Art for Gorillas

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Ministry of Sports & Culture - Rwanda, Sports for Gorillas | Date: May 27 2009 | By: Julie

The 5th Annual Run for Peace Marathon in Kigali with the 2009 theme “End Violence Against Women and Children” proved to be an enlightening event for our students. Most of the students had never been to their nation’s capital, let alone participate in a national sporting event. It was amazing to see these children from rural villages standing in Amahoro Stadium at the race starting line, excited to see themselves on the JumboTron and ready to run. Many of the children ran the 5K straight through, beating adult runners, while others preferred to walk and take in the sights of Kigali. Afterwards we all crossed the finish line, we enjoyed lunch in the stadium and stayed to watch the winners of the half and full marathon come in.

The whole event went without a hitch, including the dreaded 4:30 am departure from Kinigi, much to my relief. The buses arrived at the Kinigi schools on time and everyone was there and ready to go. The students had spent the night before at the school to avoid coming upon a forest buffalo in the early morning hours when the wild animals are prone to move out of the forest in favor of the cultivated lands.

Valerie, Eric, and US photographer / writer Molly Feltner, who is volunteering with AoC, arrived in Kigali before the race to participate in a mini-expo showcasing Rwandan organizations that work with disadvantaged women and children. The Art of Conservation booth displayed a selection of our interactive learning tools (photo above shows children enjoying the masks), students’ “peace” pictures (see previous post), t-shirts, and tiles. Photo by Molly Feltner.

While our donation basket at our expo booth collected a mere 500 Rwandan francs (about 90 cents), we did succeed in fulfilling other missions such as raising awareness of the project on a national level and giving our students an enlightening and fun experience in the capital city.

AoC art teacher, Eric, discusses our students’ peace drawings with expo attendees. Photo by Molly Feltner.

The Amahoro Stadium’s loud speakers announce the 5K Fun Runners to proceed to the starting line inside the stadium. Our group is ready to go!

And we’re off!

We all completed the 5K course and now it was time to watch the runners of the half marathon and the full marathon from the stadiums bleacher. Runners from Kenya and Tanzania won in both races.

Race is over… I am relieved and also extremely appreciative of the effort Valerie, Eric, Innocent, Molly, and the schools directors put forth in making this a great field trip.

Please click here for more information on Molly Feltner.

Please click here if you would like further information on Rwanda’s Ministry of Sports and Culture.

Tags: children, gorillas, peace, sports

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: May 22 2009 | By: Julie

Wake up! The bus leaves at 5:00 am!

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, children will be racing out of their houses to catch a bus leaving for Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, a place many of them have never been. They’ll be heading to the city to participate in a 5K Fun Run that’s part of Kigali’s 5th Annual Run for Peace Marathon–this year the theme focuses on ending violence against children and women. All the kids are involved with Art of Conservation projects around Musanze, Rwanda, and I’ll be the leading the group down Sunday to meet up with other Art of Conservation team members already in the city.

When we learned of the early morning departure from Musanze necessary to make the 8am race start time in Kigali, Valerie called the school headmasters to ask if the 5am meeting time would be a problem for the children and their parents.

Donat, one of the school headmasters replied, “No, the kids and their parents are highly motivated for the field trip. The only hesitation is that forest buffalo are wandering out of the park during those hours and they may frighten the children.”

Whoever would have thought we’d have to factor in 250 kilo buffalo into our logistics plan?

If all goes smoothly and we avoid any unpleasant encounters with the park’s wild animals, then we should all have an eye-opening experience in Kigali.

Preparing the kids for the field trip, we asked them show us what the word “peace” means to them by expressing themselves in pictures and written words. Here is a selection of some of their work.

1 of Worksheet 1.

2 of Worksheet 1.

1 of Worksheet 2.

2 of Worksheet 2.

Tags: art, children, peace, rwanda, sports

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