BotswanaPC, Lynn Johnson photo

The 2008-2009 program theme for Photo Camp is centered on youth’s connection with the natural environment. We’ve explored how people utilize natural resources, how communities can be redefined by the connecting features of land and water, how cultural norms can “make or break” a community’s responsibility to the earth, and how young people all around the world are proving that this earth, and its contents, are worth protecting.
Photo Camp Botswana 2009 built on this strong foundation, and added to it perspectives from children in rural areas in northern Botswana – villages that share borders with protected areas, like Selinda Reserve. The students live in villages where wild elephants, “big cats” and other large animals leave their protected environments and threaten the crops, livestock and livelihoods of families and communities. The children’s understanding of these endangered animals comes from these interactions and through poaching. From March 7 – 12, 2009, the Photo Camp students photographed, edited and designed a portrait of their time at camp and the wildlife living in the Selinda Reserve.
Working side-by-side, environmental educators from Children in the Wilderness and photography educators from National Geographic provided a safe and experiential learning environment for the 15 students, allowing them to connect and encounter these same endangered animals in a new way.

Batshabelakae Mwezi (left) and Kemolebogetse Mahuma test the direction of the available light in order to decide how to take their self portraits.