-down quiz and the school’s performance as an Eco School during the course of this year, plus its environmental networking activities, were all assessed and marked and informed the final decisions as to which were the overall Most Sustainable Schools in terms of the Programme and its guiding principles. The winning Primary School was Highlands and Secondary School was Chinhoyi High and prizes, funded by the EU, included solar power kits for the winning schools.  Various other prizes were awarded for the different elements that made up the Challenge and the event ended on a very festive note. Also unveiled at the event was the winning logo design for the upcoming COP21 (communities of practice) event in Paris next month, at which 195 countries will be represented, to discuss and agree upon the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. The winning logo was designed by Tawanda Mhlanga of Chinhoyi University, who attended the event and received his award, delightedly shaking hands with the VIPs present.