The Czech non-profit organization The Kukang Rescue Program founded an English-environmental school with free lessons for children from the Bandar Baru village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Operation of this school and the education of a new generation of local people is one of the critical steps to raise awareness of illegal trade in slow lorises and other endangered animals, and of the need for nature conservation.
During the past two years in Bandar Baru, the organization has built the first specialized rescue and rehabilitation centre for slow lorises in Sumatra. This allows rehabilitation of slow lorises confiscated by Indonesian authorities from black animal markets or from captivity at end-owners in order to return them into the wild. Although these threatened prosimians are protected by the Indonesian law and trade in them or their ownership is illegal, demand for them as for domestic pets drives their hunting and illegal trade.
The establishment of a school where children learn, in addition to English, about nature, animals and their protection, was a logical tool to raise awareness about illegal trade in slow lorises and other animals and to fight against it. "Education of children is a very important part of nature conservation as they will decide on the next generation's approach to nature protection," explains František Příbrský, The Kukang Rescue Program leader.
Children attend this school three times a week, namely on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays in the afternoon. Lessons take place under the supervision of three Indonesian teachers and is completely free of charge for the children. "Also the environmental classes are a part of the regular English lessons, but children can learn more about how the nature works also from books about animals, plants and nature, that are written in the Indonesian languag. These books were donated by the Czech NGO Green-books. English science books were donated by The Prague British School. Some of the children saw such books for the first time in their life and their reactions expressed their enthusiasm," Frantisek Příbrsky describes. The handover of the books to children was also attended by Česká televize.
This English-environmental school can work mainly thanks to support from the Liberec Zoo. The main partners of the Kukang rescue program are two leading Czech zoos, the Ostrava Zoo and the Olomouc Zoo, fulfilling one of the modern missions of zoos, which is nature conservation in the place of occurence of wildlife, i.e. in-situ.
A reportage about the Kukang rescue program can be viewed here: