Tacugama

Category: Education, TKP, Tacugama | Date: Nov 19 2009 | By: tacugama

Hi, this is Stephanie, the new volunteer for the TKP. I have been here for 2 months, arriving just in time to organise the start of the 2009/10 programme. The Tacugama Kids Programme started in 2007, you can find out how the programme started and how the project progressed. Please read on to find out about the success of this year’s programme!

We’ve had smiling faces all around with an exciting and successful start to this year’s Tacugama Kids’ Programme (TKP). This year the programme is working with 11-13 year old students in 11 rural schools around the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve (WAPFR). The main objective of the program is to encourage a positive change in attitudes and practices with regards to local environmental issues.

Making educational posters to teach their friends about chimpanzees and rainforest conservation
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The first stage of the programme was a survey of the local secondary schools. It was motivating to see how many of the schools are located right between the forest reserve and the breathtakingly beautiful peninsula coastline; consequently the communities rely heavily upon the environment for their livelihoods. It was also inspiring to see the determination and perseverance of the teachers in the face of a desperate lack of resources, even holding classes in huts made of woven mats and on benches of sticks. One coordinator from each school was invited to take part in a training workshop at the sanctuary before taking responsibility for teaching the theoretical lessons of the TKP programme.

Excited students at Huntingdon Secondary School receive their new Tacugama Kids Programme exercise books
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Coordinators from the sanctuary also run activities in each school to reinforce the teaching curriculum, starting with a simple ‘Clean-up the School Environment’ activity. This aims to teach students that keeping the environment clean can be beneficial for the environment and their own hygiene. As well as the enjoyment of the activity there was an important underlying lesson which we hope will be passed on to the rest of the community.

Having fun and cleaning up the environment at the War Wounded Academy
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Class discussion to conclude the activity; Peninsular Secondary School found the highest volue of rubbish was plastic bags!
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The week finished off with the TKP in full swing as the first group of young adventurers from Mountain Rural Secondary School visited the sanctuary. It was especially rewarding to see some of the students who had been members of past TKP nature clubs remembering and sharing their knowledge of the chimpanzees. The day was enjoyed by all but the moment that will be most memorable for me will be the students making the ‘promise wall’. By placing their hand print on the wall the students promised to ‘Protect the chimpanzees, their rainforest habitat and their own local environment.’

Pa Willie takes students from Mountain Rural Secondary School on a tour of the sanctuary
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“We promise to protect the chimpanzees, the rainforest and our local environment”
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As the poda-poda (school mini-bus) drove away with the students cheering “We love this place, we want to stay forever!” it not only gave us a chance to breathe a sigh of relief at the successful completion of the first week but also a newly fuelled determination and enthusiasm for the opportunities and challenges to come in the weeks ahead.

Tags: Chimpanzee, Education, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, TKP, wildlife

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Category: Education, Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Nov 16 2009 | By: tacugama

Friday 13th November saw the arrival of another two chimpanzee infants at Tacugama. Just as the weekly Tacugama Kids Programme was in full cry with another thirty rural schoolchildren on a full day visit to the sanctuary, Samson and Delila were carried up the hill and through the gates to join the Tacugama family.

Willie takes down details from Mr Bangura

The chimpanzees arrived with us as the result of the positive action from one of the Ministry of Agriculture’s livestock officers. Based at Sierra Leone’s international airport at Lungi, on one of his routine visits to the farm of an ex-patriot hotel manager he found the baby chimps in residence. He advised the man that keeping the chimps was illegal and that he should contact Tacugama to arrange for their transfer. On learning that the chimps were still at the farm a month later, he again advised that they should be handed over and fortunately a few days later was contacted by the hotel manager and asked to bring them to the sanctuary. He arrived with the man who had cared for the chimps since their arrival at the farm.

Samson
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Delila
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Samson and Delila (formerly Lucy but renamed as we already have three Lucy’s at Tacugama!) are clearly very used to being with people despite being so young - probably around eighteen months old. We know little about their background - apparently Samson was rescued in very poor health from a village to the north of the airport. Delila had been carried around and dressed up in children’s clothes for photographs. They are both in a fair condition though Samson has a bad skin infection. They will go through quarantine together for the next three months joining Chippe, Thulani, Abu, Sunny, Blama and Kangari; Mama Posseh has her work cut out.
At least that day we were able to introduce the carer of the chimps to the children at the sanctuary and they explained what they had learned that day about why chimps should be left in the wild. He and the livestock officer left with a clear message to take back to Lungi, let’s hope it spreads.

Enforcing the message
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Tess will soon bring you an update on all our quarantine residents and how Gaura and his group are progressing.
As you can tell we are getting increasingly desperate to raise the US$70,000 that it will take to fence two further forest enclosures so that the growing number and growing size of our chimps can all benefit from an environment as close to their natural habitat as possible. Right now we are very close to being full up with 98 chimps reliant on us for care. Hopefully our trip to Europe will deliver some results. We’ll keep you informed.

Tags: airport, Chimpanzee, Lungi, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Education, TKP, Tacugama | Date: Sep 25 2009 | By: tacugama

Now that the rainy season is starting to recede (though there’s a huge thunderstorm happening as I write this blog!) it’s time for the schools to reopen and children to step back into the classroom. We’ve mentioned a bit about the Tacugama Kids Programme in previous blogs and we’re busy getting everything in place for this year’s environmental education programme to start. We’re pleased to welcome a new volunteer, Stephanie Brown, who’s helping to co-ordinate the programme over the next few months. She’ll also be posting a few blogs during her stay to keep you in touch with this important part of Tacugama’s work.

One of the schools that we’re pleased to be welcoming to the programme this year is Hope School which was started by Mr Bundu, a qualified teacher from the local area. He found several children who were unable to go to school but were willing to learn, so he decided to do something about it. Most of the children are girls from very poor homes, where only the boy gets to go to school. Others include orphans and those living in displacement camps. Originally starting as occasional reading classes for a few enthusiastic pupils, the project began to grow with the help of voluntary teachers, and many more children ranging from 3 to 15 years old joined. The project, housed in a large semi-constructed house quickly became overcrowded. The makeshift rooms held several classes at once, some were so full that the children spilled out of the building, attending their classes through open windows.

Overspilling classroom at Hope School…
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Tags: sanctuary, school, Sierra Leone, Tacugama. chimpanzee, wildlife

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Category: Chimpanzee, Education, Tacugama | Date: Mar 09 2009 | By: tacugama

This is a new initiative at Tacugama to raise awareness of the natural richness of the Western Area Protected Forest Reserve that the sanctuary helps to protect and at the same time to raise some funds to help cover our running costs.

In the last two months, Kenneth Gbengba, a Sierra Leonean ornithologist who has led many international birdwatching tours, has been training our staff, Willie Tucker and Michael Tommy.  Together they have been compiling a list of birds spotted around Tacugama. So far the list has reached 85 different species of birds - including several endemics - and the list is growing with each survey walk.

Kenneth (left) training and surveying with Willie and Tommy.
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Tags: bird-watching, Chimpanzee, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Education, TKP, Tacugama | Date: Feb 12 2009 | By: tacugama

Term 2 is in full swing and Class 5 students from the fifteen schools participating in the TKP have been performing a short play for their classmates as a reinforcement activity for the lesson on pollution.

The play deals with issues of water pollution within the rural communities in which these children live and addresses good hygiene practices.

Regent REC > Unisa: “Mama said the river was polluted, is that water pollution?”
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Tags: chimpanzees, Education, environment, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, TKP, wildlife

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Category: Education | Date: Sep 14 2008 | By: tacugama

It’s not an expected port of call for an ice-breaker, but early September saw HMS Endurance, a British Royal Navy ship, call into Freetown, the world’s third largest natural harbour. The ship’s tour of South and West Africa is helping to raise awareness of climate change and its impact on developing nations (find out more here).

It was a great opportunity for some of the school children taking part in our Tacugama Kids Programme to visit the ice breaker, learn about a continent at the other end of the temperature scale and how it’s helping scientists to learn about the impact of human activity on our planet. Over three days 50 children and their teachers from some of our partner schools were welcomed on board by the crew. It was an amazing opportunity for all of them and will hopefully have a lasting impact that will go towards increasing environmental awareness and understanding in Sierra Leone.

Hastings School
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Seeing Antartica for the first time
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Tags: Chimpanzee, HMS Endurance, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama

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Category: Chimpanzee, Education, Gaura | Date: May 18 2008 | By: tacugama

Cheeta managed to nick the two way radio from Willie and was happily going around, showing off her new toy to the rest of her gang. We tried all sorts of ways to get it back but she was proving to be much smarter than us. She was getting excited hearing her name coming out of the radio and all the attention from the chimps and staff as everyone was following her. The entire Tacugama team was having a good laugh. I wanted to join in….but just the thought of buying another radio for $400 did not permit me. 48 hours gone, the battery has gone flat and the chances of finding the bloody radio in this thick forest is very slim! Cheeta wins! You can bet we’ll be looking at how to secure those radios better….

Cheetah holding her prize aloft, safely out or reach….
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Category: Chimpanzee, Education, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Mar 20 2008 | By: admin

This is proving to be a busy week indeed!

We are hosting the upcoming PASA (Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance) Managers’ Meeting, due to start on the 30th of this month, so we’re finalizing the arrangements for this. We’re really looking forward to catch up on everyone’s news and progress.
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Category: Education, Tacugama | Date: Feb 17 2008 | By: admin

First of all we’d like to say a big thank you to Lucia for her very generous donation towards little Gaura’s care. He’s coping with his teething and behaving well.

Here’s an update on the Tacugama Kids Programme and the Hastings School Nature Club – we told you about Mr Wright and his fantastic launch of the club a little while ago. The education team (now including Mr Wright!) has been continuing to visit the local schools and we’re pleased with the enthusiasm from all the teachers. At most of the schools the children seem to understand and enjoy the first few lessons of the environmental education curriculum we prepared for them: environment, ecosystems and habitats.
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Category: Chimpanzee, Education, Tacugama | Date: Jan 13 2008 | By: admin

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!
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Category: Charlie Girl, Chimpanzee, Education, Introduction, Tacugama | Date: Dec 18 2007 | By: admin

We’re gradually getting ourselves into the blogging habit and catching up on events over the last couple of weeks. Thanks for all the comments. The real time for Charlie Girl’s antics was about three weeks ago and today’s blog catches up on two weeks ago… we’ll soon be hot off the press and gradually fill you in on the sanctuary’s history!!

A week’s gone by and Charlie Girl’s cast is still on. But I am beginning to see some damage along the edges. She is certainly working on it! And I can tell by her crying that she isn’t happy being indoors. The family group is very important to chimpanzees and Charlie Girl is missing her group. It’s important that we can keep an eye on her recovery and try to make it as speedy as possible. Also the last thing we want is to go through the whole hospital procedure again especially in the middle of a busy week!
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