Dorothy Matute, the headmistress of the Bonadikombo school, visited us in our hotel in Limbe, Cameroon. She was the first to obtain a CD with an audio rendition of gorilla fairy- tales from our book 'L´histoire des Gorilles' in French recorded by Jan Jiran. The idea behind the CD is similar to that of the book - to spark interest in gorillas and environmental protection among African children. We are going to distribute it for free to schools and make it available also to local radio stations.
Listen to a story about a white gorilla from our French-language CD.
We have received extremely positive responses to our book of gorilla fairy-tales (which we call "stories" for Africa) both from local teachers and pupils. Yet I was curious to see the results of a survey that we asked teachers from recipient schools to fill in. We have received 32 by now. There is too few of them to make any judgement yet they are indicative of the general perception. What have we learned?
91% of teachers believe the book meets its purpose. 88% of teachers developed follow-up activities based on the book. 100% of teachers would like to visit the Limbe Wildlife Centre with their pupils. 97% of teachers would welcome more materials like that, preferably (in order of preference) an educational book with illustrations, an educational book with with photos, and an adventure book with illustrations. Surprisingly, few were interested e.g. in a cartoon book. The most popular story with children was 'How Moja Learned to Fly', followed by 'White Gorilla' and 'Moja and the Ant'.
The statistics may change as we receive filled-in questionnaires from other parts of Cameroon, so we shall see.
Browse the English version of the fairy-tale book
Browse the French version of the fairy-tale book
Are you involved in gorilla protection and would like to learn more about our books and CDs? Please contact Jana Jiratova, jana.jiratova@rozhlas.cz.
28.12.2009 Moja has been helping rescue gorillas in Africa. An English version of the gorilla tales book is being published as part of the Year of the Gorilla (YOG), a UN initiative, to raise funds to finance distribution of the book in Congo-Brazzaville and to support a project aimed at the rescue of the critically...
01.06.2009 "She's playing the young quite well! And the peacock, too..." producer Honza Jiran noted when choosing an actor for the French rendition of the gorilla fairy tales among 10 short-listed native speakers with more or less extensive acting experience. He eventually selected the one who interpreted the young and the peacock so nicely - Mélanie Ruppe.
09.04.2009 The Revealed has been aiming several years to support protection of Western Lowland Gorillas in Central Africa. First we financially supported a primate rescue centre in Limbe but then decided to carry out a project of our own. We published a book of fairy-tales about gorillas in English and French and distributed it to schoolchildren in Cameroon. Having been eagerly awaiting responses from...
08.04.2009 A few days ago, just after our arrival to the Limbe Wildlife Centre, Simone de Vries gave us two folders: the thinner one contained completed questionnaires, while the thicker one contained letters from children to Czech Radio, The Revealed, a mysterious person name Miralan Bobe, or all three of them...
27.03.2009 When visiting Cameroon in the spring of 2006 we realised that the best way to protect gorillas is to show the locals their beauty and intelligence. And when we published the first book of "gorilla" fairy tales, a little later in the Czech Republic, in which Moja naturally is the heroine, we weren't...
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