La Digue school welcomes Sea Turtle Festival 2019 | 05 October 2019
Learning through fun games
Sea Turtle Friends Seychelles (STFS) brought the 7th Seychelles Sea Turtle Festival to La Digue last week. The festival was celebrated at La Digue school under the theme ‘Climate action for sea turtles’.
The day started with a special assembly, in which students performed songs and poems about sea turtles.
In his opening remarks the school’s head teacher, Sir Michel Madeleine, gave advice to students about what they can do to help save sea turtles.
In her opening address, the secretary of STFS, Isabelle Ravinia, explained that “Climate change is a major threat to sea turtles and all of us should do what we can to protect the vulnerable species”.
STFS presented educational resources to the school, resources which will help the school learn more about sea turtles.
A S5 student read a beautiful poem asking why are humans destroying sea turtles: “How would you feel if you were murdered on the day you are giving birth?” food for thought indeed!
The day continued with exhibitions and presentations by various organisations working in sea turtle conservation, including the Seychelles National Parks Authority (SNPA), Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change (MEEC) and Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF). There were film shows about sea turtles and a round table discussion in which students expressed their views regarding marine turtles.
Marine operations and research staff from the SNPA, an executive member of the STFS, gave presentations on the Ile Cocos marine park in-water tagging project. The students were fascinated and when asked if they would like to participate in the tagging programme, the whole class unanimously raised their hands to say yes. Interestingly many of them shared stories of their previous encounters with turtles big and small, swimming in the sea and from the feedback received it appears that the students are all in favour of protecting sea turtles.
A beautiful mural painted by the school’s art teacher and students was completed to mark the beginning of the first Seychelles Sea Turtle Festival to take place on La Digue Island. There is currently no turtle monitoring taking place on La Digue Island and STFS is grateful to the La Digue school for helping to bring the festival to the island to raise awareness.
We are extremely grateful to the Environment Trust Fund (ETF) for funding the event, the Ministry of Education and all the partners that helped to make the day such a success.
