It’s a well-known fact that when the people of America tighten their belts, the people of Africa go hungry.  Here in California we cut back on driving with gasoline at $4.50 a gallon.  In Cameroon when gas prices get too high, people simply stay at home, don’t go to work, and walk miles to the market if they have money enough to buy food.  But the dedicated staff of The Gorilla Foundation Africa Field Office won’t give up. 

Our teachers hitch rides and walk to the school house with precious copies of Koko’s Kitten in their packs and students cheer to see them, excited to learn of the gorilla who talks to people and mourns the death of a feline friend.  Our researchers trek through knee-deep mud to reach villages in Cross River gorilla territory. When they tell the story of Michael, the gorilla who described seeing his mother murdered by poachers, village elders react with folk tales of their deep soul bond to local wildlife.  Our partner priests and pastors give sermons declaring that these sensitive caring gorillas exemplify the love we are meant to show to all God’s creatures.

	Chapel becomes conservation classroom

TGF’s Africa Field Director, Penelope Fraser, shares the results of these interventions with professional colleagues in Yaoundé.  She then drives her Toyota truck half way across the country, from Central Province to Buea and Bamenda in the Southwest where she consults with executives and advisors at the mission schools’ In Service Training Program (ISTP) that is responsible for preparing teachers in Presbyterian and Baptist school systems to use the Koko Conservation Education methods in their classrooms. 

	Koko's Kitten books arrive

Penelope then heads north to Menchum Valley where she will prepare three elementary schools for a summer Koko workshop and then deliver seeds and plants for a flora restoration project.  Before she reaches her final destination, Penelope’s truck breaks down for the last time.  It takes another ten days to complete the tree planting and make her way back by bush taxi and bus to Yaoundé.  A shipment of TGF books and posters has just arrived at US Peace Corps headquarters, and a dozen PC volunteers are eagerly awaiting her workshop so they can use these materials in their environmental and language education projects.  Satisfied with the results of her team’s hard work, especially in such hard times, Penelope emails me a positive report detailing our Africa Program’s second quarter activities and achievements.  The highlight: our parochial secondary school program has been so effective they are asking us to expand it to 232 elementary schools and dozens of Sunday schools. Penelope ends the quarterly report with an impassioned plea:  “WE NEED MATERIALS!”

	Cameroon students sign “we love Koko”

Back in California at The Gorilla Foundation’s Redwood City headquarters, Penny and Ron take me to see Koko so I can tell her that thousands of children and adults in Africa are learning about her and send her their love.  She purrs, leans her shoulder against mine, and signs “Koko love, happy, want …” Penny asks “What do you want, Koko?”  The gorilla shifts her weight and looks at me, and then signs “more, want more Koko love.”   There’s a lump in my throat as I think about my last trip to Cameroon and remember the children asking questions about Koko and Michael, begging us to bring more books and posters for their families and friends.  I look at Koko, then Ron and Penny, and the only thing I can say is “WE NEED MATERIALS”.                                                                   

	Orphan gorilla baby

Last year the Gorilla Foundation Africa Program made a pledge to raise $50,000 to help build the new Michael Gorilla Nursery at Mefou National Park in Yaoundé.  We’ve sent most of that money and the construction is well under way.  Another $10,000 will complete the pledge and the Nursery will open on time.

This year we need to raise $50,000 to print books and teaching manuals to send to Cameroon.  Over 10,000 secondary school students wait their turn to learn about Koko and Michael this September. More than 80,000 elementary students hope to follow in January. Our conservation facilitators need books to bring to more villages in the Cross-Sanaga region, home to the most endangered gorilla in the world, to continue reviving traditional concern for wildlife.  Catholic and Methodist missions want us to work in their school systems, and Peace Corps volunteers want more books.  The 10,000 Koko’s Kitten books we shipped eight years ago have all been used.  

With $50,000 we can print at least 100,000 copies of Koko’s Kitten and Michael’s Dream and deliver them to Cameroon before the end of 2008.  Imagine, if just 500 of Koko’s loyal friends each give her an extra $100 for her birthday July 4th, she can send “more Koko love” to hundreds of thousands of her friends in Africa.  That message can cause a revival of the African people’s reverence and respect for gorillas and all wildlife.  With your help, Koko’s love can make the difference between survival and extinction. 

In hard times, our Africa Program works harder.  We can’t do it without you.

Dr. Anthony Rose,
Director of Conservation
The Gorilla Foundation