Following up on the exhibition and associated activities, information letters were addressed to the Ambassadors of Nigeria and Senegal in Brussels as well as to the EC Delegations in these two countries to draw their attention to the successful collaboration and to encourage support for the local partners and their activities in these two countries.
The Nigerian Embassy acknowledged the letter with thanks and hoped that the activities would be beneficial for students in Nigeria. Read the letter here.
Follow-up in Hilden, Germany:
The group in Hilden organised an exhibition back at school with their contribution to the Amsterdam exhibition. The press release on their participation in Amsterdam is visible on the website (in German).
The regional press in Germany reported about the 'modern mermaid' and gave some background about the arts working group of Ansgar Beer, the coach at the Helmholtz-Gymnasium, as well as giving an outlook onto the follow-up underway in the new school-year up to 2010/11.
The clip of the original news item in "Rheinische Post" of 16 September 2009 was transcribed for easier readability - click here to read (in German).
Another regional newspaper 'Westdeutsche Zeitung' took up the story and reports that following on from the exhibition in Amsterdam 'Sustainable Seas through the Eyes of Art' the Helmholtz-Gymnasium in Hilden is placing more emphasis on the sustainability theme in follow-up work. Read the full service here (in German).
A regional weekly, distributed free to all households in several towns in Nordrhein Westfalia, "Wochenanzeiger Langenfeld-Hilden-Monheim", 30 September 2009, carried a detailed article about the participation of the Helmholtz pupils in the Amsterdam exhibition, providing also some information about the objectives of the Initiative and the planning of follow-up activities.
The German transcription of the article is available here for better readability.
The English translation of the transcription of the article is available here.
Follow-up in Brussels:
The Website of the European School Brussels I in Uccle, Belgium, carries a service about the activities developed to promote sustainable seas together with scientists, artists and schools in Europe and West Africa. Explanations and a photo gallery are available in French.
Follow-up in the Niger Delta:
After the beginning of the new term and having taken stock of the mini-brochures on the Amsterdam exhibition, the three peace clubs in the Niger Delta organised a special event to provide feedback to the students of how their works had fared and that their efforts had been appreciated. The photo shows how Brenda Ogosi, who liaises between the Initiative and the peace clubs, hands over a mini-brochure and other recognition to Paul Enyinaya of Stella Maris College, Jss3, for his participation.
Brenda, Stella Williams and Ineba Bob-Manuel have been discussing how best to consolidate these first activities and came up with the idea to set up the Oloibiri Resource Centre in Port Harcourt, where people of all ages can meet, learn new skills, get access to science and other relevant information and network with people there and elsewhere so as to open new perspectives in a part of Nigeria, where social exclusion and violence are rife, environmental degradation is a serious concern, yet a number of civil society groups are looking to contribute to sustainable alternatives.
Follow-up in Senegal:
In the occasion of the official opening of the exhibition of Samba Laye Diop's most recent paintings at the National Gallery in Dakar, 17 December 2009, Aliou Sall, West Africa coordinator of the Initiative, thanked the artist for his support to the Initiative's work with schools to promote sustainable seas.
In recognition of his guidance and concrete help to enable Senegalese participation in the Amsterdam exhibition of works of young people from West Africa and Europe, the Initiative had sent a gift in form of the book "30,000 ans d'art" covering masterworks from cultures across human history. The picture shows the hand-over of the book (Samba Laye Diop at the centre of the photo).