At this stage in my life I have just accepted that mangrove education is something I will be doing till the day I die. This is me on my 26th birthday after a fun day with kids learning about the watercycle. I was able to do this in Galibi, Suriname because I got to support Green heritage fund Suriname with their environmental activities in Galibi.
I have been doing mangrove education ,primarily for children, since 2016. It is something I love doing and I have been fortunate to enough to be able to support environmental activities with this skill. Well it all started somewhere.
The Marvellous Mangroves Pilot
Back when I was a student studying environmental sciences, I took every opportunity I could get to get out there and learn. That meant any time there were volunteers needed on a project, I would jump out of the crowd yelling " I volunteer" like Katniss Everdeen from the hunger games.
So this one time an opportunity presented itself. They were looking for volunteers to participate in a mangrove education workshop that was going to be held in the district of Coronie. Ofcourse I volunteerd.
The university's budget was shrinking at the time so they had a policy of not allowing travel during the weekends. It meant they had to pay their drivers overtime, which they were not a fan of.
This in turn meant that we could technically not follow the whole workshop as it continued into the weekend. So the initial plan was only do part of the workshop and leave before the weekend.
So we arrive in Coronie. We(4 volunteer students) were asked to help out with the preparations before the elementary school arrives. So we were fetching buckets of water, putting things into place. Not really having any idea of what would happen next.
We were lead by Martin Keeley a very experienced mangrove educator. He lead the activities. Everything that was set up was mostly for games related to the watercycle, mangroves and biodiversity in the mangroves. Truth be told that's how I learned about magroves. It was a lot of fun.
On the second day we the volunteers were given the task to do the activities with a group of children who were not able to participate on the first day. So yes day 2 we got the responsibility of doing it ourselves.
And then the weekend was coming up. So we students needed to leave. I was just. I was not done. I asked if I could hitch a ride to the city with other's in the weekend. So I stayed behind to help complete the workshop. I was the only one that stayed behind.
That was my very first time doing mangrove education.
Martin Keeley is an expert mangrove educator. The mangrove action project is an organization that developed a curriculum on wetlands, because they were under treat and ignored in traditional curricula. Martin has worked tirelessly to adapt the marvellous mangroves curriculum to 15 different countries. These days Martin is still active in mangrove education. To follow his more recent activities you can follow his new organization where he works on mangrove education in the Cayman Islands.
Mangrove education was there for me too
Every time Marting visited Suriname for mangrove education, I had to be there. After I finished my thesis, there was about 6 months of unemployment. I felt horrible and worthless. And it was Martin who gave me a pep talk. I was starting to feel like I was not capable enough to get a job. Martin reminded me that I help make things happen and that I am not worthless. He coached me on how to handle job interviews and wrote me my first recommendation letter.
This is endlessly appreciated and helped me in my professional career tremendously.
One of the ways I get to do mangrove education these days is by suppporting Green Heritage Fund Suriname with activities. I am in turn also thankful that they provide transportation and other materials needed. I will be leaving with them tomorrow to the other districts to do mangrove activities with kids. So looking forward to it.
To be clear mangrove education has been mostly volunteer work. There were only some instances where I actually got paid. I will always find some way to keep on doing it😆