Pupils from schools across Chester and Ellesmere Port have taken part in  an interesting initiative to promote  awareness of the need for the conservation of the Great Apes.

Youngsters from Overleigh St Mary’s,  Christleton, Barrow, Woodland and   Westminster primary schools took part  in the pilot tour of the GAFI (Great Ape  Film Initiative) Pedal Powered Cinema  Schools Tour last week.

The Cheshire Schools Tour was led by  Denis Agaba, chief project coordinator  for the initiative in Uganda, who, along  with GAFI volunteer Emma Tyrell,  brought a Pedal Power cinema kit to  each school and led an assembly showing a series of films powered by the  pedalling of the students and teachers.

Community events were also held at  Overleigh St. Marys CE Primary and  the Ring O’Bells pub in Christleton.

Cheshire West Sustainability Officer  Ashley Jones is now working alongside  GAFI and Overleigh St. Marys Primary  to initiate a twinning programme.

Overleigh teacher Nicky Bolton said:  “This is just the start of a very exciting  project. The children were captivated  by the images on screen and are keen to  help make a difference to the critical  plight of the Great Apes. Each school  will now be twinned with a school in  Uganda, allowing the children to have a  powerful insight into the lives of children in Uganda and their conservation  work.”

The tour began at the Savoy Hotel in  London with a host of celebrities including Sir David Attenborough, Ian  Redmond, Virginia McKenna, Charlotte Uhlenbroek and Brian May.

The cinema, created by alternative  energy pioneers ‘Electric Pedals’, is a  portable set of equipment consisting of  a DVD and projector running off electricity generated by a dynamo, which is  powered by pedalling a standard bicycle.

Pedal Powered Cinemas can be taken  to the heart of the remotest communities in Africa and South East Asia, to  show local people films about the importance of conserving their local environment, in particular the habitats of  the Great Apes.

Many of these communities have no  idea that these endangered animals live  in such close proximity to their homes  and villages and have never seen a  Great Ape before.

Madelaine Westwood, the GAFI project coordinator said that the impact of  the films has been phenomenal.

She said: “In three weeks, over 12,000  people saw the films shown on the first  Pedal-Powered Cinema. There is nothing I have ever seen to compare to the  wonder in the eyes of tens of thousands  of children as they watch the films.