Newsletter GVI Mexico April-June 2014

GVI MEXICO JUNE 2014, ISSUE 2


Inside this Issue

Punta Allen comes to Pez Maya.

EFR training in Playa.

Pez Maya turtle monitoring

Symposium.

Equine Therapy and Integral

Care Center Concert

The Amazing Race - Playa

Edition

5 sites of MBRS Synoptic

Monitoring completed from

April to June.

INTRODUCTION

It has been three months since the

last edition of the GVI Mexico

newsletter and we have had a lot of

exciting developments.

The marine, community, and vet

programs at Pez Maya and Playa del

Carmen have been working at full

throttle to meet this trimester’s

goals and we are proud to say it has

been a great three months.

With turtle season starting, the

Amazing Race Playa edition, and

many, many other fun activities we

have lots to tell you about. As ever

we hope you enjoy reading the

newsletter and welcome your

feedback!

PUNTA ALLEN COMES TO

PEZ MAYA

Among the many projects of Pez

Maya we have the community work

we do at the small fishing town of

Punta Allen. Every Monday the GVI

team travels 25 km south of Pez

Maya to teach English classes to the

adults and kids of this community.

We also organize different

workshops explaining environmental

issues relevant to the area and other

activities.

In the month of April GVI invited the

kids from the Ignacio Ramírez

Primary school to come to Pez Maya

and participate in a whole day of fun

activities while learning English and

becoming comfortable, in the

language that will become so

important for them, as they grow up

and seek to develop the town of

Punta Allen as a centre for Eco-

tourism activities within the Sian

Ka’an Biosphere Reserve.

The kids came to base with parents,

uncles, aunts, cousins, and in some

cases even grandparents. The first

activity for the children was a

treasure hunt, during which they

rem


with water and re-purpose them as lightbulbs in the

home. Punta Allen doesn’t have artificial light except

during the hours of 19:00-22:00, so applying the

techinique showcased by the GVI team can illuminate

their darker spaces with the power of a 60 watt bulb.

First aid training for parents.

To end the day, the staff of Pez Maya donned its finest

theatrical gear and took the stage for one of the most

impressive productions the Sian Ka’an has ever seen.

EFR TRAINING IN PLAYA

In April we delivered the Emergency First Responder

training course to our partners, Save the Children and

The Equine Therapy and Integral Care Center, in the

Playa community projects. Not only are we equipping

them with lifesaving skills, we are creating a safer

environment for the wider community. Knowledge is

empowering in all forms, but the critical knowledge of

how to potentially save a life or prevent death,

transcends this.

In conjunction with work related accidents and other

incidents of random nature, it is imperative that all of

the staff within GVI and our partners are equipped to

assist in these emergencies. By providing emergency

treatment you could be potentially saving their lives, or

remembered and learned new things about the animals

found in the reserve. Then it was off to the Beach

Olympics, where no learning was required!

The kids from Punta Allen ready to start the treasure hunt.

We discovered who could run fastest whilst super dizzy

from spinning around a pole, who could carry turtle eggs

(don’t worry, they were limes painted white) to safety

whilst avoiding all the natural predators that turtles

might face. Off they then went to the Recycling

workshop where they were taught how to make

colourful baskets from PET bottles and string, to then

move on to the slightly less relaxing than you might

imagine, sand castle and painting competition.

While the kids were off having lots of fun, their parents

took part in two different activities with the staff. Firstly,

the First Emergency Responder course which provided

the people of Punta Allen with useful skills to respond to

medical emergencies in the school or home. These are

great skills for the people of Punta Allen since the town

is well over an hour from professional medical

assistance.

Secondly, the parents took part in a recycling workshop

showcasing the ability to re-use empty PET bottles filled


Our new emergency first responders.

PEZ MAYA TURTLE MONITORING

SYMPOSIUM

GVI poster presented at the 34th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle

Biology and Conservation.

The marine turtle conservation program in Riviera Maya

protects 13 beaches, covering 36 km of coast. These

beaches represent the most important sites for nesting

populations of the loggerhead and green turtle at

national level.

minimizing the lasting damage to their health.

Full house at the EFR training in Playa del Carmen.

With the help of three GVI members of staff we trained

all 9 ludotecarias from the Save the Children Ludotecas

in Playa del Carmen and Tulum, and 3 members of the

Special Needs School from the Equine therapy and

Integral Care Center throughout the month of April.

EFR teaches you how to respond to an emergency, what

you should do, who you should contact and how to

administer potentially lifesaving treatment until

professional help arrives. This training included how to

respond to emergencies with children. This is particularly

relevant for the ludotecarias who can deal with up to

100 children on a daily basis.

The EFR training was a chance to help improve the

organizations and ultimately make the projects safer for

everyone involved. The wider community of Playa del

Carmen benefits from having more people in possession

of these skills should some accident befall them.

After a challenging couple of days of training, our brave

recruits had to toil through an exam about everything

they had learnt, that they all passed with excellence.


from this research many recommendations for the

future years could be established.

After the conference, the poster was hung on Pez Maya,

so volunteers and staffs have access to the different

information collected, as methodology, results,

conclusions, and recommendations.

EQUINE THERAPY AND INTEGRAL CARE

CENTER CONCERT

The Equine Therapy and Integral Care Center in Playa del

Carmen is our partner in the GVI health project. The

center receives children and youths with disabilities and

provides them with an education as well as physical and

occupational therapies, dependent on their needs.

The Center decided to hold the first of an ongoing

monthly series of concerts in order to raise funds that

will support to continue their operation. They chose to

host music concerts with the intention of bringing

knowledge and understanding of their needs through the

appreciation of music. The GVI Playa hub assisted by

offering ideas for the event, helping with ticket sales,

and offering volunteers to help out on the night.

GVI volunteers, Dani, Paul, and Christie, ready for the concert.

The concert was held on May 17th at the Center. The

musical guests for the month of May were the very

talented

In 2013, GVI partnered with Flora, Fauna y Cultura de

México A.C. and Amigos de Sian Ka’an conducting daily

nightly patrols in San Juan beach inside the Sian Ka’an

Biosphere Reserve in order to contribute to the recovery

of species of sea turtles nesting on the coast of Quintana

Roo trough the gathering of data on nesting females and

more accurate results on the number of nests in the

zone. Every time a nesting turtle is observed the

following information is collected: time, species, curve

carapace length and width, scars, and tags. If the nest

was located in areas vulnerable to inundation or to

erosion, the nest was relocated in a safe area. Nests can

be classified in 6 categories: predated, destroyed,

inundated, unanalyzed, poached and protected.

Classification of nest categories for every year of survey.

As part of the turtle program, GVI participated in the 34th

Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and

Conservation hosted by the International Sea Turtle

Society held in New Orleans, USA from the 12th to the

18th of April. The research done by GVI staff and

volunteers at Pez Maya was presented in a poster to the

different attendees. We had the opportunity to explain

what the turtle program consists of, and to promote the

volunteer program. This participation was a great

achievement as 2013 was the first year that GVI Pez

Maya started with its turtle monitoring program, and

from


talented Orquesta de Cámara de Playa del Carmen.

Guests were in awe as the orchestra played pieces from

Vivaldi and Bach. Despite the rain on the night, the

event was a huge success with 64 people in attendance

and 3000 pesos raised for the Center.

The next concert will be on July 5th and then once a

month for the rest of the year. GVI are dedicated to

being a part of these events as well as continuing to

support and assist at the Center.

Presentation of the orchestra.

THE AMAZING RACE – PLAYA EDITION

GVI loves mixing fun activities with altruistic actions. In

June we decided to raise funds for our local partners

(Save the Children, Coco’s Cat Rescue, and The Equine

Therapy and Integral Care Center) in Playa del Carmen

with a mini challenge: The Amazing Race. On June 27th

the volunteers had to find and complete challenges in

locations all over Playa del Carmen.

Our volunteers have been generously giving their time by

being on projects here physically; however, there are

larger aspects that can be covered by monetary

donations. Such things include replacing broken/flimsy

furniture for the children, supplying medicine or

equipment for the vets, and scholarships for children

whos

whose mums work in the school. As all of them have

worked in the projects and had fallen in love with the

people they were fundraising for, the fire burned even

more and it motivated them to bring their cause to those

back home. Through the GVI Charitable Trust fund, they

were able to create team fundraising pages and were

given an impossibly short time of 4 days to raise as much

as they can. Each person shared their page, told their

story, contacted their loved ones and crashed their social

media with updates. Race day arrived, and it was

revealed that they raised $2,434.45 in 4 days; smashing

the initial goal!

The GVI volunteers ready to start the challenge.

This year, the staff organized a mini-race in the style of

the popular television show, ‘The Amazing Race’. The

lucky 12 were split into 4 groups; blue, green, red and

yellow and the aim was to out-raise the other groups

before the race, and to out-race the other groups on the

day. The blue team won with a time of 1 hour and 45

minutes.

A special mention and thank you to our partners at the

Save the Children ludoteca, Special needs School and

Coco’s cat rescue for being a part of our locations in our

race. Also a special mention to the staff that helped man

the posts; we even got the Country Director and Program

Coordinator involved! But most of all, a giant

congratulations to our incredible 12; Beth, Lauren,

Nandira


Nandita, Julia, Freddy, Daisy, Dani, Kim, Katie, Alli, and

Hannah. It was a successful challenge, successful

fundraise and an incredibly fun day that hopefully they

will remember for the rest of their lives.

5 SITES OF MBRS SYNOPTIC MONITORING

COMPLETED FROM APRIL TO JUNE

One of the main objectives of Pez Maya marine

conservation project is to collect data to provide current

information on the status of the reefs in strategic

locations in the north of Sian Ka'an reserve for the

Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) Synoptic

Monitoring Program on behalf of our partners Amigos de

Sian Ka’an and CONANP. Participants in the marine

program are trained in the MBRS methodology, through

the identification of fish, hard corals, invertebrates, and

algae. This trimester (April-June) we managed to

complete five out of eleven monitor sites for fish and

coral.

Volunteers ready to go monitoring.

The volunteers are trained in the four different

methodologies of MBRS: Point Intercept method for

percentage cover (PI), characterization of the Coral

Communities (CC), and belt transect counts for defined

fish

fish species, adults and recruitments / juveniles.

Volunteers go through extensive training both in and out

of the water, learning Latin names for corals, conducting

coral and fish identification tests, practice monitoring,

sizing, laying lines, etc. Training can take anywhere

between 4-6 weeks depending on ability, logistics and

weather.

For the April – June trimester, the monitored sites were:

Pedro Paila 05 (PP05), Pedro Paila 10 (PP10), San Miguel

de Ruiz 10 (SMDR10), San Miguel de Ruiz 20 (SMDR20),

and Punta Yuyum 20 (PY20). Both coral and fish transects

were completed at these sites. Some of the results for

this trimester are shown in the graphic below.

Densidad por familia de peces

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12

Acanthuridae

Carangidae

Haemulidae

Scaridae

Lutjanidae

Monacanthidae

Pomacanthidae

Pomacentridae

Serranidae

Monitoring results. Density of fish key species families in PP05.

The dominant fish family is Acanthuridae with 84.55%,

this is due to the higher number of individuals of blue

tangs, ocean and doctor surgeon fish, which are most

common in the reef. Also these species often travel and

feed in schools which makes their presence in the

transect higher. PP05 presents a high predominance of

algae cover (74.50%) and a low percentage of hard coral

cover (7.33%).

The hard work the volunteers did during this trimester

allowed to collect the information for five different sites.

Moreover, all the sites were done for both coral and fish

giving us a clear idea of what is happening on the reef.


For news, blogs, photos, and updates direct from the field in Yucatan, Mexico follow:

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http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/community-development-internship-mexico

http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/volunteer-childcare-projects-mexico

http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/volunteer-health-project-mexico/

http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/veterinary-project-mexico

http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/marine-conservation-expedition-mexico

http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/sea-turtle-conservation-mexico/

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Documents

Newsletter GVI Mexico April-June 2014