Colobus Trust

Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Primate Rescue/Rehabilitation | Date: May 25 2009 | By: colobus

They came to Colobus Trust as visitors a sunny day in February. She – a vet, he – a photographer. Just that day, we had an injured monkey coming in, and we could not reach the regular veterinary for help. The woman of the two, Rona, offered her help, and ended up treating the little animal very professional in our veterinary clinic. A couple of days later, Rona and Tom came back to the Trust just to say hi again. As they are a very charming and social couple, they made friends with the whole place, and while it was just about time for our previous assistant manager Gwili to leave, they were invited at the goodbye party and offered to take over as assistant manager and veterinary. And so it was. Now, over three months later, they are packing their bags again, since t is time for them to go back to Israel. Yes folks, it is a sad fact - our Israeli couple are leaving us!

I must truly say that the time that we have had Rona and Tom with us we have seen so many things change. Having experienced some of the hardest times in the history of our organisation, we are now facing a very promising future where we will be able to save more animals than we could have hoped for. SO much has improved, and much is without doubt thanks to Rona and Tom’s hard work. The first thing they did was to update the Colobus Trust website (at www.colobustrust.org), and Tom used his photographic skills and added a slideshow of photos. He even offered to give photographic lessons in Diani, and has been the one to help illustrate many of our blogposts. The whole office has been put in new order, new equipment has been brought from Mombasa, the entire veterinary clinic has been given a real renovation with new drugs, equipment, newly painted walls and informative booklets and instructions. Rona has ambitiously put together an educative presentation so that veterinary First Aid can be taught to more staff and more volunteers. Even the volunteer programme is given a new design and is updated to the better, incredibly much has been done to improve our education programme for school children and tomorrow we are putting up a huge Colobus Trust-sign painted by volunteers and an artist out by the street. The Colobus Trust is back in the game.

So this is to thank Rona and Tom for everything they have done for the Trust, and we are very sad that they have to leave us. But we hope – and are sure of – that whatever they will move on to, they will put the same efforts and same energy into it and people will enjoy working with them wherever they might be in the world. There is so much creativity and motivation coming from these two. We had Luciana at dinner yesterday, trying to persuade them in various ways to stay in Diani. As for me, I am considering saving some money and go visit them in Israel. But however sad this might seem, there is no reason for crying – we have our new assistant manager taking over this week, his name is Andrew (from U.S) and he is great, already part of our Colobus Trust family. So even though I’m sure there will be many sad faces at this evening’s goodbye party, which is also partly for me and Filip as we are leaving in 3 days, we are still alive and kicking and the story of The Colobus Trust continues.

Thank you!

Anna Sandahl, Colobologist

Tags: assistant manager, Photographer, Veterinary

6 responses so far

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

3 responses so far