To further the amphibian conservation efforts of the 10th Annual Save The Frogs Day, we are pleased to announce a round of grants to assist groups who are organizing events and require financial assistance to make their event a success. SAVE THE FROGS! received award requests from 11 organizations from 7 countries, totaling $4,947. While, our original intent was to disburse $2,000 in awards, we have decided to disburse $2,500! These funds will be used to educate communities around the world about amphibian ecology and conservation!
Learn about the amazing 10th Annual Save The Frogs Day Award Recipients:
Mrs. Dhanam Sivalingam – India
For the past decade, Mrs. Dhanam Sivalingam’s has organized Save The Frogs Day events at PSGR Krishnammal Nursery and Primary School in India. Mrs. Dhanam Sivalingam has taught hundreds of children about the importance of frogs through song, dance, theater and art. Through these programs, children learn how frogs play a vital role in the ecosystem. All the students love to participate in the activities and also gained incredible awareness about amphibian ecology and conservation. This year will be another fun, educational and exciting Save The Frogs Day!
Apurba Banerjee – India
For this Save The Frogs Day, Apurba Banerjee of the Rahara Nibedita Art Centre will organize a Save The Frogs Day art and craft competition, lead a story and poem writing seminar and teach students of all ages about amphibian ecology and conservation! The mission of the Rahara Nibedita Art Centre is to increase mental development of children, help poor children in rural areas and to motivate and encourage future artists. This award will greatly assist their art and amphibian programs for Save The Frogs Day!
Binayok Sharma – Bangladesh
Since 2012, Binayok Sharma of PRADHIKAR has organized Save The Frogs Day events in their community. PRADHIKAR is an organization comprised of students from Sylhet Agricultural University. Its activity is world-wide giving emphasis on animals of Bangladesh. For the 10th Annual Save The Frogs Day, they will give educational presentations and have a photo exhibition with amazing photos of frogs! They will travel to rural areas where 300 students are studying and together they will learn about the wild world of frogs. It will be another another successful Save The Frogs Day event!
“Pradhikar would like to give a very special thanks to you for giving this award.” – Binayok Sharma
Naim Khandakar – Bangladesh
Nature Study & Conservation Club at Jagannath University is run by many nature loving and enthusiastic students and advised by the teachers of the Department of Zoology. In past, Nature Study & Conservation Club have organized several National and International event. For the 10th Annual Save The Frogs Day, activities will be held all day at the University in Dhaka. They will hold a frog art competition, essay writing competition, photography exhibition and many presentations about amphibian conservation, ecology and about the amphibians of Bangladesh.
Mohammad Samiul Alam – Bangladesh
Mohammad Samiul Alam from the Department of Zoology at the University of Dhaka has organized and celebrated Save The Frogs Day events in 2016 and 2017. Both of the programs were self-funded by the students and each year was incredibly festive! So many students volunteered and participated in the Save The Frogs Day activities. Teachers and researchers delivered highly informative speeches and all the students showed great enthusiasm about the conservation of frogs. This year, Mohammad Samiul Alam and fellow organizers will celebrate Save The Frogs Day with presentations about the amphibians of Bangladesh and the community will learn how to protect these amazing animals. There will be a frog poem recitation, rally and photo exhibition.
Gilbert Baase Adum – Ghana
Since 2014, over 30 events were observed reaching live audience of +2,500 Ghanaians. Our activities marking this celebration received wide publicity via major national media houses coverage of most events. The events reached over 1,000 live audiences and an additional 2 million TV and radio listeners.
Save The Frogs Events successfully organized include:
At Ghana’s premier science university Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the celebration was also used to launch the KNUST Wewe River Amphibian Project (K-WRAP). K-WRAP, is an initiative by SAVE THE FROGS! KNUST Chapter aiming to remove threats to the survival of amphibians found at their university campus Wewe River. The K-WRAP Team Leader, Mr. Kojo Amanfo rallied support of students and the general university community to eliminate threats facing the frogs, which include fuelwood extraction, illegal farming and the dumping of waste into the river causing serious degradation to species habitats. As part of measures, the team will remove invasive weeds, carry out tree planting exercises to restore degraded habitats and through amphibian surveys and water quality analysis, monitor the ecological health of the project site and also launch a wetland campaign on campus. The participants also had the opportunity to listen to renowned Ghanaian conservationists including Prof. William Oduro (Lecturer at KNUST and also a board Chairman for SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana) and David Kwarteng of HERP Ghana. The students were inspired by the speakers to become pacesetters in areas of Ghana’s amphibian conservation that is fast becoming popular science.
On the 10th Annual Save The Frogs Day, the SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana Team will reach thousands of people in both the northern and southern areas of Ghana with our conservation events:
Kumasi (24th April)
At Ghana’s premier science university, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), STF! Ghana will work with SAVE THE FROGS! KNUST Chapter to mobilize students and the general university community to restore degraded areas of their university campus Wewe River Catchment with native trees to connect amphibian breeding habitats. They will also clean up plastic waste within the catchment. On the night before the program, students will have the opportunity to monitor breeding ponds to build their skills in amphibian survey techniques.
Yawkrom (24th, April)
Yawkrom is Giant Squeaker Frog, Arthroleptis krokosua, village and headquarters of West Africa’s first amphibian education center- Sui Amphibian Conservation Education Centre (SACEC). In collaboration with SACEC, they will organize educational events about wildfires, including art competitions, fun games, presentations, poetry recitals and dramas to reach thousands of local community members. They will also distribute fire educational materials to students, teachers and other literate local people.
Chiana (27th April)
In collaboration with STF! Ghana, UDS Chapter will organize a football match at Chiana, one of the largest frogmeat eating towns of Ghana. This friendly match will be played between the STF! Ghana Football Club (FC) and the Chiana FC. The event will be used to promote our campaign against frogmeat consumption among hundreds of youths and local people from all near-by frog hunting communities. Thus, at the soccer grounds, they will also give talks and freely distribute materials about the detriments of frog exploitation to the wellbeing of amphibians, humans and the environment.
Atewa (28th April)
At Atewa, which is the only home of the Critically Endangered Togo Slippery Frog, Conraua derooi, they will rally the support of local people against particularly bauxite mining. The Atewa hills are to be mined for bauxite by end of this year through a $15 billion dollar deal between Ghana and China. As part of efforts to rescind mining Atewa, they will organize amphibian street walks, talks, froggy dances and poetry recitals. These activities will be organised in partnership with STF! Chapters at Kwabeng, Kibi and the University College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies (UCAES). On the eve of these events, they will organize a 30-minute radio broadcast about impacts of bauxite mining on amphibians; also inviting the local people for the celebration.
Biraj Shrestha – Nepal
Biraj Shrestha has organized Save The Frogs day events in Nepal since 2013. Last year, the 9th Annual Save The Frogs Day had been observed at the premises of Resources Himalaya Foundation with school kids, university grad students and conservationists with fun filled frog activities such as frog tabling, frog merch and bake sale, documentaries, junior art competition, frog mural art and face painting. The event was financially supported by WWF Nepal Office.
Biraj and his team have carried out preliminary surveys about frog dissection with those 14 colleges in 2017 and found that students and teachers are unaware about the importance and plight of the frogs and their disappearance at present. Also, most of the frogs used in dissection class is Indian bull frog, Hoplobatrachus tigerinus, which is listed in CITES II Appendix. Thus, it is very necessary to aware them and this year’s Save The Frogs Day is the best time.
“Thank you very much for awarding us $350 to help us celebrate the 10th Annual Save The Frogs Day. This award will be crucial to execute our event with a focus on anti-dissection awareness among high school people.” – Biraj Shrestha
Congratulations to these amazing frog savings! Their dedication and passion for amphibian conservation is truly inspiring! We wish them the best on the 10th Annual Save The Frogs Day.
Since 2009 SAVE THE FROGS! has sent $81,702 in awards to dedicated conservationists in 15 countries. These awards are funded by members of the public who share our love of amphibians and our desire to protect them and empower the world’s amphibian conservationists. Our goal is to provide as many of these awards as possible, as each award contributes significantly to amphibian conservation. Can you help us support even more Save The Frogs Day event organizers? Donate today to help these dedicated event organizers! Thank you for your generous support.
