With the letter of support from the head of the Education Department of the Minahasa regency, the new Yaki ambassadors visited 23 junior high schools with a total reach of 2566 students and 119 teachers within three weeks soon afterwards. Still in the middle of pandemic, they did an excellent job delivering the talks and were creative in adapting to the situation and keeping the students engaged, which was more challenging as some schools had no electricity to have the power point presentation on, therefore most of the talks happened in the school yard. We are proud of the fantastic work of the new ambassadors and excited about how they can keep up their involvement with positively influencing their communities.

Finally, the ambassadors were invited to join an immersive trip to the forest of Tangkoko Nature Reserve to observe the macaques and the rich biodiversity first-hand. Not one of the new 27 ambassadors have ever been to the forest or experienced a wildlife tour before, which made them very excited about it.

Avoiding mass tourism and following the code of conduct in the park, we teamed up into small groups of three ambassadors and one SY staff, led by one local guide and entered the forest in the morning. The weather was pleasant, and it only took around 1.5 hours of walking in the lush forest until we discovered a group of macaques! Many beautiful endemic birds were also spotted, and they were lucky to see the bear cuscus and even the nocturnal tarsiers. They were amazed by the whole experience and went home with excitement for the next Yaki ambassador adventures!