September 2023
President Irfaan Ali and Tony Blair inaugurate Sophia Point
On August 29th we were honoured to be joined by special guests, His Excellency President Irfaan Ali and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to inaugurate the Sophia Point project. This was an opportunity to hear from two leading voices on the future of climate action, celebrate Guyana's globally important environment, and discuss the role that facilities like Sophia Point can play in educating the next generation.
Our co-founder, David Lammy, opened by providing an update on the progress and vision for Sophia Point as we look forward to completing construction next year. The event was co-hosted with our partner, the University of Guyana, with the support of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. A big thank you to Vice-Chancellor Paloma Mohamed Martin for moderating the event and to all those who volunteered to ask thought-provoking questions to our speakers.
The audience was made up of students, conservation practitioners, diplomats, government officials and passionate environmentalists, and we are excited to be a part of this important community. This marks an exciting step towards delivering on the shared goal of protecting and celebrating Guyana's unique environment.
If you missed the event you can watch it back and read more news coverage here.
Turning the sod at Sophia Point
To celebrate the start of construction we invited a small group of partners, trustees, supporters and neighbours to Sophia Point.
To mark this exciting milestone, Co-founder of Sophia Point Nicola Green, British High Commissioner Jane Miller, Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana Paloma Mohamed Martin and Toshao (village leader) of River's View Melena Pollard broke ground on site. Toshao Pollard spoke of how pleased she was that Sophia Point would be contributing to education opportunities for young people in the local area.
The team were also able to share progress of construction, hear from lead contractor Indar Rammlall on the delivery of the work, and introduce our wonderful team of local builders to the wider Sophia Point community. After a tour of the site and a presentation of the plans for the Centre, we managed to squeeze in a trail walk and check cameras.
If all goes to plan we hope to be inviting everyone back to celebrate the completion and opening of the new Sophia Point Centre facilities in the first half of next year.
Student begins study of insects
It was a pleasure to host Eric Stoll, a student from the University of Guyana and faculty of the Center for the Study of Biological Diversity at Sophia Point. Eric is conducting his Master's research with us, exploring the insect life present in the rainforest on our site on the Essequibo River.
This is Eric’s first trip, which allowed him to collect information on species during the rainy season. He will return for his second phase of work later this year to compare his findings by sampling during the dry season. As a permanent observation site it is hoped that what Eric is starting can be replicated over the years to produce a much better understanding of insect life and changes at the location. We are looking forward to his return!
Solar power upgrades thanks to funder support
Sophia Point is powered by the sun! As part of our ongoing construction work we have been able to upgrade the solar power system for the main house and office.
Having reliable power will support students and researchers to study, learn and discover at Sophia Point for decades to come. The previous system was over 20 years old and required upgrading to meet the needs of a working office space.
This was only possible thanks to our generous supporters and funders. We would also like to thank the engineers at Farfan and Mendes for designing and installing the system. If you would like to join the team and support Sophia Point as we establish here in Guyana you can do here.
