We’re very proud that Molly reached the final 10 from over 3,000 entries to the 2012 Young Reporter of the Year Amnesty International Media Awards. Molly’s article was part of Year 4’s study of the rainforests. Molly was one of the youngest entrants. In her article, Molly highlights the plight of the Penan rainforest tribe in Borneo. Emily Drabble, Contributing Editor, Guardian Teacher Network commented that Molly’s article was ‘outstanding and you should be very proud of what you have achieved‘. And Joseph Harker, Assistant Comments Editor at the Guardian wrote that Molly, ‘added something to a story I thought I knew about‘. Read Molly’s article in full:
I am shivering, my feet are trembling, it feels like there’s an earthquake. I quickly scoop up the little ones. I feel bewildered. I hear monkeys screeching, madly swinging branch to branch. My heart is thumping so fast that I almost can’t breathe. I see a claw – it looks like a monster’s. I scream with terror. We run so fast trying to find a new place to hide.
When the loggers had gone, we returned to our shelter. It had been ripped away. The monkeys have gone. Looking down for the river below, all that was left was a muddy trickle. There’s only dead fish floating on their sides now. Our food, herbs, spices and medicines from the forests are gone. Now all we have is a dry no land with no trees and no lovely forest sounds.
The Year 4 Bengal Tigers wish we could save the Penan tribes of Borneo by stopping those loggers. Once they cut down trees with an axe which would take hours but now they take trees down in seconds with chain saws. If the Penan try to stop the loggers they get sent to prison. The loggers take down the trees so that palm oil can be put into products like chocolate and shampoo. Did you know that half of all the things we buy in supermarkets have palm oil? In just 8 minutes, loggers clear trees from an area the size of 180 football pitches – that’s a lot of forest!
Well done Molly!
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