Art & Education to Save a Bird from Extinction

Dear donors and followers of project SueTy,

As times goes by during this Covid19 period in isolation, our home office has been active working on art illustrations for the booklets we will use along, with children in the rural school of Guáquira (Lake Tota). This work is time demanding and has been ideal for this particular span.

I hope you enjoy this samples (images below) of the mentioned activity, in progress. Art illustrator: Juanita Arango, from Fundación Montecito (Juanita has an academic background in art restorarion, and in previous months has been engaged in bird illustration; learning and practising - you can check this hummingbird-head feathers sample she published recently).

Thank you for your permanent support, and we look forward for your continued engagement.

Warm regards,
Felipe Velasco + Fundación Montecito team

Links:

• Support Apolinar's Wren Conservation with a Monthly Donation

Dear donors & followers of project SueTy,

These Covid-19 days are tough for many worldwide, in many ways. A positive perspective for us in this project though, is to confirm how valuable is to understand the connection between habitat & biodiversity loss -among other factors-, to the spread of this pandemic problems. Therefore it confirms the importance to carry on and improve actions to be more and more empathetic with our environment.

And of course, this also strenghten our goals with project SueTy, and our gratitude with your support!

From previous weeks (pre-C19) and also coping with current isolation, quarentine and all that slow-motion meassures taken everywere (and our country Colombia is not an excemption on all that), we are active on improving our booklet initiative, also on publishing a number of posts on social media and sites, aiming to raise awareness to the importance of our bird species on focus with SueTy (Apolinar's Wren).

We have linked those with our umbrella project called 'Cistotapolinari', and have organised them in a variety of publications that we want to share with you, in a hope of your interest to explore a few of them and give us some feedback:

• Published on WorldWaterDay website: Announcement of a 2-day environmental culture festival (Festival El Muyso)* to benefit Lake Tota and raise special awareness towards bird species Apolinar's Wren, cellebrated on 07 & 08th of March 2020 - Link: https://www.worldwaterday.org/event/festival-el-muyso-2020-marzo/
  
  
• Workshop with children at Guáquira's School (17.2.2020): [Apolinar's Wren] Habitat Conservation & Restoration - Link: https://cistotapolinari.blogspot.com/2020/02/restauracion-y-conservacion-del-habitat.html
  
  
• Community Workshop, with children and parents at Guáquira's School (20.2.2020): Birds and its Importance, with a focus on Apolinar's Wren (Environmental Authority joined on this) - Link: https://cistotapolinari.blogspot.com/2020/02/taller-comunitario-generico-aves-aves.html
  
  
• *Environmental Culture Festival "Festival El Muyso" (callebrated on 07 & 08th of March 2020), in a previous report we announced our will to develop it, and it happily became real: To raise environmental awareness with a focus on the importance of wetlands and our bird species Apolinar's Wren:
  -Festival's website: http://muyso.abctota.org/festival2020.html
  -Facebook event created: https://www.facebook.com/events/154988845918462/
  -Summary post after the festival: https://www.facebook.com/fundacionmontecito/photos/a.308544429167929/2895060273849652
  -Children's art exhibition with Apolinar's Wren drawings: https://cistotapolinari.blogspot.com/2020/03/festival-el-muyso-incluyo-exhibicion-de.html
  -Following report from our environmental authority: https://www.facebook.com/fundacionmontecito/posts/2895404430481903
  -Following report from the township administration of Tota: https://www.facebook.com/fundacionmontecito/posts/2895410790481267
  -Following report #1 from French project: https://www.facebook.com/fundacionmontecito/posts/2921517404537272
  -Following report #2 from French project: https://www.facebook.com/fundacionmontecito/posts/2923882234300789
  -Our gathered photography of Apolinar's Wren: https://a1.abctota.org/ave/registros/fotos
  -Our gathered videos of Apolinar's Wren and related: https://a1.abctota.org/ave/registros/videos
  
  
• A post calling to protect Apolinar's Wren habitat at Lake Tota: https://www.facebook.com/fundacionmontecito/posts/2926264090729270

Thank you for your valuable support to project SueTy and Fundación Montecito! We look forward for your continued engagement.

With warm regards, wishing you all to remain safe and healthy,
Felipe Velasco + Fundación Montecito team

PS.- These following pics are some memories of the pre-C19 moments lived and shared with our local community and children of the Guáquira's Village, next to Lake Tota, the area of our project's goals.

Disclaimer: All photos are owned by Fundación Montecito. And for those including children, when we started this project we made a written request for parents at the school of Guáquira to authorise its use for the purpose of our projects linked to them, they all have agreed on that.