We’ve had smiling faces all around with an exciting and successful start to this year’s Tacugama Kids’ Programme (TKP). This year the programme is working with 11-13 year old students in 11 rural schools around the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve (WAPFR). The main objective of the program is to encourage a positive change in attitudes and practices with regards to local environmental issues.

Making educational posters to teach their friends about chimpanzees and rainforest conservation
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The first stage of the programme was a survey of the local secondary schools. It was motivating to see how many of the schools are located right between the forest reserve and the breathtakingly beautiful peninsula coastline; consequently the communities rely heavily upon the environment for their livelihoods. It was also inspiring to see the determination and perseverance of the teachers in the face of a desperate lack of resources, even holding classes in huts made of woven mats and on benches of sticks. One coordinator from each school was invited to take part in a training workshop at the sanctuary before taking responsibility for teaching the theoretical lessons of the TKP programme.

Excited students at Huntingdon Secondary School receive their new Tacugama Kids Programme exercise books
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Coordinators from the sanctuary also run activities in each school to reinforce the teaching curriculum, starting with a simple ‘Clean-up the School Environment’ activity. This aims to teach students that keeping the environment clean can be beneficial for the environment and their own hygiene. As well as the enjoyment of the activity there was an important underlying lesson which we hope will be passed on to the rest of the community.

Having fun and cleaning up the environment at the War Wounded Academy
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Class discussion to conclude the activity; Peninsular Secondary School found the highest volue of rubbish was plastic bags!
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The week finished off with the TKP in full swing as the first group of young adventurers from Mountain Rural Secondary School visited the sanctuary. It was especially rewarding to see some of the students who had been members of past TKP nature clubs remembering and sharing their knowledge of the chimpanzees. The day was enjoyed by all but the moment that will be most memorable for me will be the students making the ‘promise wall’. By placing their hand print on the wall the students promised to ‘Protect the chimpanzees, their rainforest habitat and their own local environment.’

Pa Willie takes students from Mountain Rural Secondary School on a tour of the sanctuary
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“We promise to protect the chimpanzees, the rainforest and our local environment”
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As the poda-poda (school mini-bus) drove away with the students cheering “We love this place, we want to stay forever!” it not only gave us a chance to breathe a sigh of relief at the successful completion of the first week but also a newly fuelled determination and enthusiasm for the opportunities and challenges to come in the weeks ahead.

Willie takes down details from Mr Bangura

The chimpanzees arrived with us as the result of the positive action from one of the Ministry of Agriculture’s livestock officers. Based at Sierra Leone’s international airport at Lungi, on one of his routine visits to the farm of an ex-patriot hotel manager he found the baby chimps in residence. He advised the man that keeping the chimps was illegal and that he should contact Tacugama to arrange for their transfer. On learning that the chimps were still at the farm a month later, he again advised that they should be handed over and fortunately a few days later was contacted by the hotel manager and asked to bring them to the sanctuary. He arrived with the man who had cared for the chimps since their arrival at the farm.

Samson
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Delila
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Samson and Delila (formerly Lucy but renamed as we already have three Lucy’s at Tacugama!) are clearly very used to being with people despite being so young - probably around eighteen months old. We know little about their background - apparently Samson was rescued in very poor health from a village to the north of the airport. Delila had been carried around and dressed up in children’s clothes for photographs. They are both in a fair condition though Samson has a bad skin infection. They will go through quarantine together for the next three months joining Chippe, Thulani, Abu, Sunny, Blama and Kangari; Mama Posseh has her work cut out.
At least that day we were able to introduce the carer of the chimps to the children at the sanctuary and they explained what they had learned that day about why chimps should be left in the wild. He and the livestock officer left with a clear message to take back to Lungi, let’s hope it spreads.

Enforcing the message
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Tess will soon bring you an update on all our quarantine residents and how Gaura and his group are progressing.
As you can tell we are getting increasingly desperate to raise the US$70,000 that it will take to fence two further forest enclosures so that the growing number and growing size of our chimps can all benefit from an environment as close to their natural habitat as possible. Right now we are very close to being full up with 98 chimps reliant on us for care. Hopefully our trip to Europe will deliver some results. We’ll keep you informed.

With the help of Willie, the camp supervisor, Posseh gets down to answering all your questions
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How did you come to work at Tacugama?
I came to work at Tacugama as a cook by Mr Bala, and then later joined the sanctuary as a full member of staff dealing with the chimpanzees; deployed in the quarantine section as a foster mother.

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Bala Amarasekaran, Tacugama’s founder and Programme Director will be speaking at two fundraising evenings being organised on our behalf and if you could come along and give us your support it would be great to see you there.

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This is Pilar Garriga’s third novel for teenagers following the work of Dr Rosa! The first two were based on Dr Rosa’s earlier veterinary work with orangutans in Indonesia - they’ve become very popular in Spain and are used to support the Catalan school curriculum. We are very proud of having Tacugama as the main subject in a book and we hope that it can soon be translated into English for others to read and enjoy.

As some of you know Mama Posseh is the responsible for the quarantine section at Tacugama where she looks after the new arrivals for their 3 months quarantine period. She gives them lots of care and attention during their stay here, acting as their foster mother. The new chimps are often weak, distressed and their backgrounds unknown. Posseh works very hard, an important part of her job is keeping the area clean to prevent any spread of diseases, preparing their food as well as helping the chimps recover from their trauma. She also helps Dr Rosa to administer any medications needed.

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We received a donation through their Charity Pot scheme which has allowed us to buy some digital camera traps and will also help us to replace our aging supply vehicle. The camera traps will play an important role in helping us to record and confirm wild chimpanzee movements and which other species share their environment. We’re first using the camera traps around Tacugama and in the future we’ll move them further afield to expand our knowledge.

With the help of Joko, our patrol officer, we set up some initial trials with the cameras and we’ve been pleased with the results. Some of the first shots we captured were of Congo – the wild chimp who occasionally visits the sanctuary – together with her two daughters. It’s been very difficult to get images of Congo in the past and it’s great that the traps have done the job for us! Joko’s also very pleased that the cameras should help him with his important patrolling work that protects the forest reserve areas surrounding Tacugama from hunters.

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One of the schools that we’re pleased to be welcoming to the programme this year is Hope School which was started by Mr Bundu, a qualified teacher from the local area. He found several children who were unable to go to school but were willing to learn, so he decided to do something about it. Most of the children are girls from very poor homes, where only the boy gets to go to school. Others include orphans and those living in displacement camps. Originally starting as occasional reading classes for a few enthusiastic pupils, the project began to grow with the help of voluntary teachers, and many more children ranging from 3 to 15 years old joined. The project, housed in a large semi-constructed house quickly became overcrowded. The makeshift rooms held several classes at once, some were so full that the children spilled out of the building, attending their classes through open windows.

Overspilling classroom at Hope School…
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