News
Fundraising visit to the Societe de Dinguiraye (SMD) in Lero, Guinea. After Mr Reid’s visit to Somoria, a fund raising visit to SMD was arranged. The director and the manager went to Lero, in the north part of Guinea for three days. The director made a presentation and talked to contractors and other companies working for SMD. In one evening, $2,100 was fund raised with promises for over $3,000 more. Another visit is planned for 2007. Following the visit the SMD Director himself came to the CCC and donated $1,000.
New Nursery, New Babies and Other Donations. We would like to thank Mr. Garry Kukura for the
donation of a used generator, fuel and the building of a new nursery at Somoria.
He also brought 2 chimpanzees to the Center, Shelley and Charley,
who are now housed with Hakim and a new boy who came the end of the summer, Panza.
We are also thankful for the donation of an autoscope from a veterinarian who is in support of CCC.
Collars. CCC received a donation of $2,000 from the Great ape Trust of Iowa, to buy dummy collars.
Esthel just did a presentation at the mine and raised $1,100 from private individuals working there,
$1,000 from Ore search drilling guinea sarl, and the equivalent of $500 from Senet. CCC is encouraged by promises of more donations, as well.
USAID grant. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has granted Project Primate $46,349 to be used to build a new
quarantine area with a fence, a fence for the youngsters, surveys of potential release sites, and an education program.
Director Estelle Raballand wins award. Estelle Raballand was presented with Humane Society International's inaugural Award for
Extraordinary Commitment and Achievement at The HSUS's Animal Care Expo in Dallas, Texas, on March 12, 2004.
The Humane Society of the United States wrote a profile of Estelle and the CCC,
and created a video with footage courtesy of Envoye Special team from France 2, which was shown at the award ceremony.
New camp and repairs. The veterinary room is fully operational, we built a new camp with local materials for the CCC management team and all the other local structures have been repaired as needed. The fence is still working very well and the chimps are enjoying it every day.
Since 1999, when Ms. Raballand became director of the CCC, the management team has been living at the Parc du Haut Niger camp in Somoria, occupying two bedrooms and the community room/kitchen. Due to lack of space and increased tension with the Parc management concerning visitors and students living in Somoria, a separate camp was built in February. This new camp includes two huts, used as bedrooms for Dr. Colin and Ms. Raballand, a large community room/kitchen as well as a latrine hut and a shower hut. Water pipes to the kitchen and shower were installed in September and we officially moved into the community room in November. This camp is built with local materials, mud bricks and thatched roofs with cement floors. The new camp is located halfway between the Parc camp and the chimpanzees, 100 meters from the keepers' camp. The volunteers still use the two bedrooms allocated to the CCC at the Parc camp, but are not using the Parc community room anymore. See our facilities page for pictures.
Visitor Protocol. A visitor protocol has been written and
signed by the CCC director and the Parc conservator
which respect the privacy of the chimpanzees and limit
their stress during visits.
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