Pipisin the Pangolin loves Christmas! Last year he made pangolin baubles to hang on your Christmas tree, this year he has his very own pop-up Christmas card.
To make your own pop-up pangolin card – click on the picture and download the pdf template. Print it out, colour it in, cut along the solid lines of the pangolin and the plants, and fold the dashed lines. Fold in half and place inside a second piece of paper or card.
Click on this picture for the template without any words:
Get the kids coloring to celebrate the forthcoming publication of Diwa the Dugong!
Simply print out and color one of the pictures of Diwa, share it with us (via my facebook page) or send to the C3 office in Busuanga (C3 Philippines, Inc., Salvacion, Busuanga, Palawan 5317 or send it through LBC Coron: C3 Philippines, Inc., Salavacion, Busuanga, Palawan, PICK-UP LBC Coron).
Don’t forget to tell us the name and age of the child who did the coloring (and your address if you post it). You can enter as many times as you like.
Our favorite three entries will win a copy of Diwa the Dugong and a dugong doll handmade in Busuanga. We’ll contact the winners and send you the prizes – wherever you are in the Philippines.
Please send your entries in by Wednesday 14 December.
Happy coloring!
Click on the image to download a pdf.
My brand new picture book will be out in a few weeks. It’s published by Bookmark in the Philippines to raise awareness of dugongs. I’ve been working with Reynante ‘Rey’ Ramilo from Community Centred Conservation (C3); an NGO working on dugong conservation in Busuanga, Palawan in the Philippines.
Dugongs once grazed in their thousands on the seagrass meadows of the Philippines including in Manila Bay. But numbers have declined and Palawan is one of their last strongholds in the country. They still face many hazards including entanglement in fishing nets and in the ropes used to farm seaweed. Rey told me that dugongs have no safe haven at the moment and that C3 are advocating the establishment of a dugong sanctuary.
Dugongs are also known as sea cows because their diet consists mainly of seagrass. I’ve spent a lot of time planting seagrass to make collages for the book. Diwa’s story is about a dugong whose seagrass meadows are destroyed soil washes into the sea from nearby hillsides that have been cleared of trees.
Diwa must swim away from the place she knows and find somewhere new to live. On her journey she encounters many perils but also receives help from strangers who tell of a place with bountiful seagrasses… a place that would be a prefect sanctuary area for dugongs.
Rey shared with me a legend about dugongs from Busuanga. It’s a bleak and disturbing story but the description of the place inspired my thoughts of a sanctuary area for dugongs:
Once upon a time, there was a poor family that lived in a faraway place on a beach, located at the foot of the mountain, where the forest was wild with the tallest trees, crawling vines and shrubs covering the forest floor. Birds would sing the entire day, and when the day turned to night, the crickets would come out to serenade them.
Dual langauage in English and Filipino, thanks to Rey for the translation.
Coming out in a few weeks at Bookmark The Filipino Bookstore
For enquiries, email or call at 895-8061 to 65.
marketing@bookmarkthefilipinobookstore.com
Early in November, children in the mountains for the Ipo Watershed in Norzagaray, Bulacan (north-east of Manila) were treated to animated versions of Danao the Parrot and Mayumi the Forest Pig.
Volunteers from Green is Good, which represents environmental projects of the University of the Philippines Mountaineers (UPM), visited the area to plant trees and to raise awareness of the impact of illegal logging, kaingin and charcoal-making.
I was delighted that they chose my stories for their storytelling session and that they had made such fantastic costumes.
Find out more about the books: Danao the Parrot and Mayumi the Forest Pig
Rachel L Shaw 