Art for Gorillas

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 10 2009 | By: Julie

Here we are…and here we go.

We are embarking on an entire school year of classes with 150 students plus their teachers. The boys and girls are in 5th form primary school - ages ranging from 11 to 17 years of age. Approximately 85 hours of personal and hands-on conservation learning will be given per student.

Please continue to join my team and me, plus visiting guest speakers, as we give it our all to promote Discovery, Creativity, Learning, Observing, Respecting, Sharing and finally Celebrating.

We are in one of twenty classrooms at a primary school called Rushubi. The school is located just near the border of the Volcanoes National Park. Mountain gorillas, forest buffalo, forest elephant, and golden monkeys are these kids neighbors.

Rushubi Primary School has one water tank for rain catchment but which is inaccessible for the students and 32 drop toilets. In other words, no running water or electricity.

Nyabitsinde has seven classrooms, one water tank, and seven drop toilets. One wouldn’t think finding water terribly difficult in a subtropical rainforest zone such as where we are in the northern province of Rwanda, but during the dry seasons the rain does not fall and the water tanks are empty.

One step, one day, one child at a time…this is what I keep reminding myself.