(photo: Sue McConnell)
Our educational materials are for adults and children and they celebrate and acknowledge the Niassa landscape and local culture and traditions and integrate them into our conservation programs.. They include the first Cyao book of useful plants, Niassa storybook, and safe behaviours poster.
We commissioned a Niassa Conservation storybook to provide conservation information to Niassa’s children and aid literacy. A wonderful book called “Lions, Leopards, Mother Nature, and One Small Girl,” was written and illustrated by Afra Kingdon, and translated into Portuguese (the national language of Mozambique) by Caroline Morici Santos, Madyo Couto, and Anabela Rodrigues.
Afra is a well-known British artist, naturalist, and children’s book author. She spent three weeks with us in the field to ensure that the story and illustrations in the book would accurately reflect the plants, animals, and people inhabiting the Niassa children’s world. For the children in the Reserve, this is the first storybook of any kind they have ever seen. More than 80 animals are accurately and beautifully illustrated, making this a simple field guide to common animals of Niassa.
Before Afra began writing, a list of topics that needed to be addressed in the book was prepared through consultation with Reserve management and Niassa teachers. It is a fictional conservation story about a little girl who lives in Niassa and who helps her community solve problems they encounter with wildlife. She is helped by a “hamerkop,” a bird that is considered sacred by fishermen and cannot be killed. The hamerkop build a very safe shelter to keep it safe from predators. The story touches on snaring, safe behaviours, fires, fishing, honey gathering, rabies, and safe shelters.
Its overarching theme is that you can make a difference as an individual no matter how small you are. In 2011, 900 conservation storybooks were distributed to more than 40 schools throughout Niassa with guidelines for teachers on how the book could be incorporated into daily school lessons. We will reprint regularly whenever funding is available.
Afra has also designed a colorful Mozambican “ABC” conservation “capulana” -- a traditional fabric garment that can be worn by women in many ways. Aside from simply celebrating the animals of Niassa and nature, this capulana can be used as a washable ABC wall hanging in schools. Afra’s capulana is both a fashion accessory and a literacy teaching aid for use in schools and at home. We are still looking for funding to print the capulana as 6000 units have to be printed in one print run at $2.20 per capulana.
We are also developing a workbook, or activity book, in collaboration with Houston Zoo, Niassa teachers, and conservation education specialists. This will form part of the activities at the Environmental Centre