Celebration of World Migratory Bird Day with Teachers and Children from the Lobito Community

World Migratory Bird Days are always an excellent opportunity to inform about migratory birds and their local habitat needs, while also raising awareness for the global threats faced by these birds. Within the scope of the recently created wetland centre called CIOMA in Lobito Angola, ADAMA decided to promote a series of activities involving schools and children. The celebratory activities started off with a virtual exchange between teachers/volunteers from CIOMA and EVOA in Portugal, followed by a virtual exchange between school children from Angola and Portugal sharing information about local wetland habitats, migratory birds and wetland education centres.  The final activity was a bird watching excursion and environmental education session with 40 street children from Lobito, a subset of the population that is often neglected in conservation efforts. This activity was conducted in close collaboration with the Angolan National Institute of Children who helped to identify and sensitize the children.
The activities had a very positive impact on the Lobito community, especially due to the fact that it contained a series of innovative activities that captivated the target groups. Another important element that resulted from this project is the fact that CIOMA gained more visibility and it is noticed by the people visiting the centre that it has grown significantly and is slowly becoming a reference in matters of conservation of coastal wetlands and migratory water birds in the region.