| Hello everybody!
We are a group of 10 Sandwatchers (8 girls and 2
boys) living in Mayotte. We are between 14 and 16 years old and we go to
the "Collège "of Koungou, a secondary school in fact. We are in the
fourth form and we come from 3 different classes. We meet every
Wednesday afternoon from 2 to 4 to prepare and take part in the various
activities on the beach and at school.
Why did we join Sandwatch?
Our teacher in English, Mrs Gabriel, told us about it and we were quite
interested.
We love Mayotte, our island and we want to protect it.
With Sandwatch we feel responsible and we have the feeling of making
ourselves useful for our environment and our beaches. About Mayotte:
Mayotte, called "The Island of Perfume"
is located in the Indian Ocean, at the northern end of the Canal of
Mozambique, between Africa and Madagascar. It is one of the "Islands of
the Moon" that chose to remain French after the independence of the
Comoros in 1975.
|
The 2008 Sandwatch Team
of College of Koungou, Mayotte |
|
Mayotte is a privileged place, it has got a unique
lagoon with 84 beaches of black and golden sand, and many tiny islets
in its turquoise waters. There live many kinds of small, coloured fish,
in an environment of vivid coral outcrops.
It is an island where nature reigns and Mayotte
offers an abundant fauna and flora, exotic trees (Baobab, Tulip tree,
Blackwood, Takamaka, Catalpa) , lianas, orchids (50 species, among
which the vanilla plant) and cultivated species too (mangoes, bananas,
breadfruit, cotton -silk trees). When you walk around the island, you
will certainly get the chance to meet makis, a species of lemur found
only in Mayotte, they are intelligent and always curious to see what's
going on and if you give them bananas or any other fruit, they will
approach without fear.
So, at the beginning of the third millennium, it is a real challenge to
try and protect this exceptional environment.
What do we do?
Field trips on the Koungou beach, Whale and
Dolphin watching, Science fairs, meeting people, making animals,
convincing and trying to involve other schools, writing articles, taking
photos, measures, all these activities are very exciting.
We wish you a happy New Year, full of Sandwatch projects and we hope to
meet other Sandwatchers from around the World one day.
Adidja, Fadhula, Gwenaëlle, Haniya,
Houssouna, Kassidi, Maïmoun, Wilaya, Amada and Antonin.
|
One of our local
Maki's, a species of Lemur common on Mayotte |
