World Wildlife Day is celebrated around the World on March 3rd. This year’s theme was ‘Sustaining all life on Earth’ encompassing all wild animal and plant species as key components of the world’s biodiversity.
To commemorate, the EWB Education team organized and hosted an event in Chobe West on March 7th, a fun-filled day of learning, activities and games for environmental club students. We were pleased to have all six schools in Chobe West participate; Mabele, Kavimba, Kachikau, Satau and Parakarungu Primary schools and Liswaani Junior Secondary, including the schools’ Environmental Educators and appreciate Wildlife officers from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks and representatives from Chobe Regional Education Operations who joined us. 
The day celebrated the special place of wild plants and animals in their many varied and beautiful forms, as a component of the world’s biological diversity and how life on earth is interconnected. All species are interconnected and depend on one another. Forests provide homes for animals. Animals eat plants. The plants need healthy soil to grow. Fungi help decompose organisms to fertilize the soil. Bees and other insects carry pollen from one plant to another, which enables the plants to reproduce. With less biodiversity, these connections weaken and sometimes break, harming all the species in the ecosystem.
The main objective of the day was for students to better understand biodiversity connection. Prior to the event, every school group was provided with a different topic, relating to the event theme, topics included: Plants & trees, the Soil Web, Insects, Birds, Aquatic Life and Animals. The students researched and prepared oral presentations, which they presented as a group, which also served to enhance the student’s research and public speaking skills.
Every event begins with the formalities of welcoming, prayer, introductions and explanation to the day’s schedule and objective. Afterwards, the students presented on their topics. The student groups were well prepared and had researched their topics thoroughly, providing the audience with informative in an entertaining way. The students showed confidence and their presentations demonstrated how well they worked together as a focused team.
The Department of Wildlife and National parks also gave a brief presentation about human and wildlife co-existence, the importance of understanding wildlife needs, humans connection to various species and safety precautions to take when encountering wildlife.
The most enjoyable part of the day was when the students broke into groups, rotating to participate in several games, which were both educational and fun. The game that stood out and had students thinking was the “Web game”, others included “Lucky Monkey”, “Fishing for Lollies,” “Make your own Species,” and ended in an exciting team “Leap Frog Race.” The students also took a quiz on the theme, which all groups did well on, and ended in a tie for highest score.
It was an eventful, informative, fun day with good friends, solid team efforts, great food… enjoyed by all that participated!
A Trumpet of many Thank yous to the Chobe Regional Education Office, Mr. Peters, and the Environmental Teachers for helping to ensure the event’s organization, the Dept. of Wildlife & National Parks for their participation, grateful appreciation to Muchenje Lodge and Zambos Transport for providing safe transportation for all the students and teachers, and importantly to all the exquisite students for their focused engagement. We are looking forward to hosting you all again!
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