Dear Friend,

• How would a baby gorilla feel if he saw his mother being hunted and killed?
• How would you feel if he told you this memory years later in sign language?
• How would knowing this about gorillas affect African teachers and students?
• How about gorilla bushmeat hunters — would this story inspire conservation?

These are some of the questions we are now in a position to study, answer and act upon — with your help!

Thanks to generous supporters like you, we recently sent hundreds of Koko's Kitten books to Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Using these resources in schools ignited a new wave of compassionate conservation education and set the stage to make an even more powerful impact—by testing the new book, Michael's Dream, by Drs. Anthony Rose & Penny Patterson.

Michael's Dream is based on the true story of Koko's childhood gorilla companion, Michael, who was born in Africa and witnessed his parents being killed by poachers as an infant. After being rescued and spending some time in a European zoo, Michael came to live with Koko at The Gorilla Foundation, where he learned sign language and joined Koko's loving family.

At age 8, Michael began to recount the distressing memory of his mother's death in sign language ( "trouble ... cut neck ... squash gorilla") — recorded multiple times in research log books and on video (see below)!

With your support, we can integrate this moving story into our conservation education curriculum in Africa, alongside Koko's Kitten, and test the results. We believe that Michael's Dream will significantly increase compassionate conservation action by teachers, students and families. One senior Cameroonian educator, who observed the recent experimental use of Michael's Dream in diverse classrooms, remarked:

"It would be a mistake to think that anyone could read this story (Michael's Dream) and not develop a compassionate change of view towards primates in particular and animals in general." — Mr. Dzelagha Banboye, Cameroon Educator

Comments like this indicate that Michael's Dream has tremendous potential to change attitudes and behaviors towards gorillas.

Your suppprt will enable us to complete our Pilot Intervention this Spring using customized pre/post-reading surveys to assess the impact of both Michael's Dream and Koko's Kitten — individually and as a powerful educational duo for conservation.

Please help now by making a generous donation of $10, $25, $50 or more. Your gift will enable us to print books and primers, train teachers, administer surveys, evaluate results and publish reports to appear on Koko.org. Our goal is to raise a total of $18,000 to complete the pilot study!

If you donate now, you will receive special video updates of our progress during the current pilot study; you'll also be among the first to see our final report. And for those able to donate at a higher level, you'll receive an early copy of the book Michael's Dream personally signed by authors Rose and Patterson.

By donating now, you'll be helping us spread Koko's and MIchael's love across Africa and taking their impact on great ape conservation to a whole new level.

Your continued support is truly making a difference by fostering empathy and action throughout the world for our fellow great apes!

With thanks,

Penny Patterson, Ph.D. President & Director of Research Koko "Fine Person Gorilla"