Several news articles and blogs have noted that the launch of Looking for Miza will help to raise attention to the crisis facing mountain gorillas in Congo. We are also really pleased that the book will also raise funds. When we started the project to do the book with Craig Hatkoff, we had three important objectives
1. To raise awareness. This book is currently in English and will be translated into a number of languages including native languages in Africa where it will be distributed. The Scholastic Junior corp of journalists from Rwanda will be helping to deliver messages across East and Central Africa and to the rest of the world through the Scholastic website.
2. To help people get involved in Gorilla conservation. We saw how this can work in New York on Friday when children in in the USA and globally were involved in the launch of the book and submitted hundreds of ideas to the website. Scholastic will continue to provide opportunities for involvement through their website.
3. We also aimed to raise funds for Gorilla conservation and already US$ 150,000 has been set aside to support rangers in the Virunga National Park from the Owen and Mzee Foundation. This should help to support many rangers over a one year period.
The situation in eastern Congo seems to be worse than ever and it’s now a year since the rebels have been in control of teh gorilla sector. Miza, and her family are at great risk. According to this article on MSNBC fighting continues near the park as Nkunda tries to extend his area of control. Just last month four people were killed and several injured (18 of them rebels) . This may be why Emmanuel, Innocent and Diddy were unable to travel to New York to attend the launch of the book “Looking for Miza”.
Given the seriousness of the situation we are interested in your thoughts and ideas on how this children’s book can help to raise awareness, involvement and funds for gorilla conservation.
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