Conserving Senegal's Chimpanzees through Education

Celebrating the New Year is a big event in Senegal, and it looks like this year will be a great one for Neighbor Ape because of wonderful donors and the amazing people that we work with!

With the new dormitory up and running, Neighbor Ape is thinking about future projects - perhaps the dispensary in Djendji village can be established this year! But, we are also happy to say that we are supporting more students than ever - in various venues!

We support relatively few students, but we try to afford particular students some of the best opportunities available to them in terms of education. This year, we are supporting returning students in Kedougou public high school (Allamouta) and private schools (Nadege, Alex), a private Tambacounda boarding school for young women (Katherine, Natalie), and a Dakar elementary school (Phillipe). We are also supporting three students that live in Bandafassi village at the OBARAR dormitory that Neighbor Ape helped build so that they can live in Kedougou and attend school there.

Even though public school is technically free in Senegal, most students cannot afford school supplies or boarding if they live outside of towns like Kedougou, and schools in towns are significantly better in terms of the quality of education in most circumstances. Neighbor Ape helps offset costs for children attending public schools and helps pay school fees for students attending private schools. We've also visited these various schools and are happy to report that all of our students are often involved in working on homework at times when we've made home visits! (Though they might not be as happy about that!)

We would like to again thank all our donors and wish everyone the best for the New Year - we hope that 2015 will bring some exciting developments all around!