Neighbor Ape donates school supplies to Djendji village

Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project researcher and Iowa State University Ph.D student Stacy Lindshield sent this report about our organization Neighbor Ape's conservation & education efforts:

On Tuesday, October 30th, Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project manager Dondo "Johnny" Kante, Fongoli village chief & retired head field assistant Mboule Camara, research assistant Ulises Villa-Lobos and Stacy went to Djendji village to donate a year's worth of school supplies to Djendji students.

Photo by Stacy Lindshield of Mboule Camara with donated book supplies and Djendji chief & schoolchildren. October 2012, Djendji, Senegal.

They presented two boxes of school supplies courtesy of our Neighbor Ape nonprofit organization to the chief of the village, and sat with him and few other gentlemen at his place to discuss the project. The chief was grateful for this gift. He thanked us, said that the project is very good for the community, and hopes that the project continues to be successful for many more years to come. He and the other gentlemen then said a prayer for us and the project. Afterwards, he said that he prays for us and for the project so that we will continue to work here.

The chief asked how many new babies were born in the Fongoli group over the past year. He thinks that there are more chimpanzees here now than there were before, because prior to the project, people would come here from time to time to kill a chimpanzee for medicine. Now, with the project seeking to conserve this group, future generations will know about chimpanzees and continue to live alongside them. He said that, overall, the chimpanzees are very good, but that they steal honey too often from people. He didn’t seem upset about the honey issue, but perhaps mentioned this as a way to say that living alongside chimps is sometimes difficult.