Prompting Their Interest – This Young

“Resilience is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness. It is to bring back into shape….. Adversity is the state of serious or continued difficulty…. Environment is the surrounding or condition in which a person lives or operates….. Resilience in environmental adversity is the capacity to recover quickly from the difficulties affecting our environment.”

Time To Act
“The Cameroon rainforest is a vital component of Planet Earth. It provides habitat for endangered species like gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants. The rainforest is not just important for wildlife, it also supports the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people, providing food, shelter and income. However, this precious ecosystem is facing numerous threats. Deforestation, logging and poaching are still taking a devastating toll on the forest and its inhabitants. We must act now to protect the Cameroonian rainforest. We owe it ourselves, our children and the future of our planet…”  

Environment Competition 
And so the message was aptly captured by some of the pupil participants. On Tuesday, February 25, 2025 in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde. As the Pulitzer Center held its second annual Rainforest Students’ Festival. An event hosted for the second year running by Saint Joseph’s Foundation School Complex, Ezazou, Tropicana, Yaounde. 

Festival Content 
With the participation of four local elementary schools - Saint Joseph School, Success Vision School, Awae Bilingual School, ABS and Les Champinons School - the competition had as theme, “Resilience in environmental adversity.” Featuring songs, dance, sketches, fashion parade, quiz and tree planting, the objective was one. To raise awareness amongst young children on the importance of caring for the environment. 

Encouragement From Grantees
“This year, we had seven Pulitzer Center grantees who sensitized pupils on different areas of environmental protection and conservation they worked on. There were only two grantees in 2024. Pupils planted trees in 2024 and two or three of them survived. This is an initiative to support and encourage for the conservation of the Congo Basin rainforest. The authorities can assist in this by ensuring that more schools and pupils participate in the festival next time,” said 
Adrienne Engono epouse Moussang, former Pulitzer grantee, and co-organizer of the Rainforest Students’ Festival. 

Of Great Significance To Children 
“It was the second time our school hosted the Rainforest Students’ Festival. The competition was of great significance to pupils and myself. The information will get to the parents of the pupils to understand the importance of protecting the environment. This year, there was some improvement in the organization of the festival – especially in terms of presentations by pupils. We are grateful to the Pulitzer Center, teachers and head teachers… We look forward to more schools joining the festival next year,” commented Mrs. Mbah Ndam Margaret, proprietor of Saint Joseph’s Foundation School Complex, Ezazou, Tropicana, Yaounde.

Builds Children Up Academically 
According to Mrs. Bufuh Kamarita, a teacher with Awae Bilingual School, ABS, Awae, Yaounde, the festival educates children to brainstorm on the theme, environmental issues, and to carry out research, which helps to boost their intelligence quotient. As well as learning to take care of their environment, especially forests. 

New Knowledge Garnered 
“It offered pupils the opportunity to learn about tree planting, environmental protection and conservation. Personally, I also acquired new knowledge on the environment. I will like our school to participate in future Rainforest Students’ Festivals,” commented Mrs. Bih Sandra, a teacher with Les Champinons School, Nkomo, Yaounde. 

Continuous Sensitisation
“The goal was to bring young children together to sensitise them on the importance of the environment, protection of forests and to develop good practices to fight climate change. We listened to their songs, recitations and watched their sketches … We believe they will continue to sing these songs to sensitize fellow pupils. And why not their families back home? All this will help the public to retain the message on environmental protection.