Interactive museum creator awarded

She has always been passionate about teaching children how to love the environment.

So Elizabeth Cordova made sure that the Museo sang Bata sa Negros in Sagay City would be interactive to make learning fun, especially for children.

Because of her efforts, Cordova, director of the Museo sang Bata sa Negros, will receive this year’s Hans Manneby Memorial Fund Museum Development Award during a ceremony in Stockholm on November 10.

The Hans Manneby Memorial Fund for Museum Development was created to promote museum development and to commemorate Hans Manneby (1946-2008), former chair of Swedish International Council of Museums (Icoms). Manneby was the first chair of the executive committee of SAMP, the African-Swedish Museums Network, which plays an important role in the development of museums and museum professionals in Africa and Sweden through networking, professional exchanges and capacity building.

Awards are given to individuals who have contributed to innovative ways of developing museums, as well as nonconventional approaches to learning.

“I am very happy and excited with the prize, although this is as much a prize for Sagay and the museum staff, because I cannot do much on my own without their support,” Cordova said.

She heads an interactive museum, located beside the Sagay Marine Reserve in the Visayan Sea, where children can hug and play with giant “sea creatures” and learn why it is important not to throw nonbiodegradable wastes into the sea.

Museum walls are painted with pictures of the creatures to simulate the wonders of life under the sea. The facility has aquariums where children can see live ones.

Cordova has trained some 100 children aged 8 to 12 years from the villages as junior tour guides who explain the wonders of the sea to fellow children. The children also conduct puppet shows and read-along sessions in the museum.

In one section of the facility, young visitors can learn about the different cultures of the world. It has a library of children’s books.

Cordova said the museum, which is run by the Museo Sang Bata sa Negros Foundation Inc., has programs on basic hygiene and nutrition, and education of children on their environment, culture and heritage.

Its “Vegetable Project” encourages children to plant four kinds of vegetables and learn about their importance. “They also take care of watering, weeding, opening the soil and harvesting. Usually a vegetable cycle is about three months and during this period, the kids learn to love the vegetable they planted making them excited to eat the fruits of their harvest,” she said.

Cordova said she was informed that after the awarding rites, she would meet the Queen of Sweden and one of the princesses interested in children’s projects.

Cordova is also a consultant for the Museo Negrense De La Salle and professor in project management at the Graduate School of University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City.