Baraza

Category: Gorillas | Date: Sep 26 2008 | By: baraza

The First Ever Kids Gorilla Summit event attracted huge publicity and started on time despite the driving rain, and over 200 children participated in the First Gorilla Summit.

On stage were Lucy Spelman, Peter Greste, Craig, Isabella and Juliana Hatkoff, Richard Leakey and I. We took questions and showed slides and films to a captivated audience.  Billy Di Michelle from Scholastic was an amazing coordinator and Trevor Nielson was the very able Master of Ceremonies.

I think it was  a huge success because these kids were very focused and submitted hundreds of ideas to help solve the crisis facing mountain gorillas.  At 1 pm the event ended and every child went home with a bag of goodies that included the signed books as well as a T-shirt.

The event ended with huge applause. Each of the six schools also got a massive baby gorilla toy that they will name and film the naming ceremony, and an Act Pact - a massive commitment that they will sign.

This is what I felt like  doing just after the Launch of Miza

Course that isn’t me, but I do feel quite ‘high’. These were school kids in Central Park - they were having such enormous fun it was contagious that we couldn’t help taking photos. I hope they join us in this cause to save Mountain gorillas and make a commitment.

If you couldn’t watch the event, you can still enjoy it and submit your commitment on the Scholastic website here.

We are so proud of the success of the event which would not have been possible with out the support of Scholastic, Turtle Pond, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, the Rwanda Film Center, President Clinton, Jack Hannah, Anderson Cooper, ACF (UK) and all the rangers who are out there every day saving gorillas in Uganda, Congo and Rwanda.

Now we need to ensure that these commitments are upheld and the event leads to real actions that make a real difference for mountain gorillas throughout their range. Join us, download the commitment here, sign a commitment, send in your ideas and questions, become part of the solution.

More photos of the event are coming soon!

Tags: Anderson Cooper, Bill Clinton, Craig Hatkoff, Jack Hannah, mountain gorillas, Peter Greste, richard leakey, Scholastic, wildlifedirect

5 responses so far

Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Sep 23 2008 | By: baraza

Greetings friends. In my first 24 hours in New York I met Bill Clinton, a very funny city vagrant, four children from Rwanda and a minister, a Rwandan film maker, and three tiger cubs and their keeper plus golden retriever nanny.

I’ll upload more pictures later but thought I’d leave you with  this photo of the team meeting Bill Clinton which was the highlight. The children from Rwanda and USA are in the Scholastic Press Corp and are preparing for the big event on Friday ‘the first ever Kids Gorilla Summit“. Children from around the world have been sending in questions that will be answered on Friday by a panel. This unique Scholastic event gives childrens a challenge to help save mountain gorillas. It will be live broadcast through schools in USA. To watch the 1 minute animations called gorillasodes made by children from Rwanda and USA watch here

I’ll be bringing  more news and pictures from New York over coming days.

Tags: Bill Clinton, Gorillas, Gorillasodes, Miza, mountain gorillas, Scholastic, wildlifedirect

4 responses so far

Category: Gorillas | Date: Sep 17 2008 | By: baraza

Though it was announced back in June  the launch of our newest childrens book is actually taking place next weekend in New York. The book 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 campaing 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.

All of the authors and photographer Peter Greste will be in New York for the launch. We will give you details about the events that will be taking place in case you’d like to attend.

I was very pleased to read the first book review on Amazon.com

“Moving, inspiring, informative, beautifully illustrated, and very, very important. This is a true story about one family of mountain gorillas, living in the Virunga National Forest (currently occupied by rebel army forces) and their attempts to return a lost orphan to their fold. “Miza” will engage your mind and steal your heart. You cannot ignore the plight of these magnificent creatures whose lives hang in such delicate balance, threatened by deforestation, poaching, and infection and war. Their innocence, so similar to our own, is poignantly and simply stated: “When gorillas feel safe, they play.”

Another review is on Eco Childs play here.

Craig Hatkoff, my friend and co-author of the book  wrote a moving piece about how this project came about on the scholastic website

“When we first started the Looking of Miza project, the only photograph we had of Miza was the picture that now appears on the back cover of the book. It was a photo of just an eye peering through a bush, snapped by Peter Greste last summer. It was the only photo Peter could get of Miza, who was still traumatized from her ordeal of being lost in the jungle. Park rangers Diddy and Innocent confirmed it was Miza by her distinct and now-famous nose print. With only that one photo in our possession, we agreed with Scholastic to do the book even if we couldn’t get any other pictures of Miza because of the importance of telling Miza’s story and raising global awareness of the mountain gorilla crisis”.

This article goes on to show how a book cover is so important, and how much effort it took to get the “right” book cover.

If you have the book  and have read it, please tell us if you like it - or if you don’t.

Tags: Craig Hatkoff, gorilla, Looking for Miza, Paula Kahumbu, Scholastic, Turtle Pond, wildlifedirect

12 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 11 2008 | By: admin

Yesterday I signed copies of Owen and Mzee donated to Mukuru where I met children who were honored to meet a real “author”. When I told them that Isabella was 6 when we did this project their eyes grew big with the realization that children can be authors.

Mukuru is a school for over 4,000 children from a slum in Nairobi. 2000 of these kids benefit from one hot meal - probably the only meal they get each day. The school is supported by the world food program and my friend Rita Field-Marsham who donated 1,000 childrens books to their library, invited me along when she realised that I was an author of Owen and Mzee. What a privilege. These kids were amazingly disciplined, adorable, they were playing with a home made paper football. My dream is that Miza has just as much impact, if not more, than Owen and Mzee which is now in 17 languages. I’m hoping Scholastic will do a Kiswahili translation and donations to local schools in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to inspire the youth to care about gorillas.

Tags: , Craig Hatkoff, Looking for Miza, owen and mzee, Scholastic

11 responses so far