Six School Preparation Marathon
12 October 2010 was the school visit marathon for Dr. Adaba T. Ibim, her collaborators of the Agricultural Support Foundation, and Brenda Ogosi, all Mundus maris associates. Together they visited five secondary schools to alert them about activities of Mundus maris in support of sustainable seas and more specifically about the exhibition of artistic works scheduled for 30 October. The key message was to invite the schools to participate in this forthcoming exhibition inspired by the motto 'Arts a Substitute for Guns'. The schools newly visited were Elekahia Senior Secondary School, Montess Junior Highschool, Faith International College and Niger Grammar School. The team also paid a repeat visit to Oromenike Girls Secondary Highschool and Brenda Osogi visited Stella Maris Secondary School, all in Port Harcourt.
Tammy Solomon sent this summary account of the effort. The first school visited was Elekahia Secondary School. During the visit, Dr. Mrs. A.T. Ibim introduced the Mundus maris Initiative to the Vice Principal (Academics) of the school, highlightinng the activities already carried out and planned. She also showed the flyers and the internet website. She underlined the purpose of the visit, namely to introduce the youngsters to sustainability principles and give them the opportunity to participate in an exhibition for youth arts work. The winners might have their work shown in Germany in an international exhibition scheduled for next year. Handshakes were exchanged with the Principal in his office and Dr. A.T. Ibim gave some further explanations of the thrust of the Mundus marisInitiative and its next activities in Nigeria.
She showed how Nigerian groups had already participated in earlier occasions and that extending participation would open new networking opportunities for the schools and the youth.
The Principal and his two Vice-Principals were quite interested in the planned activities and agreed to encourage the participation particularly of the senior pupils of their school in the forthcoming activities.
Some of the interested youngsters posed for a photo in the Principal's office together with their agriculture teacher.
The premises of Elekahia Senior Secondary School consist of ground floor class rooms (only partially visible on the photo) and an administrative and teachers building.
Tammy, Davies and Christian from the Agricultural Support Foundation are the indefatigable team sustaining much of the efforts, taking notes, photos and otherwise supporting preparations. Photos are by Davies and Christian.
Next in line of the visits was Faith International School, Niger Grammar School and a revisit of Oromenike Girls Secondary School. The typical format of the visits was to inform the principals and interested teachers and then show the pupils examples of past Mundus maris works so that they could get an idea for themselves that participation in the forthcoming activities would open networking opportunities for them as well.
The demonstrations of the Mundus maris website were particularly popular.
While the kids were exploring the website, Dr. A.T. Ibim could discuss with the arts and agriculture teachers the short-term and longer-term prospects of cooperation.
Having taken in and discussed the information and forthcoming activities, interested pupils posed for a picture.
Next in line for a visit was Niger Grammar School. Adaba and her team again showed the Mundus maris information materials and invited the principal, teachers and pupils to engage actively in the forthcoming activities, particularly the exhibition end of the month.
A number of pupils were quickly fired up and showed interest in participating, encouraged also by their Principal and arts and (female) agriculture teachers.
To close an intensive visit, the Principal and interested teachers pose for a picture with Adaba, looking forward to the concrete preparations and the exhibition itself.
The same dynamics was at work in the other schools visited by Adaba and Ineba. After this whirlwind information day, the next challenge is to stock up with materials for the painting and other artistic works for D-day and create good conditions for the young people to act out their creativity. The results can soon be seen on this website.