AN IMPRESSIVE FEW MONTHS FOR THE EDUCATION TEAM

Lilongwe Wildlife Trust’s education team have been very busy over the past few months! Not only have they been delivering their usual lessons to various schools around Lilongwe, they’ve also attended a graduation ceremony for their adult literacy programme, engaged young people in seed-sowing and artistic activities, welcomed a women’s organisation to the Wildlife Centre and launched an eco-brick challenge to end Malawi’s plastic pollution problem.

In October, the Adult Literacy Programme saw the graduation of 46 of LWT’s students, during a commemoration ceremony that was attended by 3,000 people. The Adult Literacy Programme helps individuals to gain independence and enables them to run their own businesses. LWT also recently welcomed Women Together to the sanctuary. Women Together is an organisation that works with women to implement income-generating activities in various communities. The women came together at the Wildlife Centre to share and develop skills including soap-making, organic gardening, fuel briquette-making and seedling cultivation. As a further part of their community outreach, one of LWT’s trainee wildlife clubs, Linyangwa Wildlife Club, has started its bee keeping program, conserving local wildlife and raising awareness to surrounding communities.

At Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, LWT has been busy engaging young people in seed-sowing activities in order to establish a permanent tree nursery for indigenous trees species.  Pupils from Bishop Mackenzie International and Montessori schools have also been painting artistic wildlife designs at the Centre’s pump house. 

And finally, in a bid to curb plastic pollution in Lilongwe, LWT launched an eco-brick challenge in June for schools, under this year`s World Environment Day theme of ‘beat plastic pollution’. An eco-brick is a plastic bottle stuffed solid with non-biodegradable waste to create a reusable building block, therefore removing plastic from the environment. LWT posed the challenge to schools to make as many eco-bricks as possible and the challenge gained massive support. So far, the project has gained support from Likuni Girls, Christian Heritage and Mvama Primary schools, with the expectation that it will expand to more schools in the near future,

All eco-bricks being made are collected to the Wildlife Centre for the possible construction of different demonstration structures.