By Leocadia Bongben
“The forest is where trees grow, animal habitat, and importance for the world,” is the take-home message for Penyongo Manie Myra, a class six pupil of Les Champinons school, at the close of the second Rainforest Students’ Festival held in Yaoundé.
Four schools demonstrated their understanding of ‘Resilience in environmental diversity’ in sketches, music, and speeches. A brain trust, fashion parade, and traditional and ballet dance also spiced up the event.
According to Adrienne Engono Moussang, who co-organized the event with the Pulitzer Center and St. Joseph Foundation School, the festival is a part of the Rainforest-Pulitzer Center environmental education program and was motivated by articles written by journalists who received Rainforest grant funding.
The festival is a unique avenue to sensitize pupils on environmental issues and St Joseph accepted to host the event whose success led to the organization of the second edition.
“We thank St Joseph Foundation School for the collaboration, for accepting to host the second edition of the Rainforest festival,” Engono said.
She reiterated the importance of journalists taking the opportunity to reflect on how to open other doors to sustain the activity for it to become international.
Journalists who doubled as grantees of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Fund/Grant shared highlights of their articles with the pupils in a participatory approach where they answered and asked questions. Ngalame Elias for example talked to the students about the importance of protecting the mangrove forest. His report showed how women destroy the mangrove to smoke fish.
The proprietress of St. Joseph’s Foundation School, Madame Mbah Ndam Margaret, stated in her evaluation that “a good number of pupils and teachers have been educated, and the message keeps going.” This year’s Rainforest Festival taught us a lot, and the students are knowledgeable about the subjects they covered and will spread the word when they return home.
The event saw different schools winning in various categories, and St Joseph emerged winner in traditional dance. Success Vision was the best in the music category; Les Champions emerged as the best in the sketch, the best in Ballet, and the fashion parade was ABS; and Brain Trust, had St Joseph, and Success Vision as winners.
To set an example for the parents, the school’s owner promised to ensure the trees planted this year are watered. Some of the trees that were planted last year survived.
