Iwokrama People | Wildlife Festival 2006

Wildlife Festival

2006 Wildlife Clubs Festival a Success!

>See the Festival Photos!

_______________________________________________

The 5th annual wildlife festival took place in Annai, from April 7-9 this year. Traditionally, festival is an annual event, but last year, due to lack of funds and other national priorities, it was cancelled. This year, with overwhelming momentum and enthusiasm of the clubs and support from the WWF, we hosted a successful 2 day celebration. This year’s theme, “Keep an Eye on Our Environment and Care for Nature” was selected by club members and is a direct reference to the Citizen Science monitoring that clubs have been conducting for the past 4 years.

This year’s festival was one of the largest, with over 200 youths from the communities of the North Rupununi and including St. Ignatius, Nappi, Katoka, and the Waini, participated in various activities that embody club activities and interests. This included a costume and banner parade, art, poetry, cotton spinning, archery and basket weaving competitions, a quiz (topics are environmental) and social issues (HIV Aids; Abuse, Violence and My Rights; Trafficking in Persons) which topics club members requested in a planning meeting.

The members of the Youth Leadership Programme (YLP) at Bina Hill were instrumental in assisting to organize and facilitate the festival and this was fitting as Debbie, Kevin and Neil are ex officio members and wildlife club presidents in their own communities. Congratulations to you all on graduating to YLP and for doing such a great job at Festival, and big thanks for Rawle Harry and Micaela Schrag for coordinating the events.

Festival brings together the ideas and activities of the 16 wildlife clubs of the North Rupununi and would not be possible with out the support of the North Rupununi District Development Board, Iwokrama, and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature; additional assistance and cooperation is provided by Conservation International, the Ministry of Ameridian Affairs, and the Ministry of Education. We would also like to thank everyone who contributed in financially or in kind as this made it possible to distribute prizes to the winners of the events. To see a list of the competitions and the winners, please click here.

We acknowledge the support of the WWF Guianas for making this programme a success.