By Catherine Sasman
A remarkable wilderness programme allows our orphaned and vulnerable children to blossom with love and care in some of the finest tourist locations in the country.
SOSSUSVLEI
The Sossusvlei terrain must be one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places in the world. In winter – as with most of the year – yellow stubbles of grass turn the saltpan of the central Namib Desert into golden hues. Some of the highest dunes in the world – often reaching heights of 300 metres – tip the low-lying areas in spectacular red.
This makes for dazzling scenery dotted with teeming animal life: Oryx strolling over the desolate stretches, springbok standing head-down while feeding on the sparse vegetation, sandgrouse birds descending onto a man-made water hole in their hundreds, wild African cats shying away in rocky hillocks and ostriches running necks back at the sound of approaching vehicles driving in solemn procession that cuts the deafening silence that otherwise envelopes this spectacular wilderness.
No vehicle is allowed off the designated narrow gravel tracks. The eco-system of the Namib Naukluft Park, which forms the largest conservation area in Africa and fourth largest in the world, is very fragile and respect thereof is imperative.
The area sustains tourism from all over the world as people fly in, or drive over tricky mountain passes, to marvel at the towering red dunes and open, pristine spaces.
It is in these surroundings that 24 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) from Windhoek, Keetmanshoop, Rehoboth, Aranos and Gibeon had the opportunity during the last week of May to attend a weeklong wilderness camp at the Kulala Desert Lodge that lies at the border of the Namib Naukluft Park.
The Kulala Nature Reserve [kulala means ‘to sleep’ in Oshiwambo] covers 21 000 hectares of private property about 30 km from Sesriem.
Wilderness Safaris that owns the property, and operates in six countries in Africa, closes one of its lodges to tourists and offers these facilities to marginalized local children.
These children usually have been “interrupted and disrupted by life-threatening conditions” such as illness, poverty and HIV/AIDS.
The wilderness experience, brought to them by the Children in the Wilderness Trust, is an attempt at healing their broken childhoods by using environmental education, therapeutic recreation and lots of guided play.
The Kulala Nature Reserve was formerly a small stock karakul farming area. It is situated at what was formerly known as Witwater (white water). Many farmers had sold off their farms when the bottom fell out from under the karakul industry, which is currently on an upswing curve with growing Asian interest in the pelts.
According to Rob Moffet, Marketing and Sales Manager of Wilderness Safaris, there is today no substantial residence community in the area; all people there are linked to the tourism industry in one way or another.
The Campers’ Project
The Children in the Wilderness initiative was conceived from a visit of the American actor, Paul Newman, when he crossed the Botswana/Namibian border while on a trip with his family to the Okavango Delta in 2001 with Wilderness Safaris.
Discussions around a campfire of his initiative, the Association of Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for children in America and Europe, led to a suggestion made to create a similar environment and life skills programme for children in Africa.
After returning to the USA, Newman started to make work of the idea, and the project quickly gained ground in southern Africa. In December 2001, Wilderness Safaris launched the first Children in the Wilderness programme in Botswana.
The programme currently also runs in Malawi, South Africa and the Seychelles.
The Namibian chapter, registered as a Section 21 trust, conducted their first camps in 2002 with activities focusing on OVC in rural environments.
So far a total of 19 camps have been organised here, with over 450 Namibian children between the ages of 13 and 18 having benefited.
For many of them, this experience is life changing, says Connie Botma, CITW Executive Director in Namibia, even if the children are taken out of often appalling domestic conditions for only a brief period.
Most of the children are HIV/AIDS orphans left behind in the care of a grandparent or other family members, or they come from abusive conditions where the parents have either abandoned them or neglect them for their alcoholic lifestyles. Or these children are often simply desperately poor and suffer hunger and other deprivations that come with it.
Such circumstances, commented clinical psychologist, Shaun Whittaker, could have a profound and far-reaching emotional impact on any child.
“But this depends on the conditions under which the child stays. Generally other adults can be caregivers to a child. Where the situation is very traumatizing, these children would need tremendous support, and it is an excellent idea to have intensive interventions,” Wittaker continued.
“The purpose of the programme is to give hope for the future. When these children come to the camps a bigger and broader world opens up to them,” says Botma.
The programme aims to increase the capacity of young Namibians to cope with life’s challenges and to educate, empower and inspire them to actualize their greatest potential and to contribute to the legacy of conservation.
Camp organizers and other volunteers go to great pains to establish a safe, stimulating and enabling environment for the children while at camp.
“What has become apparent from our work with these vulnerable children is that they survive because of a long-term healthy relationship with reliable adults,” says Botma.
A consistent environment is thus created for them. There are only four rules to it: no violence is allowed, and no one of the children may put others down.
Adding to their feeling of safety and security at camp, the children may further not engage in any unsupervised activity – this includes going off to play, sleeping in their tents, going to the bathroom, or speaking with any one not from the camp. Importantly also, is that the children should at all times treat the environment in which they find themselves with the utmost respect.
“In such an environment more healing takes place more effectively,” comments Botma.
During the weeklong period, they are also introduced to a range of topics and interests.
They interact with local tour guides and conservationists where they develop new insights into the value of conservation and eco-tourism, as well as renewable energy sources. And while they learn, they have a chance to develop personal and interpersonal skills that boost their self-esteem and confidence.
“This is a place where we feel safe and happy,” said a young girl at the camp.
Although the children were allowed to speak to the media in closely observed supervised conditions, their names, ages and circumstances are not to be divulged for their protection.
“This is a very beautiful place to be at,” said the child at the close of the camp. “I feel I am a part of one big happy family; it feels like home to me. We get a lot of love here. You don’t hear people fighting,” she went on, adding, “I have grown so fat in this week!”
Johanna Boois, a volunteer working with orphans and giving home-based care to HIV/AIDS patients in Gibeon, accompanied two children to the camp.
“The camp experience makes such a difference to our children,” she praises.
“Many of them see the value of their education and it serves as a motivation for them to complete their schooling. Our children have shown huge improvement.” Her concern, however, is the institutional neglect of children in rural experience.
“We in the rural areas are too often forgotten and thrown away. We should be accommodated more. These camps give us hope and motivate us to do more for our communities.”
Another volunteer from Aranos, Sophia Jacobs, concurs: “Big businesses in our bigger towns should come forward to help our rural children. If everyone joins hands, we can make two or more children’s hearts sing.”
Says Botma: “We aim to increase the resilience and opportunities of the children not only to cope with their difficult circumstances, but to rise above it. The challenge now is to create a range of incentives for the children that assist them in creating productive and joyful lives and contributing to conservation of our unique environment.”