Sarilani Wirawan, assistant course manager at the Rare Pride training program in Indonesia,  writes about a mascot visit to a local school, one activity during a Pride campaign in Indonesia’s Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserves.

June 21st and 22nd were special days for the elementary students in SDN 2, SDN 4 and  SDN 1 Kecamatan Singkil, Aceh Singkil. For more than 45 minutes all students in each school spent time with their new friend Abel, the sumatran orangutan mascot, who came with team from Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari, accompanied by Fransisca Ariantiningsih, the Pride campaign manager in the area.

 
Fransisca Ariantiningsih and her Orangutan mascot visit local students. 

First, the students were invited to recognized the location of the nearby wildlife reserves and identify various animal living in the reserves. Not waiting any longer, Siska asked the students if they want to meet a new friend and encouraged students to call out the name “Abel! Abel!”  The children shouted excitedly. As the children’s voices grew more excited, Abel entered the classroom. Surprised, nervous, laughing, were among the first reactions of the children upon seeing their new friend.

Later on, students showed high enthusiam to greet and play with Abel.  Many of them were so excited to shake his hand and answered questions in order to be handed a badge or poster directly by Abel.   Abel was also very happy to meet the kids.

Suddenly, Abel stopped moving around, and he fell silent and sad. Siska then explained the reason for Abel’s sad feeling. Threats toward the wildlife reserves were explained to the children as well as the impact on the reserves if they are not taken care of and protected.  Siska explained that this not only affects the sumatran orangutan, but it also impact the life of people who live near the reserves.  The children were then asked to identify their village and the wildlife reserves on a map and were also introduced to the benefit of the wildlife reserves.

Time passed and at the end of the visit students sang a song to entertain Abel and promised to take care of their wildlife reserves: 
“ … Come on friends
Let’s protect
Rawa Singkil Forest ..”

Abel the Orangutan with students in Singkil.

The students, teachers and principle were all happy and excited. Mrs. Nursakya, principle of SDN 4 Aceh Singkil, stated in the evaluation form: “We are very happy with this event today, because it will increase the children’s enthusiasm to study more.”

** The objectives of Fransisca’s campaign are to increase knowledge on the status and function of Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserves, as well as develop agreement on collaborative management among the stakeholders of the wildlife reserves.

Adam Murray, assistant course manager for the Rare Pride training program at the University of Kent, shares several  insights from a recent visit to two Pride campaigns gearing up in Cameroon and Gabon.

Recently I returned from project support visits in Cameroon and Gabon. There are many similarities between the two Pride campaigns. Both are run through WCS, both are looking at the main threat of illegal bush meat hunting and both will probably use a soccer tournament as one of the many social marketing tools. Both Bosco and Martin, the campaign managers who were trained here in Kent, found that their countries are fanatical about soccer.

 
Adam Murray in Gabon with the Nature Club of Medenou. (Rare)

During my visits we looked at some possible activities that they could use that could be linked into their key messages, goals and SMART objectives. We could be seeing two campaign mascots (a giant pangolin and a black and white colobus monkey) at respective soccer tournaments between the different villages in each campaign target population. This is a real example of the imagination and transferable nature of the Rare Pride methodology.