Colobus Trust

Category: Marketing, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: Jan 09 2008 | By: admin

It’s the start of a New Year and we are planning on starting afresh here at the Trust. New projects are under way, including the building of more water troughs in the forest for the animals during the dry season, and building a taxi shed by the Colobus Trust cottage. We are now also discussing and making solid plans for the release of the ex-pet vervets being rehabilitated (see Sal’s ex-pet vervet post).

Our annual fundraiser at the kite surfing competition at Forty Thieves Beach Bar was a great success, as we have raised around 80,000 KSh from the sales of our raffle tickets as well as receiving part of the proceeds from the entrance fee for Hawaiian Night at Forty Thieves and half the proceeds from the sale of Lalesso Clothing items which were being sold throughout the event.

With regards to the political situation, we have only been indirectly affected by it here in Diani. Last week was when the situation was a bit more tense, especially in Ukunda and Mombasa. Some governments have issued alerts for their citizens to leave Kenya, and so last week we lost 4 volunteers who decided to go home early. Here in Diani we had only been affected by food and fuel shortages, as well as the lack of cash in ATMs. But thanks to our wonderful cook Jared we were able to make do with the little that we had. Right now things seem to be mostly back to normal and we’ve even had two new volunteers arrive this week.

All of this still cannot take away attention from the plight of the colobus — road traffic accidents and electrocutions have continued and will continue to happen regardless of any other problems we may be facing, so this week we have resumed our work and once again Diani’s primates are our primary concern.

Isabelle
Colobologist