Colobus Trust

Category: Fundraising, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution, Marketing, volunteer | Date: Feb 24 2009 | By: colobus

The wind of change is blowing through The Colobus Trust. Much is happening here at the moment; sadly we have had a goodbye party here, dedicated to our now former assistant manager, Gwili Gibbon. After 1,5 years at the Colobus Trust he is now leaving to continue his career with Kenyan wildlife work in Chyulu Hills, so all of the Trust-members have now taken farewell of him. He will always be remembered and is welcomed back whenever he feels to visit the Colobus Cottage again. The goodbye barbeque was very nice though – we enjoyed grilled goat and Anna’s and Filip’s first home-made chapatis together with some Tusker beer. The staff, volunteers and board members of The Colobus Trust were present, and this also turned out to be a good opportunity to introduce two new volunteers that are taking over after Gwili – Rona and Tom, a veterinary and a photographer from Israel. We are very happy to have the chance to welcome these two enthusiastic and competent persons since the two of us (Anna and Filip) are leaving for some traveling in Kenya and Tanzania. However, we will be back for work at the Colobus again in the beginning of April.

Then we will also carry through a project that we have just initiated, which is a sign campaign where our aim is to put up warning signs on all the hotel yards around Diani, as a part of our Pest Management Program. Monkeys stealing food from tourists is an increasing problem both for the hotel guests and the hotel managements, and is a direct consequence of tourists feeding them, unaware of this unwished chain reaction. To inform about this and get the necessary hotel permissions, all the hotel managers in Diani have been invited to a short briefing that will take place at The Colobus Trust in April. We are trying to cope financially with this very important project, but our budget is tight and any donation that could contribute to the Sign Campaign would be deeply appreciated.

Anna Sandahl and Filip Celander, Colobologists

Tags: assistant manager, board members, Gwili Gibbon, Pest management, sign campaign, volunteering