We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended and helped in the preparations for our 15th Anniversary awareness and fund raising evening that took place at the Royal Over-Seas League in London on Friday 11th June. We enjoyed a great evening and were able to make many new friends as well as catching up with some long-standing supporters of Tacugama.
West African drummers help create a great atmosphere for the evening
The evening was opened with the Sierra Leone High Commissioner to London, the Honourable Edward M Turay, welcoming all of our guests. Chris Wright from the Born Free Foundation delivered a message of support from Virginia McKenna (the full text is at end of this post). Our audience were then treated to a live interview with Bala by Paul Glynn before Ian Redmond, chief consultant of the UN’s Great Ape Survival Project gave a great explanation of the importance of conserving chimpanzees and their habitats.
Watching the Tacugama video
Paul Glynn interviews Bala
Ian Redmond explains the role of rainforests in the world’s water supplies
The formal part of the evening closed with a personal video message from Jane Goodall :
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/srf-b7AXJN0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Once supper was over our auctioneer for the evening, Simon Carr, did an amazing job of raising the bids for the donated prizes and really making the evening a fundraising success. By the end of the evening our new enclosure fund was US$10,000 closer to target – a fantastic achievement.
Simon – a talented auctioneer!
By the end of all the auction excitement we were all happy to let our hair down and relax to some Sierra Leonean rhythms from King Masco and his dancers.
The evening would not have been possible without a lot of support from many people. We’d like to say special thanks to IPPL UK for managing the ticket sales, Rainbow Tours and CGA for contributing to the costs of the evening; to Kevin McPhillips Travel and niceimages for donating auction items together with Stuart Rea and Stephanie Farrimond; and to everyone who came along and took part so enthusiastically. You can find many more photographs from the evening in our Facebook gallery thanks to Jermaine Chandrasekaran.
Now it’s time to get our feet firmly back on the ground in Sierra Leone and concentrate on closing the gap for the remaining funds that will enable us to get the enclosures built.
Statement of support from Virginia McKenna:
“To all our friends at Tacugama,
I am very sorry that I cannot be with you on this very special night.
Fifteen years is a long time to keep working in a country as challenging as Sierra Leone, and I have the greatest admiration for Bala and his team. Running a wild animal sanctuary is hard work on every level, but it is so vital to the individuals being cared for, whose fate would otherwise be unspeakably grim.
With Born Free, I have spent over 25 years – based in the UK – working and raising funds to support the welfare and protection of animals around the world, and without people like Bala and his team our opportunities to make a real impact in the places where it is most needed would be very limited. It is especially impressive at this time to see the results from the national chimpanzee census conducted by Tacugama. Obviously there is good news that chimpanzee numbers are higher than previously thought, but we should never forget the warning that many of these animals may already be under serious threat. What is clear is the importance of these findings, and the immense contribution that Tacugama has made by undertaking this work. It is a testimony to the significance of Tacugama as a force for conservation in Sierra Leone that they have been responsible for this landmark study. But it is also a testimony to their vision as a sanctuary, clearly committed to the welfare of the animals in their care, as well as looking more broadly to the welfare, and the survival, of the animals in the wild.
Those who ask “what is the relevance of great ape sanctuaries to the wider conservation agenda” need look no further than Tacugama to see the answer. What this organisation has achieved over the last 15 years is astounding, and I hope that they will continue their vital and inspiring work for many, many years to come.
Yours, Virginia”
