Archive for the ‘Funds Needed’ Category
Hello, Will from WildlifeDirect here. Elie left very early this morning to patrol the Mikeno Sector, where the gorilla killings took place. I was not awake when he left but he did leave the following message outside my tent, to post up here on his blog (English version below) C’est avec tristesse que la Force Avancée a reçu la mauvaise nouvelle sur la écocide de gorilles de montagne dont le nombre jusque la se lévè à 7 gorilles habitués de famille Kabirizi et Rugendo tuées par des inciviques. Ainsi pour sauver les restes qui peut-être traumatisés par les coup des bals des inciviques. L’urgence nous oblige de préparer ce qui suit:
La Troupe I reste pour sécuriser la station de Mutsora. Nous serons à Rumangabo pour 3 mois sur-ce il n’y aura pas beaucoup sur mon blog. Pour plus d’information visiter le site Gorilla Protection. Kwaheri tuonane tena baadaye Elie In english: It with sadness that the Advance Force received the terrible news on the killings of mountain gorillas, the number of which has risen to 7 habituated gorillas from the Kabirizi and Rugendo families. In order to save those that remain, who may still be traumatised by the gun shots, it is with urgency that we must arrange the following:
Troop I will remain at the Mutsora Station, to keep it secure. We will be stationed at Rumangabo for three months, and because of this you will not see much activity on my blog. For more information please visit the Gorilla Protection site. Kwaheri tuonane tena baadaye Elie As most of you would have seen from Paulin’s blog, a strategy is being put into place to protect the remaining gorillas. This will involve constant patrolling of the park, both within and along the park boundaries, as well as a small group of rangers providing around the clock protection to each family of gorillas: “This approach is extremely intensive, and unfortunately depletes other parts of the park of their rangers, but given the crisis, we will have to maintain it for at least three months. The approach is also extremely expensive (maintaing 33 rangers on operations will cost close to $5000/month), and your donations have played a huge role in making it possible (we can fund this operation for about 3 months). We’re extremely grateful for that help.” If you are reading this and you want to help further we here at WildlifeDirect have put together some campaign material. Send an email to gorillacampaign@wildlifedirect.org, and simply put in the title of the email, “I want to help campaign for the Mikeno Gorillas” and we will send you further information. Thank you.
As promised, here is the video presentation that I did for Happy Hollow Zoo. It will give you more of an idea of the work that is being done by the Advance Force, including our ongoing fight to save the Hippos and the Mountain Gorillas here in Virunga National Park. If you like the video, then please go to YouTube and say so and then hopefully even more people will find out about what we do.
Here you can see me with Joseph Aloma in front of the vehicles we have for the Advance Force. We do actually have four vehicles but for now, due to lack of funds, only three of them work. And it is only by a little bit of tinkering, a push start, plus the Grace of God, that the vehicles that we do have keep on going.
Recently I did a video presentation for the folks at Happy Hollow Zoo, who were kind enough to sponsor my work here, where I talked about the needs of the Advance Force. Eventually we hope to have sponsorship for all of the 49 men who work for the Advance Force, and I’m pleased to say that Joseph Aloma is already fully sponsored by Stratton Elementary in Colorado. Once more of our rangers are sponsored we will have funds not only to pay for their uniforms and patrol rations, but to help with the costs of running and maintaining our vehicles, and hopefully one day we may even be able to fix our forth vehicle! Some of my men who are looking for sponsorship are listed down the right hand side of this blog, under ‘Sponsor My Rangers.’ Shortly I will also post up the video presentation that I did for Happy Hollow Zoo so that you can find out more about the work that we do here in Virunga National Park, Congo.
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