Support orphaned and wild Chimpanzees in Uganda

Our project looks at ensuring the welfare of chimpanzees and the restoration of their habitat in the wild. Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary was established in 1998 for the care and welfare of orphaned and rescued chimpanzees in Uganda as well as while conserving the ecosystem of the sanctuary and promoting conservation and environmental education awareness in the people of Uganda. The sanctuary was established through a collaboration between national and international organizations with the ultimate aim of developing and implementing a long-term strategy for conservation of chimpanzees and their habitat in Uganda and beyond. Currently, the sanctuary is home to 50 orphaned rescued chimpanzees and Chimpanzee Trust provides for their welfare needs including veterinary health care, feeding, infrastructure, and staffing.

Our project here has helped us continue with our project activities, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the tourism industry that has been the main source of resources for the day to day operations of the sanctuary, as well as the supporting our education program. The project has to date raised nearly USD48,000 and we have been able to accomplish the below activities;

1. The orphaned and reduced chimpanzees have been kept well fed. The lockdown, made access to fresh food, especially fruits and vegetable especially difficult and costly. However, funds raised in the first quarter especially ensured that we were able to secure this much-needed food as well as enrichment materials for the chimpanzees. 
2. The welfare of the chimpanzees in our care is also hinged on maintaining their health through our veterinary health management program. We conduct annual health examinations on our chimpanzees and though this was delayed last year, due to lack of adequate resources at the time, we were able to conduct the annual health checks and examinations of all the chimpanzees in our care in November. All the 50 chimpanzees underwent full medical examinations, dental checks as well as full blood works. The results show that generally, all the 50 chimpanzees are in fairly good health.
3. An eco-friendly stove was also installed at the sanctuary. this uses heated volcanic rocks which have drastically reduced use of charcoal at the sanctuary and therefore will save trees. We aim to promote this stove on our communities who rely on wood fuel for their energy and cooking. In Uganda, about 70% of the population rely on charcoal and wood fuel leading to the destruction of millions of trees annually.
4. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sanctuary developed and deployed strict Standard Operating Procedures to protect the staff and especially the chimpanzees from exposure to the SARs CoV 2 virus. These procedures included the procurement of soaps, disinfectants and sanitisers, as well as improved personal protective equipment of the staff that interact with the chimpanzees. The soap and disinfectants are used in the cleaning and disinfection of chimpanzee facilities while the sanitisers are used by staff to sanitize surfaces. The entire sanctuary is disinfected every few days before and after every shift change. 
5. In the last quarter, we also procured and planted 5000 seedlings of indigenous species with additional support from trees for trees. 
6. We continue to monitor the wild chimpanzee habitats, to protect them from poachers. Our field monitors, have able to continue to do their work through the lockdown period and even with current restrictions 

Management of Chimpanzee Trust that manages Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary is grateful to our donors who have generously contributed towards the welfare and survival of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary during the hard economic times brought about by COVID19 pandemic. However, there is still a need to continue to care for the 50 orphaned chimpanzees at Ngamba Island and to enhance their veterinary care through medical and surgical interventions. Therefore we are kindly requesting for more donations through the GlobalGiving fundraising drive.

Links:

• Health checks 2020

SUPPORT ORPHANED AND RESCUED CHIMPANZEES IN UGANDA

PROGRESS REPORT

OCTOBER 2020

PLOT 1, BANK CLOSE

P.O.BOX 884

ENTEBBE

TEL: +256414320662, +256758221539

EMAIL: director@ngambaisland.org

WEBSITE: www.ngambaisland.org

FACEBOOK: Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary

TWITTER: @ngambaisland

INSTAGRAM: ngambaisland

INTRODUCTION

The Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary cares for 50 orphaned and rescued chimpanzees. The sanctuary operations are funded through grants and donations and support from various agencies. The COVDI-19 pandemic has disrupted operations of the sanctuary especially affecting it’s income source for the care of the rescued chimpanzees from tourists, volunteers and wildlife conservation agencies. The sanctuary posted a project on GlobalGiving to enable it raise funds to continue its operations to care for the chimpanzees and as well monitor the wild chimpanzees to ensure their survival, continue to restore their forest habitat increase awareness in school going children who are at home, through a radio drama program.

PROGRES OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Procurement of chimpanzee food and supplies.

At Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, we pride ourselves in providing the best possible care to the orphaned and rescued chimpanzees in our care. Over the last four months, with the support of the project, we have been able to procure over 7,500 Kgs of fresh fruits and vegetables, including; bananas, avocados, cabbage, carrots, jackfruit, papaya, oranges, tomatoes, eggplants, sweet potatoes, pineapples, etc. Every 1o days, 1,080 Kgs of fresh fruits have been delivered to the sanctuary to feed the 50 orphaned and rescued chimpanzees. We have also been able to procure nearly 1000 Kg of dry rations for the chimpanzees including; maize flour, millet flour, soy, and peanuts which also contribute to the food of the chimpanzees on Ngamba Island. As such the chimpanzees have been kept n great health and are happy!

We have also been able to keep all our core team of the caregivers and the veterinary team. Proper PPEs have been provided, including sanitizers, re-usable gloves, re-usable face masks, coveralls, boots, disinfectants, etc. Strict measures have been maintained to ensure that the chimpanzees have minimal risk of contracting the deadly COVID-19 virus. I am pleased to report that to date, not a single chimpanzee nor staff have developed any symptoms or tested positive for coronavirus at the sanctuary.

Monitoring of wildlife

In this period of partial lockdown and restricted movements, wildlife habitats have been at threat of destruction. As such it was important to maintain patrols and wildlife monitoring in western Uganda, especially in forests where there are chimpanzees. We have been able to do this, albeit with some difficulty due to travel restrictions affecting our team. However, we have continued to monitor about 60 wild chimpanzees living in two separate groups and all have remained alive and well and with only two minor incidents of conflict with the human communities.

Distribution of seedlings

We have distributed 80,000 seedlings to over 400 farmers to plant about 400Ha of land. The seedlings have been donated to us by the local Ministry of Water and Environment as well as the local UNHCR office. The GlobalGiving project funds assisted with the distribution of these seedlings to over 400 farmers with available land to plant trees, in 33 villages in western Uganda.

Recording and airing of radio drama

The Chimpanzee Trust was able to win a small grant to engage with school children and partner with them to record a radio drama to educate the local communities about the plight of the chimpanzee and especially educate the local people how they can live in harmony with wildlife.

The GlobalGiving project has enabled us to air so far 23 episodes of this drama on the local radio stations. These stations are able to reach up to 1,500,000 people in the peak time when the drama is being played. We are optimistic that our message is well received and have been getting good feedback about the program from listeners.

Conclusion

We are grateful to all our donors for their generous contributions that have enabled us to continue doing our work; to care for the 50 0rphaned chimpanzees and protect over 600 wild chimpanzees in western Uganda.

We urge you to not tire of giving for our projects and we hope that together, we can keep chimpanzees in Uganda and with the world over safe and as well have an impact on the conservation of the forest habitat and education of the young generations about the need to care for their environment.

Links:

• Protecting chimps from coronavirus in Uganda
• Chimp feeding on Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary
• Monitoring wild chimpanzees