Enrichement!

Keeping the monkeys and chimps active and happy is a constant challange! Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks of the monkeys and the Goma-group enjoying some enrichement!

Shumbi the baboon, enjoying his banana tree stem

Bamboo with her fire-hose filled with goodies

Monkeys rooting through gras

Irangi with a big banan tree stem

The Goma group enjoyed their stems of banan threes

Rambo joining the nursery group

Finally the day for Rambo Rungu to join the others came last week! Lugushwa, Grace and Aketi was the chosen ones to meet him first, while the others were locked in their dormitory. It was quite a scary and intense experience for him, but he did well! The next day Uvira and Aketi was already grooming him, and he has now integrated well with the others! Well done Rambo Rungu, one step closer to becoming a real chimpanzee again!

A last check up from manager and vet Carmen Vidal

Aketi, Lugushwa and Grace are waiting for Rambo

Thank you, AWARE Germany!

A big thank you to AWARE Germany and their donors for raising 2000 euros for the CRPL! A special thanks to the Hamburg- based company "Markensturm.com", and their business manager Timo Kusian, for their generous donation of 500 euro! The money will go towards running cost of the CRPL, food for chimps and monkey and salaries for Congolese employees.

AWARE Germany is one of the CRPLs longest standing supporters and we are very grateful for their dedication to helping the primates in Lwiro!

Chimp enclosure update!

The work on the new chimpanzee enclosure is coming close to finishing! We now estimate we will start moving chimps into the enclosure around 1. of May! It's looking good and all the parts needed to finish it is now in Lwiro! Here are some photos of the finishing touches :-)


Finishing the cement

The tunnel going out from the dormitory is finised!

The access door is finished!

Donations in February!

In February we raised 30$ towards running cost.

Thank you so much to Ryan K. and Brenton H. for being two of our most dedicated supporters!!

Your support means a lot to us!! :)

Irangi says a big thank you to Brenton and Ryan :)

Painting of Kathe sold!

Cleve Hicks' has painted this wonderful painting of one of our resident chimpanzees, Kathe, that he rescued in northern DRC in 2008. She was one of the Aketi5.

The painting has now found a home, and the new owner, Judy S. in Leipzig, Germany, donated $305 dollars to Lwiro! Thank you so much Cleve and Judy for your support and fantastic effort! It's really appreciated!

Kathe says thank you!!

Donations in January

We've raised 285$ for running cost in January! This is a big help and goes towards paying food for chimps and monkeys and sallary for caregivers among other things! A big thank you to the five who donated! Ryan K, Brenton H, Kelly J, Manuel Z and Christine W thank you so much for helping!

Grace

New arrival: Rambo

Yesterday another chimpanzee arrived in Lwiro. He is around 3 years old, is called Rambo and arrived after a very long journey. He came all the way from Orientale in Central Congo and his journey included a flight from Kisangani to Goma and a car journey from Goma to Lwiro. Both a very long and very expensive trip!

JGI Italy, JGI Switzerland and JGI Germany did a huge effort to fundraise enough money for Rambos transport to Lwiro. They did a great job and even fundraised enough to support his care in CRPL for a while! Thank you for your big effort to save Rambo!

UGADEC, JGI Congo and ICCN did a great job in coordinate the transfer. This was a huge coordination effort and everyone was working together to get Rambo safely to Lwiro!

A big thank you to everyone involved with this rescue, Rambo has better days ahead!

He was in relatively good health on arrival a bit thin and his hair is a bit patchy, but otherwise good and he quickly bonded with the keeper. He will now spend one month in quarantine with the best possible care before he will be introduced to his new friends!

Please consider helping us care for Rambo and the other 51 chimpanzees in Lwiro, donate towards our running cost for 2012. Running cost covers food and medicines for the chimps and monkey, salary for our Congolese workers, repairs, etc... Running cost of CRPL is now about 6000$ a month.

Rambo arrived in a car from Goma

Rambo on arrival with the chain around his waist.

Welcome Rambo!

Update on the new chimpanzee enclosure

The new chimpanzee enclosure is soon finished! The newest addition is three drinking fountains and a small shallow pool that the chimps can play in! These are sponsored by the Sweden Chimpanzee Trust who generously gave us 4300 dollars. Thank you so much! The only thing missing on the fence now is the electric system, and we hope to be finished with this by the end of February, fingers crossed!

Donations in 2011

We want to give a big thank you to the people that have donated through this blog and facebook in 2011! We raised 322$ in normal donations. This is being used for food for the chimps and monkeys!

Ryan K, Athena B, Lynne B, Brenton H, Melanie K, Jacqueline M and Stephanie L. Thank you!

And for the community campaign for mattresses for the women hospital we raised 420$

Cheryl R, Ryan K, Laetitia C, Simon D, Karen M, Brenton H, Norhild J, Lucia S, Melanie K, Rebecca A. Thank you!

Grace