Art & Education to Save a Bird from Extinction

Dear donors and supporters,

We are truly happy to share this with you: Our "Canto al Yoyo" (Song to Apolinar's Wren) was finally produced, with children's full commitment and participation -currently, we are editing a video that summarizes it all, and it will be visible here.

This song represents numerous items along this project, at once. After three years of building up a story linked to this lovely bird, Apolinar's Wren, that could be self-owned by those rural kids, being able to have it now is certainly a milestone for project SueTy.

What we do with this project is at a high extent thanks to your help, our donors and supporters of SueTy. Those children have enjoyed every step alongside with the process, and altogether we remain very grateful with you all.

Despite this bird still having multiple threats around lake Tota's territory, to have a group of young Guardians for its conservation, is an important sign of hope. We all know how difficult is to change for the better when societies are reluctant to it, but having a positive start at an early age is a safe path for good results.

To review the variety of elements involved behind the scenes for that Song to Apolinar's Wren, please navigate its page within the SueTy website - here: https://suety.abctota.org/recursos/canto-al-yoyo

Thank you, very much.

Greetings,

Felipe Velasco
Director, Fundación Montecito

Links:

• Support Apolinar's Wren Conservation with a Monthly Donation

Dear donors and supporters,

You might remember our previous report regarding the Guáquira's rural school looking for support. Well, yes we could! Yes they did it! The school has won the regional award for best project on environmental education, and we created this post to memorize the moment.

Ther school project was an adoption of the SueTy project you are all supporting here at GlobalGiving, so this means of course you are behind this milestone for those kids, in their effort to raise environmental awareness to build conservation capabilities at an early age. Thank you all for that!

That lovely group of rural children have won a day out to visit the Botanic Garden in our capital city called Tunja, a few books about nature to motivate them further in their interest to become guardians of their territory, a tablet donated by a company engaged in that award, a diploma and a cup. And the teacher has won a place to present the project before the Regional Council for Environmental Education, in September. But above all, the kids have won happiness and pride for their achivement in being the first ever Apolinar's Wren guardians at Lake Tota.

The award was received by their teacher, Ms. M.Castro, in an event held in Tunja a few days ago, as it was posted in our social media, linked above. The children knew about that result only the day after!

And so, you may be wondering now, what was the children's reaction after getting that good news for them and the school? - Here's the video they sent to us in gratitude, same gratitude I can transfer now to you all of our donors and supporters for the project. Watch that video here.

Thank you again!

Warm regards,

Felipe Velasco
Fundación Montecito

Links:

• Support Apolinar's Wren Conservation with a Monthly Donation
• Get to know about Apolinar's Wren guardians

Dear donors and supporters of project SueTy (bird conservation of Apolinar's Wren),

Today, we are happily sharing with you that Guaquira's school, the rural institution that links the most with our bird conservation project "SueTy", has sent out a proposal within their Regional Secretary of Educacion in Boyacá, looking forward to getting an official support to their efforts in education.

What proposal is it about? Yes, it is right the one you are thinking! They have produced a summary report of the work we both have articulated since 2019 (the rural school of Guaquira and our non-profit Fundación Montecito), in regards to our alliance to spread out environmental education to children, to protect, conserve and save the Cistothorus apolinari, from their habitat at Lake Tota.

A copy of it can be found here (in Spanish), it was prepared by Ms. M.Castro, the Guaquira's School Head Teacher, a fantastic educator in charge of that education responsibility for the 16 rural kids at that primary school.

To explore what we have created in the website dedicated to this project SueTy, please visit: suety.abctota.org/

Warm regards,

Felipe Velasco
Fundación Montecito

Links:

• Support Apolinar's Wren Conservation with a Monthly Donation

Dear donors & supporters,

Time for good news! From a civil sociaty initiative in the town of Aquitania, one of the three municipalities sharing Lake Tota's shore, local authorities have chosen Cistothorus apolinari as their emblematic bird. This meassure has a potential to increase awareness among locals, and bring more initiatives to its conservation.

A week ago, there was a cellebration for that, in which community actions to protect this species were highlighted, and that included ours. We were somewhere else doing fieldwork those days and were not able to attend that cellebration, but we were told a recognition for our work was part of the event: Montecito's work was recognized, among others, for their contribution to this species conservation, from Aquitania Mayor's Office - J.Zuluaga (biologist in support to that initiative), tolds us afterwards.

Therefore, it's time to cellebrate, and keep up the work we do towards saving Apolinar's Wren from falling more in its critical conservation condition.

This was the environmental authority's statement, in regards to that "emblematic" news:

• The objective is to add conservation actions for the protection of this endemic species for Colombia and that is in critical danger of extinction. The Cucarachero lives in the wetlands of the Cundiboyacense plateau, and its largest population is in Lake Tota; the subspecies (C. apolinari) is exclusively associated with reeds, white grass and other coastal plants of wetlands, lagoons and lakes.
• "With this declaration as a flagship bird, another step is taken in favor of the conservation of Lake Tota, it is a significant achievement for our species in critical danger of extinction," said biologist Johana Zuluaga Bonilla.
• Main threats of the Apolinar's Wren: The destruction of its habitat, the low number of its population and the geographical distribution of the species restricted to the Cundiboyacense plateau, make this Wren a species sensitive to extinction. They live in very small strips associated with bodies of water, if these strips are destroyed the Wren disappears, so it is everyone's job to protect their home.
• It is time to agree to peace with nature and applaud these initiatives for conservation.

Thank you for your continuous support.

Warm regards,

Felipe Velasco
Fundación Montecito

Links:

• Support Apolinar's Wren Conservation with a Monthly Donation

Dear donors and supporters,

Project SueTy (whisper of a bird), as we call this initiative to help on Apolinar's Wren conservation by providing support to rural education with art and meaningful activities related to this species and its context, has made a closure of a stage, and now more stages are coming.

Our first purpose to provide art & education support to the children of Guáquira's School next to Lake Tota, was happily fullfilled, despite all the challenges brought by the well known pandemic.

We prepared a video for you, to provide an insight to the process, as it is to date - you can watch it here (it's only 2 min, with English subtitles): https://youtu.be/dULArvb2Z6o

Now, as it is explained in that video, we are aiming to upscale our activities into other schools of Lake Tota's area, in which that bird represents a clear opportunity for children and the whole community to be better aware of, hoping for them to increase the guardian's base, as it has been already started with our first school.

We have also developed a website to provide in there with some tools and resources for children to get closer to this bird species - you may wish to check it out, here: https://suety.abctota.org/

Thank you all once more, for your continuous support, and we will keep you informed in regards to the progress with SueTy.

Happy and healthy 2022 to all!

Felipe Velasco
Director, Fundación Montecito

Links:

• Support Apolinar's Wren Conservation with a Monthly Donation
• Get to know about Apolinar's Wren guardians