The Guyana Youth and Environment Network (GYEN) in partnership with The Breadfruit Collective (TBC) recently published a climate change ebook to inspire children and adults to be more conscious of the environment.
The book, The Sprouts and the Mystery of the Flood, was written for children nine years old and up, but its lessons can also be taught to younger children. The Sprouts and the Mystery of the Flood, the first of a series, can be freely accessed online and there are plans to make it available in bookstores.
The creators of the book are Nayan Persaud (GYEN member), Afeefa Richardson (GYEN member), Christine Samwaroo (founder of TBC), Bonita Bernard (GYEN member), Madhavi Indarjeet (GYEN member) and illustrator Vimaldat Bissessar.
The publishing of the book was a collaborative effort that saw many hands on deck including the Environmental Health Unit of the Ministry of Health. The editing team included Candacie Thompson from Environmental Protection Agency – Guyana, Aretha Forde (Environmental Protection Agency – Guyana), Vanessa Benn (Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation), Salima Hinds (Tamùkke Feminists) and Sherlina Nageer (Green Heart Movement).
Persaud, one of the authors, who was also responsible for the layout and cover design, said that GYEN wanted to do a book “for kids teaching them about the environment”.
Persaud, who is also an employee at the Ministry of Health, said it was his idea to include in the book how bad environ-mental habits can impact one’s health. In the book, one of the secondary characters was hospitalized with the waterborne disease, Leptospirosis.
Initially GYEN had made plans for a children’s activity book but then he pitched the idea for a storybook that could be passed down for generations as well as make its way into libraries and schools. Though the team decided to do the storybook project instead, they also found a way to include activities at the back of the book based on the storyline. Among the four activities are a crossword puzzle and a word scramble. Readers can also expand on their vocabulary by learning the meaning of the words in the story through the glossary included at the back of the book.
With Guyana being the setting for the story, the authors thought it was important to have the main characters represent the country’s diverse culture. The characters include eight-year-old Asha of Indo-Guyanese descent; nine-year-old Shamar of Afro-Guyanese heritage; nine-year-old Lily of Indigenous descent; 10-year-old Tim who represents Guyana’s vast mixed race heritage; retired pilot Uncle Tombo, who is Afro-Guyanese and always interested in anything that would help the planet; and Aunty Sue, a retired business-woman of mixed race heritage who is not too keen on protecting the environment. In parts of the story some of the adults addressed the children using creolese, also in keeping with local culture.
The four children in the story, who have always been conscious about keeping the environment safe and clean, name themselves the Sprouts and set out to do whatever they could to save the environ-ment. However, careless actions of many of the villagers led to flooding in the village. At first, residents refused to listen to the children about proper garbage disposal but in the end, the children got their attention.
Persaud explained that the book was a product of many Zoom meetings attended by the editors and the illustrator as a result of the pandemic. Together they decided on the names of the characters in the stories and what their personalities should be.
“The objective of the book is really to target young persons and get them more involved in the environment… in pre-serving it by keeping it clean… The book also points out that no matter how young you are, you too can make a change,” said Persaud.
He shared that since the book has been published, parents have been downloading it and sharing with others.
Meanwhile, according to Richardson, “Before the pandemic we did a lot of awareness work with children… [This] is one of the key things we did as a group. Prior to the pandemic, one of the things I enjoyed the most was participating in the school outreaches that we did with the Office of Climate Change. We would go to different schools, both primary and secondary and engage with children on the environment. With the pandemic, we weren’t able to do a lot of outreach with the children so this was one way to reach out to them so when I learnt of it, I decided to volunteer on the project.”
Samwaroo said she came to be a part of the project because of the work her organization aims to do with youth.
Pointing out that the book is part of a series, Samwaroo posited that the others will highlight various environmental issues in Guyana like biodiversity loss.
The series will keep the Sprouts as the four main characters, but, according to Samwaroo, “in the other books we want to include persons that are different that have different abilities and also continue with the idea of our first book that anybody can be interested in the environment and be interested in making an impact in their community”.
However, for now, the team plans on basking in the success of this book. Having worked on the project virtually, some of the members are yet to meet in person.
Bissessar, currently an environmental science student at the University of Guyana who recently wrapped up his art teacher contract with School of the Nations, was considered to be perfect for the illustrator’s job.
While he did the drawings in the book, he explained that it was a collective effort as the editors shared their input also. Even the colours, Bissessar shared, were debated about before he got down to working on the book as they did not want anything to be gender-biased.
He said he could not be happier with the feedback he has been receiving about the book from friends, family, acquaintances and strangers.
GYEN was founded five years ago by people sharing the same interest of wanting to see more youths involved in preserving the environment.
The Breadfruit Collective was established last year. The Sprouts and the Mystery of the Flood is available for reading and download at: https://bit.ly/3Bqr7tU