Turtle heroes: Protecting Sea Turtles in Suriname

The GHFS (Green Heritage Fund Suriname)  has been going to different schools and communities for a few years now, and it is always nice when an organization recognises our work and asks for a collaboration. This happened last year when the Rotaract FRESH group approached us to join them at their monthly visit to the children's ward of one of the local hospitals, (hospital name) on the (date). Every month the Rotaract FRESH group invites children from the neighbourhood and children lying in the hospital for storytime. During storytime, the children get to listen to a story and create artwork related to the story. This activity is a great way to keep children in the area and in the hospital entertained and can provide an excellent distraction for the children lying in the hospital.

For our session with the children, the GHFS decided to talk about sea turtles of course. We told the kids the story of sea turtle migration after they hatch and leave the nesting beach. A lot of the children had never seen sea turtles before and knew very little about them so they had a lot of questions. After the story, they got to create and decorate their own sea turtle using a paper plate and different parts we had printed out beforehand. The kids had a great time and created so many amazing and colourful turtle shells! 

Now while quite a few young patients were able to join the activity there are always some patients who are unable to leave their beds. We were still able to visit them, read the story, and have a little chat and help them create their own sea turtle. One of the young patients was a little boy who came to the capital city, Paramaribo, from the interior and unfortunately did not understand Dutch and very little Sranang Tongo, the lingua franca / common language of Suriname. While he could not listen to the story he was still able to understand it with the help of the images in the story. This is something that we learned working with children and especially children that do not speak Dutch, which is more common than we think considering the diversity of Suriname, colourful images keep the children engaged. The little boy was fascinated by sea turtles and still wanted to create his own turtle! 

It was amazing to not only raise awareness about sea turtles but also meaningful to the GHFS to be able to provide the children in the hospital with a fun and educational distraction during their stay at the hospital. Especially considering that some of these kids do not live in the coastal area and even those that do may never see a sea turtle in real life. They still got to hear about them and will hopefully share this information with their friends and family.

As for our next activities, the GHFS is planning a return trip to the indigenous community of Galibi for Easter Vacation activities with the children of the community. This year we have a few interns who will be joining us and will be responsible for some of the activities. It is always a challenge to come up with new activities that will keep the children engaged while also educating them on the importance of sea turtles and their habitat. Keep an eye out for our next update to read what we come up with!