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Joel Tsvakwi, Sunday Life Reporter
THE Natural History Museum Western Region marketing officer Pheneas Chauke says his institution has embarked on a robust thrust to increase their clientelle base.
In interview with Sunday Life recently, Chauke said they have been busy with renovations at the museum.
“Our thrust is to raise the standard of the museum, sprucing up our exhibitions and coming up with innovative programmes which attract more people,’’ said Chauke.
The life science institution which is the administrative centre of Matabeleland, situated in Bulawayo is geared to cultivate a culture of sightseeing.
“We have a competitive pricing regime for our services to promote domestic tourism and culture of sightseeing which is predominantly perceived as the privilege of the rich and elite.
“Children below the age of five come in for free and schoolchildren from primary to Advanced Level pay $1 while local adults pay $3 and their foreign counterparts are charged $10 and $5 for adults and children respectively,” he said.
The mandate of the Natural History Museum is to preserve, interpret, educate and provide access to heritage.
“Depending on the purpose of the visits in terms of Heritage education we are the best and no local university has the rich and diverse amount of collections we have.
“Our biggest challenge is that of funding which is hampering our efforts of doing programmes aimed at generating new knowledge. We used to have funding from government but now we have been weaned off and hence this has resulted in us having challenges to finance our programmes.”
The Natural History Museum is the first in the country and the biggest and highly rated in the Sadc region. Officially opened in 1964, the museum contains exhibits illustrating the history, mineral wealth and wildlife of Zimbabwe, including the second largest mounted elephant in the world.
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