Teaching Shimoni’s Children About Their Forest

Teaching Shimoni’s Children About Their Forest

Category: Environmental Education, Shimoni Forest, Uncategorized | Date: Dec 03 2007 | By: admin

Over the weekend we played host to students from Shimoni Primary School. Friends of Shimoni Forest, who we are supporting in their efforts to seek responsible management of the forest by the community, feel that one of the most effective ways to get their message in to the wider community is by sending home groups of excited children to tell their families what they have learnt. So with the challenge put to us, that is what we set out to do on Saturday…

The children begun their day with the theme of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ before going on to make recyled baskets from paper mache - an activity they found very funny, but once they had dried by the end of the morning and been planted with vegetable seeds, they had the beginnings of their own school vegetable garden. We have started introducing the concept of these little hanging gardens in Mkwiro village, where the goats manage to get to absolutely everything within reach, no matter how clever we think we are getting with fences!

The children then settled down to an outside class on the Angolan Black & White Colobus and other primates found in Shimoni before being taken in to the forest to to learn more about it hands-on, including behaviour as they watched a troop of Colobus, and flicking through our books to identify the birds.

This is the third such class we have run for Shimoni Primary School and plan to get as many of the children in to the forest as we can to ensure they don’t take for granted their incredible natural heritage.

5 Responses to “Teaching Shimoni’s Children About Their Forest”

THERESA SISKIND, on 01 Jan 2008

I hope and pray that the current civil unrest has not reached your community, God bless, Theresa

Pirjo,Finland, on 10 Apr 2008

Your blog is very informative and interesting. There are just so many good causes which to support that one would have to be loaded with money in order to be able to support them all.

Have you had any donations so far and how is your work progressing?

GVI Kenya, on 20 Apr 2008

Hi Theresa and Pirjo. Fortunately the unrest did not reach Shimoni, it remained as peaceful, calm, friendly and welcoming as ever. However that is not to say it hasn’t felt the impacts - with so few tourists in Kenya there is very little work and money here on the coast for the local communities. This is the kind of situation when exploitation of natural resources is most likely to accelerate, so we are all hoping to see the tourists follow our return! Now I am back I am talking to the local communities to find out how donations can best help them in the protection of their natural resources. I’ll let you all know very soon where your donations are most needed, so watch this space!

cem seymen, on 21 Jul 2009

Dear Sir / Madam,

I work as a journalist at CNN Turkey. I do prepare my own show called Business Traveller. For some time I have been thinking of doing a volunteer work as I want to add something unique to my life by doing something good for the less fortunate.

I also have a suggestion for you. While I was talking about my plans to my news manager he proposed something exciting. CNN Turkey wants me to prepare a documentary about volunteer works during my stay there with the hope that we might encourage others who might be interested to do the same?

Can you share your thoughts with me about this idea?

Please do not get me wrong. My first priority is being helpful to children but using media can create miracles sometimes to get satisfactory results in these kinds of efforts. Can I come and visit you there?

Waiting for your reply.

Thank you and regards..

Cem Seymen

gvikenya, on 24 Jul 2009

Dear Cem,

thank you very much for your interest in our work and certainly we offer many opportunities for volunteers to make their contribution to the work we are undertaking and more importantly to the partner organisations, communities and children we are supporting.

The documentary would be an awesome way to raise awareness about the work that is being undertaken here, the challenges faced by both communities and the natural environemnt they depend upon, and the rewards of volunteering your time, effort, skills and knowledge to help local communities and partners find sustainable solutions.

Please do feel free to contact me on kenya@gvi.co.uk and I’ll be more than happy to answer specific questions.

Many thanks, Corti

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