Several news articles and blogs have noted that the launch of Looking for Miza will help to raise attention to the crisis facing mountain gorillas in Congo. We are also really pleased that the book will also raise funds. When we started the project to do the book with Craig Hatkoff, we had three important objectives
1. To raise awareness. This book is currently in English and will be translated into a number of languages including native languages in Africa where it will be distributed. The Scholastic Junior corp of journalists from Rwanda will be helping to deliver messages across East and Central Africa and to the rest of the world through the Scholastic website.
2. To help people get involved in Gorilla conservation. We saw how this can work in New York on Friday when children in in the USA and globally were involved in the launch of the book and submitted hundreds of ideas to the website. Scholastic will continue to provide opportunities for involvement through their website.
3. We also aimed to raise funds for Gorilla conservation and already US$ 150,000 has been set aside to support rangers in the Virunga National Park from the Owen and Mzee Foundation. This should help to support many rangers over a one year period.
The situation in eastern Congo seems to be worse than ever and it’s now a year since the rebels have been in control of teh gorilla sector. Miza, and her family are at great risk. According to this article on MSNBC fighting continues near the park as Nkunda tries to extend his area of control. Just last month four people were killed and several injured (18 of them rebels) . This may be why Emmanuel, Innocent and Diddy were unable to travel to New York to attend the launch of the book “Looking for Miza”.
Given the seriousness of the situation we are interested in your thoughts and ideas on how this children’s book can help to raise awareness, involvement and funds for gorilla conservation.
Donations made here are
Feb 28th Liza H USD 11.00
10 Comments
I think you should do a book tour with this book and go all over the US and other countries. Perhaps holding events like the one in New York in a few of the other major cities here in the US. Perhaps adding a few schools to your tour and reading the book to the children at those schools (we want you to come to our school here in LA), as well as having the children participate with their ideas and input. Reaching out to children and encouraging them to start afterschool clubs to learn about the gorillas and the region in which they live, and to hold various fundraisers (car washes, bake sales, etc.) to raise money for the Rangers. On a broader scale, this idea could apply to Wildlife Direct afterschool clubs, encouraging children to learn about Afria, it’s wildlife, it’s cultures and people, interacting at the Wildlife Direct site with the various bloggers, as well as having various fundraisers which they could then pick which Wildlife Direct blog they would give the proceeds to each time. I approached our PTA President last year, but was told that idea was “too progressive” for our school. Scary, huh? I’m planning on approaching them again this year with the idea, but Paula, maybe if you came to our school on a “Looking for Miza” tour, they’d bite their tongues……and say SURE, That sounds like a great idea! hehehehe! Lisa
To be more constructive…here is a great site for keeping current with the situation in eastern DRC…this was yesterday
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MYAI-7JW86U?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P
On the Warden of Virunga and his rangers- they hold official government positions. With the ongoing war it is a very complex , delicate and dangerous situation. They have to be extremely careful about who and how they engage in public as they are sworn in to their job and have very strict terms of reference. They are ICCN staff and have the responsibility to protect the interests of Virunga National Park and preserving the greatly threatened fauna and flora within it. Unfortunately they do not have the luxury of coming to New York at this strained time. You are correct there.
I do not claim to know too much about Virunga but I am alarmed at the situation that the rangers and others are currently faced with. It is not a subject to be treated lightly and its best and safest to leave it to the Virunga staff to tell us what is going on there.
Thank you and all the best with the Miza Book. I hope it really does have an impact on the ground in Congo where it is needed most.
Thank you, Louise, for the link to ReliefWeb; reliable news from Virunga are very important to me. All the best, Iris.
Thanks for the link Louise. We use the Baraza blog to help raise awareness about any conservation priorities that we feel needs greater attention. The Virunga situation has been the topic of much our discussion here in New York and we’re really proud to be able to leverage more funds for Emmanuel and the rangers through the Owen and Mzee Foundation and Miza book.
Due to disturbing comments appearing on this blog from an individual under the guise of someone else, we have put all comments on this blog under moderation. We apologise for the inconvenience and will moderate comments as they come in.
If Miza does nothing other than focus a bit more attention on the Congo, it will have had a positive impact. It seems to me that region is simply too far off most radar screens and that more energy from around the world can only help the situation.
As someone who had the good fortune to attend the event in
New York,I would just like to repeat the notion of the butterfly
effect: the smallest event can cause the most significant impacts. Every effort made to bring attention to the conflict in the
Congo is one more opportunity to capture the hearts and minds
of individuals and organizations capable of helping both the people an animals of DRC.
Although I really did think the Kids Gorilla Summit was a wonderful
event, it was not until it was over that I realized how really
important it was: As I was sitting there, waiting for the 200
children who participated to file out, I heard two young boys,
perhaps 10 or 11 years old, talking about how this event was
helping them to be part of history and that perhaps their
actions and commitments after it was all over, would help
make history as well…it was a profound experience. Additionally,
I saw the faces of these children, and the adults in the
audience when Dr. Leaky and Paula spoke of the rangers who have
lost their lives protecting Virunga and its precious cargo. The sadness in the room was palpable their commitment even clearer.
This event engaged some wonderful young minds not only to act, but
to think much more globally about their world. I could go
on and on, but, I’ll end my comments by saying that I hope
the NY event is just the first of many and I felt very
priviledged to be a part of it.
Beautifully stated Christine. You are one lucky duck to have been able to participate in New York. Thanks for sharing alittle bit of your experience with us. It sounds like it was a really wonderful time! Lisa
Dear Paula, it is a shame that we are not allowed to read all the comments that are being written about this post, it would be very interesting to see what other people have to say about the presence of Emmanuel, DIddy and Innocent in NY. I have seen you only once in Virunga in my 15 months working there (when you briefly came to take the pictures for your book), and I do not know how many other times have you been down to the DR Congo since you’ve started working for WLD? Anyway, I am sure that THAT visit made clear to you that the situation in the park is not the easiest to be leaving duties, more over with the latest situation with rebels etc.
Hi Virginia, we have put the comments under moderation because of the nature of some of the comments that were appearing from people who were clearly not being constructive (it happens on virtually every website). However we do write to them to inform them why their comments are under moderation though often the email addresses bounce
Anyway, it is very unfortunate but not all that surprising that we have had to moderate comments from time to time. you are right I spent two weeks in Congo and as you know, like the rest of the WildlifeDirect team we are not field based, we support our conservation partners like ACF, the ICCN and others who are field based. On Congo we are in touch directly with several people in Congo and understand the difficult situation that they are working under although none of us can claim to really know and feel exactly what it’s like. The best we can do is to continue raising awareness and support the ICCN through our sister organization ACF and hope that the funds raised really help to keep our friends safe as well as the gorillas and park ecosystem in general. Good luck with your studies Virginia, we look forward to hearing more from you!
One Trackback
[...] are some of the photos taken during the Kids Gorilla Summit which we talked about here and [...]