Baraza

Category: Gorillas, Looking for Miza | Date: Sep 23 2008 | By: Maina

As Paula wrote in her previous post, they (all the authors, photographers and the publisher) will be launching their book, Looking for Miza: the true story of the gorilla family who rescued one of their own, in New York City. The publisher, Scholastic Corporation, the world’s largest publisher of children books, has been promoting Miza and will be hosting a Kids Gorilla Summit on 26 September 2008. This will be the first kids gorilla summit ever.

Three Rwandan kids dubbed “the first-ever international members of Scholastic Kids Press Corps, Higiro Davis Nkuliye, Georgette Munezero, and Grace Karemera, will also be attending the summit to update the other kids about the state of the gorillas.

Scholastic have been promoting the book through a website themed around Miza. They will be web-casting the Gorilla Summit LIVE and preparations for this are in earnest. Although only a preselected group of kids will be attending the Summit, all can watch the web cast - anywhere in the world. The web cast is scheduled for 10:00am to 11:00am Eastern Daylight Time on September 26. Kids who will not be attending this event can post their questions online and these questions can be answered by the large panel of noted conservationists who are special guests at the summit. If you want your kid to participate just go to the Miza page at Scholastic and learn how they can do that.

This promotion, as Paula said on Baraza, “is part of a campaign that was born out of a commitment to action made at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative shortly after last summer’s tragic massacre of ten mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park. The campaign includes the publication of Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of Their Own (Scholastic Press), and the creation of a multi-platform and standards-based educational initiative that will teach children, teachers and parents about the gorilla crisis.”

More news are on the way so watch this space…