Creation of the Simus School and development of our environmental education program

Our environmental education programme took a new turn in 2022 with the creation of the Simus School, our home for environmental education.

The school, which was built in Sahofika, also includes a kitchen and a refectory to accommodate children from all our partner villages and to organise activities over several days.

The Simus School © D. Roullet

In front of the Simus School, the refectory and the kitchen © D. Roullet

The recruitment of a new educator, Laurent, as well as the decision to have our environmental education programme supervised by our partner Impact Madagascar, also allows us to organise more activities for the children.

Laurent © D. Roullet

Last year, we conducted 65 educational workshops, involving 1,866 children.

We have introduced new activities, in particular a workshop entitled « I take care of the forest ». This workshop aims to make children aware of the importance of forests by teaching them to look after the trees they have planted near their school.

The workshop « I take care of the forest » © Impact Madagascar

In addition, during the summer holidays, we organised our first two green classes in the Ranomafana National Park, which brought together around thirty children. They were amazed by this place that they had never had the opportunity to visit.  They were able to observe red-bellied lemurs, Edwards’ sifakas, red-fronted lemurs, but also many endemic plant species. They discovered the different roles of the forest and the interdependence of living beings in this ecosystem.

In 2022, we also organised seven visits to the Sahofika forest fragment, including two during the Christmas holidays when the Simus School was launched. These visits allowed 43 children to observe the greater bamboo lemurs (Group 5) and the red-bellied lemur family (monitored since 2017). The children quickly identified the latter as the heroes of their illustrated booklet entitled « Noro’s haven ».

In September and October, Laurent and Mary focused on preparing the Simus Festival, a major event that had not taken place since the beginning of the pandemic. About 150 children participated in this event, performing songs and dances. Laurent even composed a song especially for the occasion, which was covered by several schools.

Simus festival © D. Roullet

Thus, the year 2022 was particularly rich for our environmental education programme, whose main objective is to enable children to learn more about their biodiversity and to learn how to preserve it.