Useful links: for more information about Wechiau visit the NCRC site or the Calgary Zoo site
LATEST NEWS
 On October 6, 2008, Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary received one of the top 25 initiatives awarded the United Nations Equator Prize for 2008 (with a $5,000 prize) and was among the top five to receive an additional special recognition award from the United Nations (a further $15,000 U.S. prize). The award was received by the Ghanaian traditional leader, Naa Chielinah Bandanaa, Gurunguu Naa and the Calgary Zoo President Dr. Clément Lanthier at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The Equator Prize is awarded biennially to recognize and celebrate outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The prize is designed to shine a spotlight on exemplary grassroots efforts in biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction. By celebrating local groups in international forums, the Equator Initiative works to share local best practices, celebrate success, and inform policy. |
For the academic year Oct 2008 - 2009 Friends of Wechiau have provided funding to the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary for 5 students to continue their senior secondary school education and scholarships for three new students. Also funding has been given for a previous teacher at the Talawona School to continue into his second year at polytechnic and educational materials for a local primary school.
We thank the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC) in Ghana and the Calgary Zoological Society for providing the necessary resources to enable the funds to be disbursed and to assist with the scholarship selection process.
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Who we are:Earthwatch
volunteers who visited the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary in November
2002 decided that they wanted to find ways to continue to support the
community. We set up a group and called ourselves Friends of Wechiau.
We decided that our aims would be: |
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The
Friends of Wechiau started
by previous Earthwatch volunteers donating money to fund educational scholarships.
Have you visited or volunteered at Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary and
would like to continue your support the project?
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We made our first donations
to Wechiau in the summer of 2005 by awarding one scholarship for a Adams
Yussif to attend senior secondary school and £100 towards educational
material for the school at Talawona. Adams Yussif with his grandmother and his mother (who is holding a photo of her late husband).
(photo thanks to Donna J Sheppard, Sanctuary Advisor, NCRC & Calgary Zoo) You can find out more by
reading the 2005 report
from the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary or visit the scholarship
page.
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The Friends of Wechiau have just completed its third year (2007/2008) of providing funding for scholarships and educational material, providing a total of GBP900 for scholarships and educational materials. We continued to provide GBP300 for our three existing students to continue into their second and third years at senior secondary school. We also funded three new students of GBP100 each, including for the first time funding a young woman. This brought us to a total of 6 students being funded at senior secondary school level. We decided in 2007 to also provide funds for a young man to go to polytechnic to study for a Diploma in Business Studies. He is now being funded for his second year 2008/09. The young man was previously a teacher at a primary school in the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary and has no formal qualifications. The Tokali Junior Secondary School also benefited from some new school supplies in 2007. You can read more about our funding for last year by clicking here. You can find out more about our decisions and reports and accounts here. |
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| For more information your can contact us by
email at friendsofwechiau@yahoo.co.uk or you can contact us through facebook |
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Updated January 2009
