In 2019, Forest of Hope Association (FHA) using the GRASP-Ian Redmond Conservation Award received by its Founder, raised local awareness about transmissible diseases between people, wildlife and Domestic animals. This was a contribution to reduce threat to the biodiversity sheltered in Gishwati forest, the northern part of Gishwati-Mukura National Park (GMNP) and engage local people in keeping themselves and their surroundings clean to prevent transmissible diseases.

Eco-clubs in 13 schools around Gishwati were key actors in this initiative as a way to continue inculcating the conservation message in local children and their parents ensure the future protection of this new park. Posters and booklets were used by eco-clubs members to raise local awareness about: the kinds of transmissible diseases between people, chimpanzees and livestock; the danger of those transmissible diseases; how those diseases are spread, and how risks of diseases contamination can be minimized.

Photo of education campaign

The techniques used to communicate the message included: visiting the village around schools, organizing focused debates and dances to attract people in the village prior to utilizing education guides and distributing the brochures. Students also attended organized local meetings and visited places where many people gather such as markets and shopping centers to gain an opportunity to spread the awareness messages on chimpanzee conservation.

Community members were interested in reading the information on the brochures

Considering questions that the community members were asking, it was pretty clear that local people are interested to learn more about transmissible diseases between people, chimpanzees, and livestock. We are confident that this initiative significantly contributed to the behavior change that will continue influencing local community’s attitude toward the conservation of the Gishwati biodiversity. Besides learning through this initiative conservation message, students also gained extended knowledge about effective communication methods and improved their critical thinking on how to spread the information they learn to their colleague in schools and their community.

They were motivated as this community outreach initiative was combined with annual eco-clubs’ competitions organized by FHA to evaluate their performance. The annual prizes were given to eco-clubs that transmitted the message best as measured by their own community ranking in proving best answers to the evaluation questions. Among the prizes that FHA gave out include: uniform for schools sport clubs, soccer balls, radio receivers for eco-clubs.

each participant on the competition received notebooks to be used in their studies

The overall winners of the competition received radio receiver and sport uniform

We are thankful for Remembering Great Apes and Born Free Foundation (BFF) that co-funded this GRASP-Ian Redmond Conservation Award. It made a significant contribution to increase local awareness about about how risks of transmissible disease between, Human, primates and livestock can be minimized

Forest of Hope Association (FHA) is a registered Rwandan Non-Government Organization. The FHA long term mission is engaging local communities in conservation of protected areas through community forest protection, sensitizing local people about the importance of conserving protected areas and improving local livelihoods and reducing human-wildlife conflicts. In our community education program, we always plan community outreach for awareness about the importance of the conservation of protected area and biodiversity.