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ISSUE: q406
01/11/2006
By Ian Tanner
THE SCOPE OF THE PROGRAMME
Timing and distribution
Chongololo magazine is scheduled to appear six times annually, that is twice in each school term. Every effort is made to ensure that this first issue in each term arrives in the schools shortly after the beginning of the term, the second arriving at, or before, half term. In this way projects and work suggested may be carried on on a continuing basis throughout the year.
Until early 1977 the magazine was distributed free of charge to each of the 2,680 schools shown on the Ministry of Education records. Each school received variously between three and five copies of each issue of the magazine, this serving to introduce the Chongololo Programme to the school. It was as a direct result of this that many schools formed clubs and registered them with the Society. The escalating costs of running the programme, coupled with increasing doubts as to the fate of the magazine in many schools, resulted in the decision to end the unsolicited mailings to all schools. At the outset of the programme, clubs registered with the Society became eligible to receive 40 copies of each issue and several Teacher’s Guides. Such was the registration of clubs that by the end of 1975 the Society could only afford to send 30 magazines and one Teacher’s Guide to registered clubs. Today each club receives 25 issues and one Teacher’s Guide.
Ancillary services
In the early days the Society produced a ‘How to Start’ booklet on how to start and run a Chongololo Club, this being re-printed in 1975 to meet the continuing demand for help in setting up a viable club. The booklet covers administrative matters, ideas for projects, and includes a source list of addresses and publications which may be of use to a newly-formed club. The current view is that this information is now out-dated and it is hoped that a completely new edition will be forthcoming.
A wall chart, linking four issues of Chongololo and expanding the information carried in those issues, was produced. Shortage of funds and personnel have limited further productions, though there are still hopes of a two-part wall chart on the birds of Zambia, this in conjuction with the Zambian Ornithological Society.
The production of educational card games with a wildlife theme, the first of which, “POACHER”, is proving very popular, will take the conservation message to a much wider young audience.
Services and concessions for registered Chongololo Clubs
- Chongololo Club members who have a good attendance and endeavour records in their clubs qualify for Chongololo badges;
- Clubs may obtain free entry to the botanical and zoological gardens of Munda Wanga on application to the Society;
- Ancillary productions of the Society and the Chongololo Programme are often available to registered clubs at a reduced rate;
- The Society negotiated with a national book distributor a discount rate for books purchased by registered clubs: regrettably there are all too few suitable books available today to satisfy the ever-growing demand of Chongololo members;
A newsletter goes out with each issue of Chongololo, announcing competitions for Clubs, conservation measures of a national nature, and other events of interest to Clubs.
OTHER ASPECTS OF THE PROGRAMME
Outside contacts
The Society has maintained for four years close links with Natural Resources Officers (working under the Government Conservator of Natural Resources) and provides them with Chongololo magazines which are used in their work with both younger children and adults in the rural natural resources education programme run by the department. In recent months this service to those connected with broader aspects of conservation, or to those in contact with children through their employment, has been extended. Chongololo is now mailed to provincial and district national resources officers; provincial and district libraries; chief education officers; district education officers; inspectors of schools, both secondary and primary schools; prisons with library centres; research stations with library centres; community develop-ment centres with libraries and teacher training colleges, which latter receive a larger number of Teacher’s Guides to assist with developing curriculum programmes based on Chongololo for the trainee teachers.
School Camps
The Society maintains an interest in the two schools camps, Nyamaluma and Treetops, which were originally established with funds provided by the Society, and raised from the Beit Trust.
Although these camps have been run and maintained for many years by government the Society pays the salary of the warden of Treetops Camp. John Hazam, originally at Nyamaluma, in Luangwa Valley, moved to Treetops on the edge of the Busanga plain in Kafue National Park to undertake the training of Zambian staff in the running of the camp. The courses run at the camps are essentially based on the visitor’s practical experiences and observations in the field, although an increasing amount of source and follow-up material is based on the Chongololo magazine and its Teacher’s Guide.
Society Branch Education Activities
Throughout the history of the programme branches of the Society have inolved themselves in Chongololo extension work to a greater or lesser extent. The holding of local art competitions, the visiting of schools and the showing of films, the taking of parties of children to centres of zoological or biological interest, and in some instances the running of a full-scale “conservation week” as a climax to the year’s activities are but some of the manifestations of Society branch involvement. In this way thousands of children annually come into direct contact with conservation-minded individuals who are in a position to “make real” some of the conservation message.
This practical involvement has extended to the provision of a 20-seater bus, in the case of Kabwe Branch, which takes pupils to Treetops Camp during the national parks open season, and to centres of interest for the remainder of the year. The bus, the “Chongololo Express” was provided by the small but active Kabwe Rotary Club, and to date close on a thousand children must have taken the trip to practical, in-the-field wildlife through this far-sighted generosity.
Employment of an Education Field Officer
The Ndola/Luanshya branch of the Society employed a full-time education field officer for close on three years and, as well as liaising with the many Chongololo Clubs in the immediate area, he was engaged in the production of teaching and visual-aid materials. In addition he maintained contact with the adult population through conservation talks spon-sored and run by the branch.
FUNDING
The expanded Chongololo Programme, embarked on in early 1974, was scheduled to run for two years initially. Funds were solicited and received from the Frankfurt Zoological Society, and the mining companies in Zambia: Anglo American Corporation (Central Africa) Limited, Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines and Roan Consolidated Mines. Of the original K35,000 raised for the programme, sufficient remained at the completion of the initial two years to enable production of Chongololo magazine to June of 1976. By then the Society had been authorised by the Zambian government to make approaches to a number of international bodies in an endeavour to seek further funds to ensure the future of the Chongololo Programme. The present world economic situation made this hunt for funds a far from fruitful one.
The World Wildlife Fund is funding the Chongololo Programme to the extent of guaranteeing assistance in the sum of US$10,000 annually, this for a three-year period ending in mid-1979. This represents some K7,800 annually towards the programme, dependent on exchange rates. The fate of the US dollar on international money markets recently points to a reduced income in 1979. Jimmy Carter’s anti-inflationary moves are being closely watched! Additional funding has been forthcoming from Bata Shoe Company of Zambia, this in the form of a K800.00 grant per issue completed, representing K4,800.00 annually. Without the support of these two organisations Chongololo may well have become “extinct” in 1977.
A recently revised estimate of the Society’s financial needs in order to maintain Chongololo at its present strength and efficiency suggests an outlay in excess of K23,200 per annum. Set against this total, incoming grants as above, together with small grants from local organisations, still leave the Society with a shortfall of K10,000 per annum. This shortfall is made up from the Society’s diminishing general fund which is sustained principally by earnings from publications.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
In January 1977 Lorraine Legg put out her first radio programme on Chongololo under the aegis of the Bata Shoe Company. Originally a ten-minute weekly spot in the Bata radio half-hour, Lorraine has gradually taken over more and more of the programme and now has the lion’s share. Every Sunday from 1245 to 1315 hours the listening audience around Zambia tunes in to informative, frequently amusing and always well-presented wildlife material. Lorraine has kept up the hectic pace without break, and even contrived to leave sufficient pre-recorded tapes for the programme to continue uninterrupted during a near three-month leave earlier this year. A considerable amount of correspondence results from the radio show, perhaps the most significant advance in the Chongololo programme since the magazine went nationwide in 1974. It is not out of place to mention here that the Bata Shoe Company. in many countries, is playing an increasingly active part in the education of young people to an awareness and appreciation of their environment. Bata’s education programmes are attractive and comprehensive and will have a considerable impact on the rising generation around the world.
In January 1978, through the initiative of the Copperbelt Central branch of the Society, a 13 week television series began. The “Chongololo Show”, screened at 1800 hours every Wednesday, rapidly became a great favourite in households along the line-of-rail. Such was the success of the original series that ZTV requested a second series, which will run to the year end. Few realise how much organisation goes into a full half-hour programme; and the effort demanded becomes proportionately greater as studios offer fewer facilities. Despite starting each show “from scratch”, with only cameras, lights, technicians and studio space to hand, imaginative visual aids and varied approaches have resulted in a good standard of presentation and Copperbelt Central branch deserves great credit for its organisation of the series. I remember the care with which the late Robbie Robinson and Betty Duberly helped organise me into one of the pro-grammes, Robby even taking me, plus participating children, to the studio and making sure that all was in order there. Throughout the show he sat at the back of the studio, chuckling at my embarrassing moments and giving fairly discreet thumbs-ups at intervals. Afterwards we repaired to Betty’s for refreshment. It was at Betty’s “cafe” two weeks later that I bumped into Lorraine Legg and her family. receiving their pre-show meal,and using the lounge floor as a last-minute preparation room and rehearsal studio. To all who help with the programmes, the Society and the thousands of Chongololo Show “addicts” owe a great deal.
The second series, with Joan Benson, Bryan Coates, Chris and Adele Kirby, Catriona Gibb and a strong supporting team, relinquishes the programme to Lusaka branch which will put out the Chongololo Show from Lusaka from January 1979. It will be as time-consuming to Lusaka members involved, as demanding and hopefully as rewarding and effective. Copperbelt Central production team, after a well-earned rest, will doubtless be scripting a further series before long!
THE FUTURE
Earlier I recorded that the number of magazines sent to registered Chongololo Clubs has now been dropped to 25 per issue, and that clubs were asked to re-register earlier this year in an effort to tighten up on wastage of material in schools. These two measures had the effect of reducing the Chongololo print run substantially, though enabling a fair coverage of Chongololo to those schools using the programme effectively. The reduction in numbers has resulted in little or no financial saving, however, as printing costs steadily rise, and general cost of living increases affect the programme eventually.
Many of the children exposed to its message have graduated to secondary schools. A number of secondary schools have asked for, and receive, Chongololo for use in the lower forms, where its message, its content and its projects are appropriate. Some of our earliest Chongololo recipients are now in their fourth year in secondary schools. Other senior pupils have met Chongololo through younger brothers and sisters who are members. More have known Chongololo through the radio programme and the Chongololo TV Show.
This adds up to a sizeable proportion of the secondary school population being aware of wildlife, and the need for conservation measures.
Wildlife Clubs in secondary schools used to exist; some still do. They used to be serviced by the Education/Information Unit of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. This unit is based in Chipata, runs Nyamaluma School Camp in Luangwa Valley and saw its heyday during the era of the UN/FAO project in Luangwa. With the stimulus of Mark Boulton, Lars Ekholm, John Hazam and others the unit ran a viable Wildlife Clubs network in the early seventies. During the difficult times of the last three years the Wildlife Clubs have foundered. This is where the expansion is so urgently needed. This last observation is not lightly made, nor is it based just on the historical logic above. During the past year many more school children of form five standard are writing to us asking for assistance with wildlife clubs. Many more requests for employment in the National Parks and Wildlife Service are from form five certificate holders, rather than, as previously, from the unemployed sector generally.
Many of these students turned out last year to become actively involved in the Lusaka Branch Zoo at the Agricultural Show; many of them volunteered to join street collectors on Anti-poaching Flag Day in Lusaka. Many of them now seek to be involved.
From the Lusaka branch newsletter of November: “The weekend trip 21st to 23rd October, to Itezhi-Tezhi, was not well attended by members. However 28 boys from David Kaunda and Libala secondary schools made it a worth-while project. They camped out under the stars in amusing straight lines and were certainly. interested in the tree walk.....”
The 28 boys approached the branch as a result of a note in a branch newsletter announcing the trip. They brought their own food and provided their own transport. The interest and the motivation are there. What is needed is a bridge between the Chongololo age group and full Society membership status. Wildlife Clubs should be that bridge and should lead on to student membership.
Because Chongololo has been successful we face this new problem, the problem of the follow-up. And that problem is with us today. The executive committee in late 1977 suggested a pilot scheme to be run in one or two selected secondary schools which might then lead to the formation of “Conservation Clubs” in secondary schools, initially a low key project, later, perhaps, to develop more fully. Because of over-commitment of members and full-time education staff this pilot scheme did not get off the ground. In late 1978 the need is far greater, and the implications for the future of this society far greater.
Education was our major platform in 1973/4. It still is now, and should continue to be so, for this is the area where we, as a voluntary conservation organisation, can most usefully serve Zambia’s wildlife in the long term.
Date: q406
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