Fundraising

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Gearing Up 4 Gorillas have recently invested in a new Pedal Powered Cinema. This cinema will be used mainly in Virunga National Park (VNP).

Emmanuel de Merode, Chief Warden, is developing an environmental education project to be delivered throughout VNP along with Head of Communications, Francesco de Lisi.

The pedal powered cinema will be an integral part of delivering that programme through showing films / videos in schools and local communities. A generous sponsor, Animal Friends Insurance, has offered to purchase the cinema for Gearing Up 4 Gorillas (G4G) to deliver to Virunga. Elaine Fairfax, Managing Director, has very kindly made donations towards the work of G4G on previous occasions.

During the first half of 2011, there have been several ranger deaths from gun attacks by militia groups in the Park. Emmanuel will focus on promoting Virungas conservation messages to local communities and schools, together with the benefits conservation can bring to them, to counteract those elements who seek to destroy the Park for their own ends.

Emmanuel estimates using the cinema in at least 3 schools per week; reaching around 1,500 children a month and over 75,000 per annum. Screenings within local villages will considerably increase the number of people to benefit from the cinema. G4G are currently working on raising £6,000 to fund two environmental education staff for Virunga for a year, to enable this work to be initiated as soon as possible, after the cinema is delivered. Two events in Dorset, (a music event in September and an auction in October) will hopefully give a good boost to the fundraising effort. After showcasing the cinema at the events and through the media, it is planned to deliver the cinema to VNP some time in November. Madelaind Westwood of GAFI and G4G may well also be filming the cinemas arrival and use in Virunga, as interest in the project has been shown by national media.

Linda Nunn
Chair, G4G

Throughout most of November 2010, Madelaine Westwood, GAFI’s Director, led the start of the first conservation education roadshow to use the innovative Pedal Power Cinema.

With colleagues from The Gorilla Organisation, Madelaine travelled to remote areas of Southern Uganda, close to one of the remaining habitats of the mountain gorilla. In this first stage, the team reached nearly 14,000 people – showing them films about the lives of gorillas. The awareness raised is a vital step in connecting the local human population with the issues related to the conservation of these apes.

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GAFI’s Innovative Pedal-Powered Cinema roadshows are making a huge difference to the number of people who have access to our powerful films.

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Wild chimps outwit human hunters
Article courtesy of the BBC
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
Watch the video at http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8962000/8962747.stm

Wild chimpanzees are learning how to outwit human hunters.

Across Africa, people often lay snare traps to catch bushmeat, killing or injuring chimps and other wildlife.

But a few chimps living in the rainforests of Guinea have learnt to recognise these snare traps laid by human hunters, researchers have found.

More astonishing, the chimps actively seek out and intentionally deactivate the traps, setting them off without being harmed.

The discovery was serendipitously made by primatologists Mr Gaku Ohashi and Professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa who were following chimps living in Bossou, Guinea to study the apes’ social behaviour.
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Madelaine Awarded Wingate Scholarship

Prestigious Award Will Fund Research into Roadshow Effectiveness

GAFI's Director, Madelaine Westwood

GAFI is delighted to announce that Madelaine Westwood, GAFI’s director, has been awarded a scholarship from the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation.

These scholarships are awarded anually to “outstanding individuals of great potential or proven excellence who need financial support to undertake creative or original work of intellectual, scientific, artistic, social or environmental value and to musicians for advanced training.”

The scholarship money will enable Madelaine to undertake research that will refine the effectiveness of using film for conservation education, not just for GAFI’s projects, but for NGO’s working throughout the world.
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Gorilla Project Pedals Forward

Unlocking the secrets of gorillas to local communities

GAFI’s work to bring awareness of mountain gorillas to human populations in Uganda has received a huge boost. The pedal-powered roadshow project has received full funding with €10,000 awarded from the Van Tienhoven Foundation for International Nature Protection with a further €10,000 donated by a donor in the USA.

Since 2006, the Gorilla Organization (GO) has taken GAFI films to 176 schools in two districts of Uganda; Kabale and Kisoro. These districts are bordered by the last two habitats of the Critically Endangered mountain gorilla; the Virunga Volcanoes and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.
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12th/13th June 2010

At this year’s Bristol Festival of Nature, GAFI and the Ape Alliance seized a great opportunity to raise awareness of ape conservation and the profile our work.

Sharing a stand, we were very busy running an ape colouring/drawing competition for children, whilst volunteers, dressed as gorillas and orangutans, rode electric scooters loaned for the event from our sponsor http://www.i-scoot.co.uk/.  We were also able to raise funds through bucket collections for the GAFI Ugandan Pedal Power Cinema Project.

Everyone at the festival and many more in South West England would have struggled to miss us as we were interviewed live on the Big Screen in Millenium Square at the festival and featured on BBC Points West.  Many thanks to everyone who helped out with the festival.

5th June 2010

At the Stoud Festival of Nature GAFI, in association with the Ape Alliance, used a 14ft Yurt to house a pedal-powered cinema, with members of the public volunteering to provide power!

We showed films from the GAFI library such as “Green” www.greenthefilm.com/, as well as GAFI reports from the field and animated short conservation films.  There was also face-painting for children.

We were raising funds for the GAFI Ugandan Pedal Power Cinema Project through bucket collections.

Quite a stir was created by our volunteers, dressed in gorilla and orangutan suits, riding electric scooters loaned for the event from our sponsor www.i-scoot.co.uk.

The day provided an opportunity for good exposure and awareness-raising, particularly when we were interviewed live on Faye Hatcher’s Saturday Show for BBC Radio Gloucestershire.  Thank you to the tireless efforts of our volunteers.