Leading the Way....

As a part of Leadership BTEC short term interns, meaning me (Kristina), Adam and Edwin, for our final task we had to create a poster presentation in Puerto Rico school (where we also teach English to the kids). We were told that we should explain to the kids what GVI is doing in the Yachana Reserve, because so far the only understanding they have of us is weird gringos walking in the forest in rain and sun, day or night. After Edwin decided to make three posters on ‘Why are rainforests important, human impact on the rainforest, what work GVI is doing and why is it important for rainforest and people’, we were allocated teams of four people with one Spanish speaker in each. Part of the challenge for us was that all presentations had to be in Spanish so the kids could understand.

Each team did an awesome job on their poster and the kids loved our mini lessons. Through role plays and games played after each poster we tried to actively involve the kids in the whole presentation to hopefully give them a better understanding of the topics we were trying to teach them. They especially seemed to enjoy our terrible pronunciation (at least some of us) of Spanish, which we all promised to work on and improve for next time.

All in all, this was an amazing introduction to which will develop into regular Environmental Education Presentations and all of us showed that we can work as an efficient and productive team!

Kristina Spicer – GVI Amazon Environmental Intern, Apr-June 2010

Taking the time to make a difference.
For all our conservation efforts here in the Amazon, its extremely important that we work with the local people and empower them with the knowledge and skills to protect the rainforest. As Kristina already mentions above, the entire GVI Amazon team went down to the local community to teach the students about our research for the first time. However, conveying science and surveys to young kids is not an easy task...yet, with a bit of planning, artwork, and good fun, we were up for the challenge. Our project posters and entertaining skits covered rainforest ecology, human impacts, and our work here as GVI. An all around success, the kids had a blast and received us well. Hopefully this is a sure sign of more environmental classes to come here on the community side of things in the Amazon.

Adam Goldberg – GVI Amazon Environmental Intern, Apr-June 2010

Leading the Way....