Orphaned chimpanzees in Africa will get a new place to rest their heads thanks to the remarkable efforts of hundreds of young people. Members of the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots and Shoots program raised $40,000 in 2006 for a new care facility at the Institute’s Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center, a refuge for more than 120 orphaned chimps whose mothers and families have been killed by illegal poaching…
Third graders in Los Angeles raised $430 selling hand-crafted necklaces. Youth at a zoo in Sweden raised $1,500. Eight-year-old Brandon collected jars of “chimp change” totaling $319.26 from local students at Eastern Illinois University.
The Jane Goodall Institute Roots and Shoots program is a global network of more than 8,000 groups in 96 countries that plan and implement community service projects on behalf of animals, the environment and the human community.
In early 2006, Roots and Shoots youth leaders recognized that the Tchimpounga sanctuary in the Republic of Congo was in desperate need of a new dormitory to care for a burgeoning population of infant chimpanzees. The group’s Leadership Council launched a Tchimpounga Youth Campaign to raise the needed $50,000.
Salt Lake City, Utah, girls hosted a pet show at a local park inviting people to bring their pets and enter them to win prizes. They raised over $450 for the chimpanzees.
A Dutch insurance company contributed $1330 after solicitation from Roots and Shoots members in their country. Members at the Furuvik Zoo in Sweden raised $1672, and the Sweden Chimpanzee trust contributed $1352.
Other groups held raffles, designed and sold t-shirts and went trick-or-treating for chimpanzees.
Recognizing these outstanding youthful efforts to help the infant chimpanzees at Tchimpounga, an anonymous donor stepped in to match every dollar raised up to $17,000. To date, the Roots and Shoots campaign has raised $40,000, making their original goal of $50,000 attainable. The new orphan chimpanzee dormitory in Africa will soon become a reality thanks to these dedicated young people.