Due to the massive success of Club P.A.N.'s first year, the club will be continuing on in the 2008-2009 school year.
The Conservation Group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation are happy to report that $2,500 (USD) from the Minnesota Zoo's Ulysses S. Seal Conservation Grant Program and $4,220 (USD) from the Amersfoort Zoo's Jellow Wildlife Fund has already been awarded to the nature club. The Zoo am Meer Bremerhaven has generously donated 1000€ and the Zoo Leipzig €6500 to support Club P.A.N.'s activities this year. The Brevard Zoo has generously donated a 2nd conservation education suitcase (valued at $900 (USD)) to Club P.A.N. for the 2008-2009 school year.
From the 18-20th March 2009, two members of the conservation group of the MPI-EVA, Caroline Deimel & Julia Riedel, visited the Schulzentrum Friesgasse school in Vienna, Austria. In collaboration with the biology teachers of the school, Caro and Julia presented Club P.A.N.'s activities to the students and fund raised for the 2008-2009 school year of the club. Each child contributed 2 Euros to the Club PAN project, which translates into a T-shirt for one Ivorian pupil each. All together, the pupils donated 880 Euros. The organizing teacher, Karin Kneringer-Kwapil and her husband Clemens topped up the sum to 1000 euros!!! The headmaster of the school, Sister Beatrix, donated another 100 Euros to Club P.A.N. summing to a total of 1100 Euros!
We would like to thank the Schulzentrum Friesgasse students and teachers for their very generous contributions to Club P.A.N.!
Club P.A.N. was supported by Spreadshirt with T-Shirts for the children and teachers.
The Conservation Group is made up entirely of graduate students from the department who want to participate in conservation activities in addition to their doctoral studies.
The current members of Club P.A.N. are:
Caroline Deimel, Cristina Gomes, Geneviève Campbell, Grit Schubert, Julia Riedel, Laura Muniz, Mimi Arandjelovic, Sandra Tranquilli, Thomas Breuer , Yasmin Moebius & Claudia Borchers.
The WCF provides the infrastructure and capacity for the Conservation Group to carry out Club P.A.N. in Ivory Coast. Dr. Ilka Herbinger of the WCF, Ivory Coast will continue to run and organize the logistics for the project in country. Guilahoux Hilaire (Coordonnateur Général CPE) and Ouattara Dabila (Coordonnateur CPE-IEP, Soubré) will also continue to run the day-to-day operations of Club P.A.N. in 2008-2009 and travel between all the villages and classes where the club is held. Without their dedication and support the program would never have attained the success that it has so far.
Please visit the club P.A.N. blog http://clubpan.blogspot.com to see videos and photos of Club P.A.N's classes and workshops since 2007 and read updates on the activities of the club
(updated April 2009)
