JGI Uganda Volunteer Journal

Volunteer Story: Heading Home from the Roots & Shoots Youth Camp
By David Cook (USA)

Before closing out our work for 2007, JGI Uganda introduced a new program for Roots & Shoots members and teachers: the inaugural Roots & Shoots Youth Camp. We brought together a group of pupils, teachers and head teachers from eight active clubs around Uganda to share ideas and teach one another about different project ideas to implement back in local schools and communities. The Youth Camp was a great success, and everyone from JGI and the individual Roots & Shoots clubs is looking forward to seeing the results of the camp during the first school term in 2008.

As a volunteer, I was able to help with preparations before the camp and then to help co-lead the camp itself. But make no mistake, this was Jacque's project from start to finish. Fortunately, I was in Entebbe with an open window of time to help facilitate the camp, as Tracy and I had just recently completed work on the final draft of JGI's P6/P7 curriculum guide (you know, the one many of you previous volunteers also helped with during your time in Uganda). While Tracy and I were busy during the previous months with curriculum projects, Jacque and Steph had been laying the groundwork for the camp, setting objectives, designing a work plan, inviting participants, making arrangements for UWEC to host the camp and even bringing on a new volunteer, Kizito Julius, to help with preparations for the event. Then on the afternoon of December 10th, the participants started arriving and the fun began.

We held the camp at UWEC from the 10th- 14th of December, with 27 participants (15 pupils and 12 teacher/head teachers) to coincide with the long holiday break from school. One of my primary responsibilities during the camp was to facilitate group leadership challenges and games, mainly for the student participants. I've worked for a number of years in environmental education back home, and these activity sessions gave me the chance to pull some old tricks out of my bag while participating in lots of fun learning activities with the kids. We also drew lots of parallels between the challenges in the games and similar real-life challenges that our students face as leaders in their Roots & Shoots clubs.

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to build relationships with the pupils over the course of the four-day camp, seeing them build confidence in their abilities and among their peers in such a short time. We challenged each other with blindfolded trust walks, untying human knots, building newspaper towers and silly name games. And it was really a 'best of both worlds' situation for me, as I was able to get out of the office and experience fieldwork similar to what I had done upcountry, all the while remaining close enough to the Chimp House to go to sleep every night in my own bed (and more importantly, to return for Ruth's home-cooked beans and chapatti).

While much of my energy was dedicated to facilitating leadership activities, there were times where I was able to take a background role and watch the pupils step into the lead. Prior to the camp, Jacque had asked each club to come prepared with a student-led presentation about a project they had successfully implemented in their community. This allowed the pupils to showcase their knowledge and skills in front of an audience while adding a more formal component to the overall camp experience. All the young participants took their turns in the spotlight, but they were also good listeners and audience members who took advantage of the opportunity to take in new ideas and to learn new skills for starting additional projects in the community. The following is a list of the workshops that Roots & Shoots members shared with one another:

• Pupils of Kyeikamba Primary school from Bushenyi showed how to build a nursery and grow vegetables. They were helped by their teacher and the horticulturalist at UWEC, and JGI sent all participants home with free seeds to start their own vegetable gardens.
  
• Kabalega Primary School showed how to make a bird nest box and demonstrated how to use the different materials and tools they used to achieve this back at their school compound.
  
• Pupils of St Joseph's Busingiro Primary school demonstrated how to make a tip tap. Then we provided jerry cans and ropes for all the participants to experiment with various ways to make different types of tip taps. This was followed by a discussion on sanitation.
  
• Pupils from St Peter's Nsambya demonstrated how to start a fruit tree nursery. They focused on how to sort and prepare the seeds for planting and they also showed how to prepare soil for planting the seeds.
  
• Pupils from Lake Victoria school showed how to recycle paper into bulletin boards. The different pupils also tried out different shapes of papier-mache after the session.
  
• Our new volunteer Kizito Julius demonstrated how to dry fruits during the final workshop of the camp. Tracy and I had dried bananas and pineapples in a small, simple dryer prior to the event, but Julius is a Ugandan teacher and farmer who had lots of experience with many different fruit drying methods.

The pupils and teachers were very intent listeners, asking great questions of all workshop presenters during the camp. Most pupils were busy taking notes in order to bring their new ideas home with them, but as facilitators, Julius, Jacque and I had prepared age-appropriate workshop kits for all participants, containing informational handouts and activities so our members could return to their schools with all the necessary information for starting their own projects.

The Youth Camp was more than just leadership games and workshop presentations, however, and we made sure to fill the schedule with lots of fun and educational activities. Everyone went on a tour of the zoo led by Peace and the UWEC staff; participants spent an entire day at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary learning all about the animals in the sanctuary, as well as the wild chimps living in forests throughout Central Africa; Jacque held discussions with teachers focused on strengthening Roots & Shoots back in their schools; we showed the PACE DVD series to the participants and facilitated discussions after each topic; and we showed optional nature DVD's during the evening hours. I was free from facilitating much of these activities, so I took on the role of honorary cameraman/videographer to capture images from the camp.

On the whole, the Youth Camp was a great success and all participating pupils and teachers left with a new set of skills to help them lead the Roots & Shoots clubs in their schools. They learned directly from their peers of successful projects that are being implemented by other clubs in Uganda, and gained the necessary information to implement similar projects when they return home. But for me, the Youth Camp took on added significance, because it was the final project I worked on as an international volunteer with JGI.

Like many of you reading this newsletter, I had a phenomenal experience working with JGI. I began my experience in January 2007 at Dr. Jane's house in Dar es Salaam, Tanaznia, living and working there for six months prior to coming to Uganda. I helped the Dar Roots & Shoots members to organize tree plantings, beach cleanups and community events, to engage in fundraising efforts and to start a member newsletter. I also visited individual secondary school classrooms for environmental education activities. After four months I took a break from Dar and visited Gombe Stream National Park and Kigoma with Jane, herself, before moving to Uganda on the first of July

For the rest of 2007 I thoroughly enjoyed working as a member of the JGI Uganda education team on numerous projects throughout the country. Whether I was based at the Chimp House, the Kalinzu Forest Education Centre or a random, roadside hotel somewhere upcountry, I was always meeting students and teachers who enjoyed learning new things about the world around them. Fortunately for me, those I met were also excited to share their world with me, this unknown mzungu who happened to understand just enough Kiswahili phrases to distinguish myself from the typical Western tourist. (I guess I fooled them!) And while I would've loved to stay in Uganda for many more months, perhaps the most memorable project I was involved with was the Youth Camp. It was the perfect blend of teamwork among all the education staff, coordination with a number of schools, and it gave me a final opportunity to work directly with students and teachers. At the conclusion of the week, everyone involved - pupils, teachers, JGI staff and volunteers - shook hands and said our goodbyes, very grateful for the opportunity to have participated in the camp, while also looking forward to extended time with our families during the holidays. One by one, the Roots & Shoots clubs arranged transport back to their villages and departed, and once they were gone, I walked along the shore of Lake Victoria and back to the Chimp House. A few hours later I would board a plane to fly home, completely content in my work and my journey of 2007 as an international volunteer with the Jane Goodall Institute.

Thanks for a great year JGI!

David