In 2027, a group of 14 secondary school students from Edinburgh, Scotland, completed a fundraising journey that took them 18 months and raised enough money to fly to Uganda and trek gorillas with us in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The group — aged 15 to 17 — had initially come together through their school’s geography club after a lesson on mountain gorilla conservation. What began as a classroom discussion became a project that changed every student involved. This is their story.
How the Project Began
Their geography teacher, Mrs. Fleming, showed the class a documentary about mountain gorillas and the tourism economy that sustains their conservation. One student — a 16-year-old named Callum — asked whether a school group could actually go and trek gorillas. Mrs. Fleming said she did not know, but they could find out. Within a week, she had contacted us for information on group bookings for younger travellers.
We explained that we welcome school groups with proper adult supervision and that we could accommodate 14 students across two trekking groups on the same day. We provided a detailed cost breakdown — permits, transport, accommodation, park fees — and a suggested itinerary that added cultural activities and a visit to a community school adjacent to Bwindi to the trekking experience.
The group’s fundraising target was set at GBP 28,000 to cover flights and ground costs for 14 students and two accompanying teachers. What followed was 18 months of sponsored runs, cake sales, quiz nights, a crowdfunding campaign that went modestly viral after a local newspaper covered the story, and a grant from a Scottish educational travel foundation. They hit their target in January 2027 and departed in April.
Preparing the Students for the Trek
We worked with Mrs. Fleming over the months before departure to prepare the students for what they would experience. We provided educational materials on gorilla behaviour, Bwindi ecosystem ecology, and the role of tourism in conservation financing. We arranged a video call with Emmanuel, their assigned guide, so students could ask questions before arriving in Uganda. Emmanuel talked about his childhood near the forest, how mountain gorilla populations have recovered from fewer than 300 individuals in the 1980s to over 1,000 today, and what students should look for during their trek.
The students prepared a list of 40 questions they wanted answered during the trip. Emmanuel addressed all 40 over the course of three days in Bwindi. Several of those questions became the basis for a school project published on their school’s website that received thousands of views.
The Trek: What They Saw and How They Responded
The group trekked in two groups of seven in the Buhoma sector, with Emmanuel leading one group and our second senior guide leading the other. Both groups encountered the Mubare gorilla family within 45 minutes of the briefing point. The silverback was resting with three females and four juveniles in a clearing.
Mrs. Fleming described the moment the students first saw the gorillas: “Fourteen teenagers who had spent 18 months talking about this moment went completely silent. Some of them started crying. Callum — who had started the whole thing — just stood and stared for the first minute. Then Emmanuel quietly said, ‘That’s the silverback. He’s been in this family for 11 years.’ And Callum whispered back, ‘He’s real.'”
The Community School Visit
The day after the trek, the group visited a primary school in the village adjacent to the Buhoma sector — a school that benefits from community conservation funds supported in part by tourism revenue from operators like us. The Scottish students sat in classrooms, shared lunch, and played games with Ugandan children their own age. By the end of the morning, three students had exchanged contact details and were still corresponding months later.
What the Students Took Home
When the group returned to Edinburgh, they presented their experience to the full school. Four students subsequently applied to university programmes in conservation biology, ecology, or wildlife management. The school established a sister-school partnership with the Buhoma community school, arranging annual supply donations. Callum went on to win a regional young conservationist award for an essay he wrote about mountain gorilla tourism as a conservation financing model.
If you are a teacher or school group coordinator interested in bringing students to trek gorillas in Uganda, we offer tailored school group itineraries for 2027. Contact us to discuss how we can build an educational experience that goes far beyond the trek itself.
