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Published: April 30th 2013
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One of my main projects since coming to Sierra Leone has been to organise an educational roadshow to forest edge communities around Gola Rainforest National Park (GRNP). We’re now half way through the programme and so far the events have proven to be a really good way to bring the community together to deliver some important messages in an engaging and interactive way.
I’ve been working with the support of a great team in GRNP including the education officer Eddie, a park ranger, our media and publicity officer, a community development relations officer, one of the research technicians and one of the drivers. It’s really good to have people from a range of departments coming together so the community can see the breadth of the work that we do and get questions answered by the appropriate person.
Before each Roadshow Eddie goes to the community ahead of us to get everything prepped and ready and to make sure people know we’re coming. The rest of the team and myself then pack up the car with the PA system, t-shirts and posters for prizes, projector, tents, food, and a whole range of other kit. Every Roadshow
has been different but they all follow the same programme so here’s an idea of what typically happens....
After a busy morning preparing all of our kit, shopping for food at the market, and making sure we have all of the best music we’re finally all packed up and ready to hit the road. After a couple of hours bumping along, we reach the village where the Roadshow will take place. Even if I’ve never been to the village before I always know when we arrive as we are greeted by a crowd of people that have gathered together ready for the start of the parade. There are leaf devils, grass devils, a creepy two headed black devil, kids with tribal face paints and a group of local musicians. I get dropped off at the parade starting point and the rest of my team go ahead to the community barray to get the PA system set up and ready. The parade through the village is one of my favourite parts of the day as it’s an opportunity for me to get really involved which I love (and the villagers love), and it really draws people in with
everyone coming out from their houses to join in or to watch. We make our way from the school through the village to the barray dancing and singing as we go. The songs are all in Mende but I’m pretty sure that they sometimes make up a song about me as I hear Hannah or pumoi mixed in with all of the local words.
When we reach the barray there’s an opportunity for the traditional dancers to perform, masked devils and leaf devils dance around the circle that has formed moving their feet at lightening speed and shaking so hard that the leaves start to fall to the ground. After a while we move everyone in to the shade of the barray and start the proceedings with introductions from all of the GRNP staff, local leaders and village elders.
The Roadshow activities have been planned to be as interactive as possible and such that the community people are sharing knowledge with each other rather than getting a lecture from GRNP. The first group to contribute are students who are members of the recently formed GRNP Nature Club. They have been asked to prepare some
art/drama/music to present to the community and I have been so impressed with how well they have done. It seems that people out here are natural public speakers and the kids love getting on the microphone and speaking out loud and clear for everyone to hear. Drama’s so far have taught about which activities are illegal in the forest, what happens if you do illegal activities, why the forest is important to different animals that live in the forest, and an alphabet recital listing benefits of the forest. Following their own drama the students then present a play which I wrote to teach the communities about carbon and climate change at a very basic level. This message is really important as GRNP hopes to receive funding from a REDD carbon project. REDD means reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The overall idea of the project is to prevent deforestation and conserve the carbon stored in the forest (in the trees and soil) thus helping to address climate change. GRNP can use the money generated through the sale of carbon credits to fund the management of the park and provide benefits to communities. The main message we need the communities
to understand is that if we cut down the trees, then we won’t receive any compensation at all.
Other activities during the day include a demonstration about how a camera trap works and presentation of pictures showing the animals that have been snapped; a quiz where the community people can win prizes, a question and answer session and time to share stories and knowledge of the forest. In the evening as the sun starts to set in the sky we set up a projector screen and show two short films – which the community people love and big crowds always gather for. The first is a film that I’ve made together with help from the Project Leader which introduces the community to the rest of the GRNP staff. During the film different staff members from each department talk about the work that they do, why it’s important and why we all need to work together to protect the forest. The second film is an episode of a recent BBC documentary called Congo – the name however is deceptive as some of the footage was filmed within Sierra Leone and even within GRNP so it’s great to show
the villagers some of the wildlife from the forest.
After all of the educational stuff is done we use the PA system to play music late into the evening so that community people can dance and enjoy themselves. It’s really important to give the people a positive experience of GRNP to build on our relationship with them. I’ve been joining in the dancing which is really good fun, especially with the young children who are really excited to see a white person in their village. There have been a few difficulties along the way and we’re almost always delayed in leaving the office each time but overall it’s been a really exciting project and I hope it’ll have a lasting impact in the communities.
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