Kids join Audubon in conservation efforts

The celebration of the Belize Audubon Society’s forty years of conservation efforts started with Wetlands Day on Monday. On Wednesday, the Mexican Cultural Institute played host to Shutter Speed, a photo exhibit that chronicled five years in the boardroom and the different sites managed by Audubon. And today, the N.G.O. brought rural and city kids of the Belize District to the Bliss Institute of Creative Arts to learn more about the importance of conservation.

Olivia Carballo Avilez, Education Program Mgr., Belize Audubon Society
“It was Wetlands Day on Monday so we’re doing a couple of activities. We have children from Crooked Tree, Biscayne and Lemonal who prepared some wonderful little skits and we wanted to share it with the Belize City children. So we’re doing a little education exchange for the Belize City children, bringing the wetlands or information about the wetlands of Crooked Tree down to them.”

Jose Sanchez
“And how did it go?”

Olivia Carballo Avilez
“It went wonderful. The kids had three skits, we showed a video where the kids learned how important the wetlands of Crooked Tree are. It provides water, food, tourism, space for people to have their homes. And so the importance of this wetland was brought and it was really good. Jimboru did his dance, which is the Jabiru mascot that we have and he did a new song as well about the wetlands.”

Jose Sanchez
“How many kids do you have here today?”

Olivia Carballo Avilez
“We have over five hundred kids from the city schools. And the rural community schools we have about two hundred or more.”

And in March, the Audubon is having the Victoria Peak Challenge, which is open to any Belizean who would like to climb the mountain. If you would like more information, you can contact Dominique Lizama at the Audubon’s headquarters on Fort Street.