Editors Note: This is the eighth in a series of articles highlighting Rotary projects around the world.
In 2019, intrigued by a pair of kestrels that were nesting across from her apartment balcony, Georgina Cole began documenting her sightings on the eBird online database. “I realized I had to learn more about all the birds around me,” says Cole, a member of the Rotary Club of Red Sea-El Gouna, which is located in a resort community on the Gulf of Suez in a region that is a stopover point for more than a million birds migrating between Europe and Africa.
When a local school asked her to speak to its students, Cole created bird identification cards in English and Arabic. Encouraged by her work, which is supported by her club, the town constructed a viewing hut overlooking a wetland area. The project has expanded to educate local hoteliers about which birds can be spotted at various times of the year. “The Red Sea region thrives on tourism through marine life, with scuba diving and snorkeling,” Cole says. “Why not also birds?”