Working with the WWF

Yippeeee yi yoooooO!!!!!! There is nothing so satisfying than working for such a long time toward a goal and finally (FINALLY!) attaining something beyond what you ever imagined would happen. One of the elective courses I’m taking here is called “Community Service Internship and Development”. It’s a once a week seminar class where we discuss the role of NGOs in development, specifically in Senegal. The professor is responsible for providing each of us with an internship that fits our interests. Aminata (our internship coordinator) had a lot of connections with health, refugee, and education organizations here in Dakar, but the only environmentally-related internship she offered me was washing and feeding animals in the Dakar zoo. Which, may have been interesting, but that’s not exactly the kind of community focus that I’m interested in. So, I went about finding an internship on my own, which proved to be incredibly frustrating being in a place where Wolof is the preferred language, personal connections are indispensable (even more so than in the US), and a city and culture I was not familiar with.
Luckily, the two professors of my Environment & Development course are both bigwigs in the environmental world in Senegal. Cheikh Mbow is a professor & researcher at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, so he knows tons of people who work in various environmentally-focused organizations in Dakar. And, Arona Soumaré is the Director of Conservation for all of West Africa! Pretty incredible connections there. I discussed possible organizations that might be able to help me with finding some kind of internship – nothing huge of course, since it’s only about 3 months I’d have to work. But, somewhere that I could learn a little more first-hand about environmental issues and the work that NGOs do here in Senegal, and maybe contribute what I can. So, my professors gave me some names at various organizations. I went to their offices and discussed what I was looking for, gave out resumes and cover letters in French, called repeatedly when I didn’t hear back, returned to again express my interest. Nothing showed much promise until 2 weeks ago.
The break came when Arona told me that his friend Christian at World Wildlife Fund (WWF – not to be confused with World Wrestling Foundation) is working on environmental education programs in different communities in Senegal. He gave me his information, and I just went to see him today and it’s a hit!!!! Christian (Senegalese with a Catholic name) is an AMAZINGINGLY passionate person for environmental education (and sea turtles). WWF works on 3 main issues in Senegal : sustainable fisheries, endangered species & habitats, and policy. Christian and WWF worked with the Joal-Fadiouth community, which is on the Petite Cote in Senegal. It’s a fishing community, and it’s also a major nesting site for several types of sea turtles. For economic and cultural reasons, the people here eat a lot of sea turtle – it’s cheaper than beef or chicken in the area and its parts are valued for traditional medicine and tourist trinkets. But, interestingly, the people who catch the turtles are not from the community. They come from other areas along the Senegalese coast. They catch the turtles (Chris said at least 50 in each net) and sell them to the community. So, WWF worked with the local community to bring back control of this coast to the community. To replace the livelihoods of local people who used to sell the meat and parts of the turtles, the WWF provided technical and material support to help develop a marine protection crew (to monitor outside fishers coming into the community’s sea) and develop ecotourism in the area based on the sea and sea turtles. Last year the Marine Protected Area in this community was rated the most successful of all 19 in West Africa.
More recently, the WWF has been engaging in environmental education with children in the community. They have an annual EE workshop with representative children from 10 schools in Joal-Fatiouth and they teach them about the biology of their special environment, focusing on sea turtles, and then give them hands-on experience out with sea turtles. The culmination is each of the children creating some sort of art to represent their understanding of their environment – everything from paintings to poetry. Chris said it’s a way to focus more on the long-term success of environmental sustainability by education children, while also helping the shorter-term. These children then discuss with their parents what they learn and can perhaps teach them something with their new education, spreading knowledge and awareness about the uniqueness and needs of their environment.
So, Christian is working on developing a more comprehensive environmental education program for all of West Africa. I’m not sure exactly what that’s going to look like yet, but he’s going to send me some of his initial plans and we’re going to discuss things – he wants to get some different perspectives about how EE is done in other places. He also asked me to find him some kind of environmental education training so that he can get a better idea of how to engage children and communities in the environment. So, this is an amazing opportunity that I never expected. Being able to be part of such a respected and significant NGO and working on the beginning of an environmental education project in Senegal. Wow! I do feel a bit strange walking into this with nothing but a Colorado perspective on EE, but it’ll be a learning experience for both Christian and I. Senegal has developed two qualities in me – patience and perseverance. It pays off so well though!!! And, I personally can’t wait to see these sea turtles!!!