First group of students arrive at Nyungwe

Last week, the first group of 19 students from Stockport Grammar School in Manchester (UK) were received and hosted at Kitabi Cultural Village in Nyungwe. This kind of visit has come after a partnership between UK’s international tour operator Outlook Expeditions and Friends of Nyungwe Cultural village, which is a new community-based ecotourism product found in Kitabi under the sponsorship of USAID-Nyungwe Nziza project and the Rwanda Development Board’s revenue sharing scheme.

Outlook Expeditions organizes expeditions for young people and student groups to new destinations in different place around the world. And this partnership is expected to ensure sustainable business for Kitabi cultural site and experience of the trip by the students will help increase their marketing base on the international level so said Donnah Mariza, a business development service specialist at DAI a USAID program aimed at strengthening sustainable ecotourism in and around Nyungwe national Park.

This Kitabi cultural Village officially opened in April 2012 and it provides local people who live around the park with alternative sources of income that favor environmental conservation rather than destroying the conservation areas in a pretext of fighting for survival. They are persuaded to engage in activities that attract visitors before and after visiting the Park and through that, they earn some income.

This first group comprised of mostly A-Level students who are interested in experiencing new life and different cultures as well as exploring new environments around the world. These student visited Kitabi King’s palace, had a tour in Nyungwe National Park and the surrounding communities and tea plantations and Kitabi tea factory. They were also entertained by the traditional dance performance group.

They went for a community walk and during this; they visited a number of homes to be able to see the traditional method of banana beer brewing and the women’s handicraft cooperatives. During the tour in Nyungwe National Park, they went for forests walks and hiking, and then later in the evenings they build a camp fire on which they roasted maize and tasted local dishes before retiring from the day’s activities.

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