The PICC team traveled north to the village of Rwenshama, where the team renewed their friendship with the Banyabutumbi Cultural heritage Organization (BACHO-K). BACHO-K is led by Akiikih Apollo, a talented dancer, singer and musician, as well as a brilliant leader in feeding, housing, educating, nurturing and loving over 300 orphan children.
With the support of our wonderful donors, we were able to engage over 120 children with the PICC coloring books, watercolor pencils and storytelling sessions, where the kids shared personal wildlife stories. With the older youth we held a discussion about animal behavior, conservation, and local wildlife issues. After a long session of powerful personal stories, we headed outdoors to draw. Staying within the BACHO facility brick walls, and under instruction to draw what they saw and not from their imaginations, the children found a wide diversity of insects, flowers, birds and even buffalo and elephants. We soon headed inside out of the heat to use the watercolor pencils, field guides and other books from their library shelves to have a wonderful art session where they continued to share stories and create incredible wildlife art!
Four older youth were trained with the Canon DSLR cameras and went on a game-drive through Queen Elizabeth National Park. Although there are elephants, hippos, buffalo, lions and hyenas in their community and on their soccer field, it is a different experience to see them in their natural habitat and photograph them. We saw so many beautiful animals and watched countless interesting behaviors throughout the day. We headed to the park after a early breakfast and were planning to return by lunchtime. We all were having so much fun that we took a vote – leave the park to head back for lunch, or keep driving and make it back in time for dinner – the vote was to stay!
Some of the youth are just beginning their training in birds and guiding, and some are already quite accomplished and almost finished with their schooling to become professional guides. We were happy to be able to provide them with binoculars, IUCN resources, and field guides to encourage their professional development. This opportunity was again made possible through generous donations; thank you!
