By Ramadhani Kupaza
Environment & Development Consultant
+255784892338
Dr. Jonathan Habarad was the Director of People and Nature [P&N] Organization in Botswana, a country in Southern Africa. He was an anthropologist.
Jonathan applied tourism principles and established a nature-based healing mechanism for orphans. He incorporated in the mechanism natural resources like water, which provide therapeutic opportunities for healing.
Then, Jonathan established an “Ark Children” Programme. He imitated “Noah’s Ark,” which was the life-saving vessel mentioned in the Bible. It implies Jonathan’s spiritual inclination in his healing intentions for the orphans.
Thereafter, Jonathan used local natural materials and local construction designs of the past to build a hostel for the “Ark Children” in the wilderness.
The ancient-looking and spacious hostel was then fully equipped with eco-friendly furniture, adequate reticulated water, solar lighting, and heating facilities.
The hostel structure itself became a tourism attraction feature, needless to mention. Jonathan’s aim of the indigenous design of the hostel was to connect the orphans to nature for purposes of healing, starting from where the children stayed at the hostel.
The hostel accommodated the orphans for counselling and for participating in life skills training during school breaks. Jonathan had employed qualified social workers to conduct counselling training sessions in order to prepare the children to cope with the psychological challenges of growing up without parents. Later, Jonathan established a modern ranch to recruit out-of-school orphans interested in livestock keeping for a livelihood.
Many children cried and wept during the counselling sessions. It was disheartening to watch the children crying and weeping as they struggled to reflect on the realities of their fates.
Meanwhile, Jonathan had employed trainers to conduct nature-based therapeutic sessions for the orphans after receiving counselling lessons from the social workers. The nature trainers coordinated children’s excursions in national parks.
The focus of the excursions in the wilderness was to connect the children’s feelings of their state of belonging to nature rather than to teach them technical knowledge about natural resources like wild animals or plants.
In view of that, the nature guides remained silent most of the time throughout the wilderness in order to enable the children’s souls to connect with nature organically.
The children’s smiles and joyous moods during the excursions in the park and beyond were signs of their process of healing. Children’s reactions and expressions of their feelings do not lie.
