Know Your Land

Knowing your land is one of the 6 STAR pillars. It includes invoking students to become authentic stewards of their land, to love their country and understand the importance of it that made even the forefathers to take up arms and fight for it. Practically, students take field trips to different tourist destinations in the country. After our boot camp at Sanganayi Creek, we went to Chinhoyi Caves for a tour under 7 Ms where we had an amazing time learning about the history of the caves under their name of Chirorodziva. We also had an opportunity not only to learn and be mesmerized by the beauty, but also to brainstorm on how the area could be improved in terms of its tourism capacity. Furthermore, we visited the Mazvikadei Dam learnt how the community was benefiting from this infrastructure.

This was concluded with an 8km walk back to the Sanganayi Creek camp that gave students time to bond. The City Campus students also visited Monavale Vlei, a wetland in Zimbabwe under Ramsar. It was well above the description of awesome when we had to take off our shoes and let the moist mud squish through our toes. It was almost unbelievable how the area could host such a large amount of biodiversity in it- birds, trees, grasses and flowering plants that equal to over 126 plant species and 240 bird species.

Sadly, the onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic dampened progress in this pillar. However, we were exposed to many of these places through an online Conservation class under 7 Ms. Here, guest speakers are invited to speak about some of the fascinating places students have researched extensively to make presentations on places as Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Mana Pools, the Okavango Delta and many other places.