Johnsons reach out to chimp sanctuary

THE avid conservationist couple, Don and Hazel Johnson, will embark on a challenging new venture to provide support to the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, a sanctuary for chimpanzees.

The meaning behind the safe haven’s name, Chimfunshi, is a place that holds water, and is in Bemba, one of the Zambian languages. The sanctuary is home to about 130 chimpanzees as well as other wildlife and its mission is to resocialise and rehabilitate orphaned and abused chimpanzees.

They will go for three weeks and will leave on Sunday, 9 October and once they have been welcomed, the duo will work six days a week, from Monday to Saturday and will take part in different activities. A few of the jobs they will be given are behavioural enrichment with the chimpanzees, enclosure cleaning and maintenance, food preparation, farming assistance, infrastructure improvements as well as research assistance. “This is not a joy ride, we are going there to work and continue doing what we’re doing for conservation. The area and community around the sanctuary is also very poor and in desperate need of help,” said Don.

Don said, “One chimp they saved from a pub was literally an alcoholic and needed to be rehabilitated, its health was poor. The work we do there is absolutely anything to help these poor chimps.”

Since the couple’s daring 350km trek from Tanzania to Kenya to raise awareness for the plight of the elephants in 2014, they have spoken to thousands of children to educate them on conservation. In Zambia, they will work with Chimfunshi’s teachers and take schooling to the children who live too far to be able to access the local school. They will participate in the after school clubs that include music, art and environmental activities. They will also assist with adult literacy education which are held for the adult staff to improve their English language skills.

The accommodation they will be staying in is at a communal centre with a long drop facility. Don and Hazel both agreed that for them the highlight would be the interaction with the chimps and learning about them. “When we do stuff, we want to do it knowing that we left it in a far better condition than when we arrived there. We don’t go there as tourists, we go there as workers and we get huge satisfaction for that,” said Don, a South African National Parks Honourary rangers.

The couple would like to take along a few items to donate to the sanctuary and for the children in the village. The items they would like are: vegetable seeds, laminating pouches for A3 and A4 paper, glue, drawing stencils, face paints, water paints, bright paper, documentary DVDs, music and arts and crafts activity resources as well as tough toy items for the chimpanzees, such as Kongs. To donate, contact Don on 082 873 1638.