Ngamba Chimpanzee Trust receives donation worth Shs1.3 million
Food items donated by Shree Kachchhi Leva Patel Samaj Uganda to the Ngamba Chimpanzee sanctuary. Photo by Eve Muganga
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Dr Joshua Rukundo, the executive director of the Chimpanzee Trust said: “It’s such a huge relief because every time we were worried about how we are going keep on feeding these chimps since money from tourism is no longer coming in. I am really grateful that Shree has come to our rescue.”
Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary & Wildlife Conservation Trust has received a donation worth Shs1.3 million from Shree Kachchhi Leva Patel Samaj-Uganda inspired by the Indian Association which will be used to feed chimpanzees for a period of over 10 days.
The food items donated include; watermelons, sweet potatoes, cabbages, oranges and yellow bananas among others.
While handing over these food items at waterfronts beach in Entebbe on Tuesday, the group’s secretary Mr Bipin Pindoria said: “We found out that it was necessary to donate for animals because everyone is donating to people and no one cares about the animals so from there we thought that we should do something for animals also and we support the chimpanzee trust. We are already to render more support to the chimpanzee trust.”
Dr Joshua Rukundo, the executive director of the Chimpanzee Trust said: “It’s such a huge relief because every time we were worried about how we are going keep on feeding these chimps since money from tourism is no longer coming in. I am really grateful that Shree has come to our rescue.”
“We look forward to more collaboration, such support motivates us. These chimps feed four times a day and these days the quantity of food we give them is small because of the lockdown,” he added.
In the wake of the lockdown, Ngamba chimpanzee sanctuary joined Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre (UWEC) to appeal for the public support to sustain the conservation facility.
“Ever since we appealed for support, we have received about Shs24 million to sustain the conservation facility and we still welcome more support,” Dr Rukundo said.
He also noted that they got another challenge of rising water levels which affected the sanctuary.
“We have been hit on two sides. The increase in the water levels has severely affected us. It affected the visitor facility. We thought of reopening in August but with the water levels, we estimate that it would take us much longer but we are preparing ourselves. We have established our own protocol and procedures and we are working closely with Uganda wildlife Authority (UWA) and other international agencies to make sure that we are able to open such that visitors can start coming in,” Dr Rukundo said.
The sanctuary is part of the Koome Island and it’s a home to 50 chimpanzees
