Nearly 150 pupils in the Dzondo Circuit of Education competed in the finals of the Fire Awareness Campaign competition at Entabeni Plantation on Friday.

The campaign is hosted annually by the Makhado Fire Protection Association and several stakeholders.

Pupils competed in poetry, drama, creative writing, reading, poster drawing, speech and metal art. They were awarded prizes in the form of branded school bags, juice bottles, dictionaries, and story books. “The pupils also received participatory medals and certificates with distinctive colours and sizes according to their judged positions,” said Mr Tshilidzi Mavhungu, project co-ordinator (Komatiland Forests).

The fire awareness campaign was attended by almost 20 000 scholars and 525 teachers from 42 schools in the Dzondo circuit at school level. Only the cream of the crop reached the finals on Friday.

“We have engaged in fire awareness projects for the communities,” Mavhungu said. “We educate communities around our plantations about the dangers of veld and forest fires and structural fires.”

Although the projects are titled fire awareness projects, they also combine it with environmental awareness and forest and nature conservation, where they teach communities about littering and the dangers caused by other illegal activities, such as hunting in the forests, bee hunting, and cutting down of trees.

“Our future plans are to offer more and bigger prizes such as bursaries to excelling pupils, and that will obviously depend on the availability of funds from our sponsors or any other organisations that will be willing to assist with funding.”

The purpose of this programme and competition is to educate learners about the dangers of fires and to provide learners with knowledge and basic firefighting skills. “We also aim to educate and invest knowledge and skills of basic firefighting in the local communities,” Mavhungu said. “It is only with that knowledge that we can save our lives, houses, livestock, veld and forests, jobs and many other things from the catastrophe which is caused by fires. We have so far managed to develop and strengthen our relationship with local communities.”

During the competition, Tshimbiluni Primary School's drama was named the overall winner. “We work very hard as teachers and learners,” said Ms Munyadziwa Maagi, an educator. “We also thank all parents for supporting us and entrusting their children to us to parent them at school.”