The back of the hawksbill
sea turtle post card for Apo Island.
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Apo Island Post Card Livelihood Project
After a visit to Apo Island in December 2004, Daniel
Simon from my Peace Corps group pointed out that Apo wasn't
selling any post cards that featured the Island. Since Apo is one of
the top destinations in the country, this seemed like a problem that
really needed to be fixed.
From the several visits I had made to Apo to dive, I
had a pretty good selection of underwater shots of the Island, so I
offered to help Mario (barangay captain and dive master) produce a set
of cards that the local women's co-operative could sell as a livelihood
project. Mario also wanted to raise money to support Apo's new turtle
conservation program.
I got to work on the design and photo editing, and Kristin
Gilliss helped me edit the short descriptive paragraphs about Apo
on the backs of the cards. With some help from my friends at the provincial
tourism office, we got a great price from local printing press Dumaguete
Asian Printers to produce a small initial run of the four card designs.
In about
a month from when the project started, the cards were in production,
and as of this writing are about to go on sale on Apo.
The Clown Fish City inside
Apo's awesome marine sanctuary is a favorite highlight
for divers visiting the reef.
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Marine turtle populations
on Apo have been steadily increasing over
the years, now divers have a really good chance of
spotting one swimming freely around Apo's reefs.
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Apo is now home to huge
schools of resident jackfish that returned when the
marine sanctuary was established.
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The comeback story of
Apo Island is all the result of the active involvement
of the community in the future of the reefs there.
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