Hi – this is Harriet here, one of the volunteers working at Tacugama. Bala’s asked me to update you on some great follow up on the Tacugama Kids Programme that he introduced to you in his second blog.

One of the goals of our first workshop was to encourage the teachers to start nature clubs in their schools. We were really pleased to get an invite shortly afterwards from one of the participating schools to the official launching of their nature club in December. Laia and I set off not knowing what to expect but as it turned out we were very pleasantly surprised!

When we got to the school we could see that a lot of work had gone into preparing the day in what was quite a short space of time. There was a shady seating area for visitors with plenty of balloons around and a table decorated with beautiful tropical flowers for the speakers. There was a flag with a hand painted picture of a chimpanzee and a mural made out of stones for the nature club. First we heard short speeches from the chairman, the headmaster of the school and the headman of the village. Next it was my turn: I had to do what was stated in the programme as a “Pronouncement and Hoisting of the flag” so I tried my best but unfortunately the flag string broke just before reaching the top!

Raising the flag …. almost
.

During the next stage of the day we saw three wonderful dramas. One group did a play about a sad chimpanzee that would not laugh. The village chief invited different people to have a go at making him laugh, and after lots of silliness involving funny clothes and dancing, the chimp finally cracked! The effort put into the costumes was amazing.

Dramas in action

We gave the kids their Nature Club membership cards and told them that we were looking forward to having them at Tacugama. Finally Laia did her famous chimp noises for the kids and they all had a go at chimp laughing, screaming and hooting which resulted in much giggling again!

Full credit for the day must go to Mr. Cecil Skinner Wright, head of science in the REC Primary School at Hastings and teacher of class 5. Following the workshop at Tacugama he has really thrown himself into the education programme and delivered a fantastic start to his school’s nature club. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with him and he must surely inspire the other 15 teachers taking in part in this first year of the Tacugama Kids Programme. We really need your help in making sure we can fund the programme and provide the schools with support to make a long-lasting impact on the survival of forest habitats in Sierra Leone.

Mr Wright at work