Conserving Senegal's Chimpanzees through Education

The school year in Senegal has just wrapped up, and students have finished their exams and are off on "vacance" until next October. The OBARAR dormitory housed about 15 students, fewer than last year, but a good number nonetheless. We are hoping to have more students in the dorm next year again.

In terms of our education projects, we again contributed a year's worth of supplies to the village of Djendji's school. This has been one of our longest traditions at Neighbor Ape, and it is fitting that Djendji is also the village that the chimpanzees in the area have been living near for the longest period of time - Djendji village was established over 100 years ago. 

Neighbor Ape continues to support Kedougou area children in various schools in the area, including covering the room and board for several students at the OBARAR dormitory. These students come from Kedougou as well as the Fongoli area, including the Bassari village of Petit Oubadji. We also help fund girls who attend a private school in Tambacounda as well as a young boy attending school in Dakar. 

Finally, we hope to reinstate our conservation-education workshops in late 2015 or in 2016. In discussions with the local branch of the Forestry Department of Senegal, we have made plans to further our reach in terms of our 3-pronged approach to educating people about chimpanzees. After an informational presentation by Project Manager Dondo Kante, he returns and has informal conversations with villagers over tea (Dondo drinks lots of tea at this time!) and, ultimately, he returns to give a more conservation-oriented presentation. He stresses the fact that many of the problems chimpanzees face are the same ones local people also face, such as health concerns brought about by the use of mercury in gold mining (see photo of Fongoli chimps drinking at a mining site where water has collected during the dry season when water is scarce) and forest destruction (see photo of Fongoli chimps examining a logger's camp). 

With the generous gifts of donors, we are secure in being able to continue our education-related programs, which also serve to assist in our efforts to conserve chimpanzees in Senegal.