Last August, a group of four peo­ple visi­ted Ken­ya as part of the post­gra­dua­te pro­gram Study and Con­ser­va­tion of Lar­ge Afri­can Mam­mals at the Uni­ver­sity of Bar­ce­lo­na. During their trip, they visi­ted the country’s main natio­nal parks, reser­ves, and sanc­tua­ries, inclu­ding Ol Peje­ta Conservancy.

One of the expe­di­tion mem­bers colla­bo­ra­tes with SOS Pri­ma­tes and pre­viously wor­ked as a pri­ma­te care­ta­ker at @Zoo de Bar­ce­lo­na, which, as you may know, dona­tes unu­sed uni­forms to wild­li­fe reco­very cen­ters — a logis­tics effort coor­di­na­ted by our NGO. The group trans­por­ted 20 kg of work equip­ment dona­ted by the Zoo of Bar­ce­lo­na for the care­ta­kers and staff at Ol Pejeta.

Ol Peje­ta has evol­ved from a colo­nial-era cattle ranch into a con­ser­va­tion pio­neer. Today, it is the lar­gest black rhino sanc­tuary in East Afri­ca and is home to two of the last remai­ning northern whi­te rhi­nos. It is also the only pla­ce in Ken­ya whe­re chim­pan­zees can be seen in a dedi­ca­ted sanc­tuary that spans 121 hec­ta­res. But the con­ser­vancy is more than that — it also works with the local com­mu­nity through edu­ca­tion, access to health­ca­re, and infras­truc­tu­re deve­lop­ment, among other efforts.

You can learn more on their web­si­te: https://www.olpejetaconservancy.org/

This achie­ve­ment came at no cost to our NGO, as the lug­ga­ge allo­wan­ce of the inter­na­tio­nal flights was used. Our part­ner Jor­di Rovi­ra from Dalia Adven­tu­res (https://www.daliaadventures.com/) collec­ted the equip­ment and ensu­red it was deli­ve­red to the sanc­tuary staff.

In the pho­to, you can see some of the staff at the moment of the han­do­ver, along with the group of tra­ve­lers. A huge thank you to ever­yo­ne invol­ved (Cla­ra Casals, Xavier Corral, Ricard Camps, and espe­cially Sara Bor­das for lea­ding the initia­ti­ve), as well as to all SOS Pri­ma­tes volun­teers who sel­flessly dedi­ca­te their time to hel­ping pri­ma­tes every day.

If you are tra­ve­ling to coun­tries whe­re the­re are pri­ma­te or other ani­mal res­cue cen­ters and would like to help, don’t hesi­ta­te to con­tact us — we can coor­di­na­te a ship­ment with your trip. If you want to learn more about this pro­ject or colla­bo­ra­te with us, feel free to wri­te to: info@sosprimates.org.