Tacugama

At the end of last week a fire started in one of our two staff quarter buildings in the late evening  Although the alarm was raised quickly and with a tough battle we were able to stop the fire spreading to neighbouring buildings, we were unable to save Tacugama’s very first base at the sanctuary.  Very fortunately nobody was hurt during the incident while the team battled hard to save what they could.  After 4 hours the fire finally burned itself out having completely destroyed the historic building.

The building before the fire

The following morning brought the true realisation of what we had lost. Twelve solar panels that powered the fences for some of the chimpanzee enclosures together with the energisers and electronic control equipment and batteries.  Three of our staff lost all their possessions. The store in the building also contained spare wheels/tyres for our vehicles, construction timber and maintenance tools for the sanctuary.  We estimate that the total cost of replacing what was lost and re-constructing the staff accommodation will reach almost US$30,000 – it’s a major blow for us at Tacugama.

The fire left little behind

The immediate need was to ensure the security of the chimps – luckily we are in the process of constructing a new enclosure set and had already taken delivery of solar panels and control equipment. We were able to rapidly deploy these to ensure that the chimps could stay in the enclosures, then came the big clean up.

Cleaning up after the fire

We’ve been unable to identify the cause of the fire.  Again we can only be thankful that nobody was hurt.  The whole team at camp worked incredibly hard to clear up – we had been due to receive a large group of guests throughout the day from a rare cruise boat visit to Sierra Leone – this time from a National Geographic Expedition – and had to cancel all but the last group when we were finally able to reopen “as normal” at 4pm.

Destroyed energisers for the solar enclosure fencing

The staff who have lost their accommodation are now sharing space in our other staff quarters and we’ll try to replace what possessions and clothes that they’ve lost as soon as possible.  The bigger job is to raise the funds to rebuild the accommodation and store, replace the solar fence equipment and everything else that has been lost as soon as we possibly can.

We appeal to you all to please help in any way that you can so that we can recover from this significant loss.  We’ve been fundraising hard to get the equipment in place for our new enclosures for the chimps and having finally been able to get that work underway we face another massive challenge as a result of the fire.  Your support is much needed and much appreciated.

One piece of good news is that Ewa and Frankie both safely completed the Paris Marathon on 15 April.  Their fundraising page is still open and another way that you can send in donations to help our fire appeal:

• http://www.justgiving.com/TacugamaMarathon – we can claim an additional 25% on top of what you donate through Giftaid if you’re a UK taxpayer
• http://www.tacugama.com/donate.html – you can use our paypal account to donate through the links on this page and there’s also the details of a Euro bank account that you can transfer directly to.

Frankie and Ewa at the end of the marathon

Thank you for your support

This Sunday – 15 April – sees Ewa O’Neill and Anita (Frankie) McKenna running in the Paris marathon.  It’ll be the first time that either of them have run this distance and they’ve been training hard to prepare for the big day.  We’d like to ask you to sponsor their run to raise funds for Tacugama’s running costs and community outreach programme.

Many of you will have seen the result of Ewa’s support for Tacugama – our calendars, postcards, posters, leaflets, stationery and many other items are all thanks to her creative talent.  Based in Sierra Leone for two years and now living in Nepal, Ewa and husband Dominic are very good friends and supporters of Tacugama. Ewa’s been thinking about running a marathon for some time and was persuaded by friends last November that it was time to change thoughts to action in time for Paris.  Frankie has been volunteering as Tacugama’s programme and fundraising manager for almost four years and when Ewa mentioned Paris, she thought that it sounded like a good idea to join in despite not having run seriously for a very long time!!

Ewa training in Kathmandu

The 5 months since clicking an “enter” button on a website from the comfort of a chair have flown by and seen Ewa and Frankie hit the road and put in some significant miles in preparation for Sunday’s run.  They were due to be joined in the run by Chris and Teresa Allewell who also became friends and supporters of  Tacugama while in Sierra Leone.  Very sadly Chris was forced to drop out with a very serious back injury in March, we wish him a speedy and full recovery.

Chris and Teresa helping to rescue Benita

We’d like to thank Air France KLM who have generously supported Frankie’s participation be providing a return flight on their service that runs from Freetown to Paris.  The photo below shows Jack Urlus and Toyin Alaran presenting Frankie with her ticket.

Frankie receives her free ticket from Air France KLM

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We’d also like to thank IMATT (International Military Advisory and Training Team) in Sierra Leone for giving Frankie access to their facilities to support her training.

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We wish Ewa and Frankie lots of luck for Sunday and hope that you’ll be able to support them also.  If you would like to sponsor them there are several options:

• http://www.justgiving.com/TacugamaMarathon – we can claim an additional 25% on top of what you donate through Giftaid if you’re a UK taxpayer
• http://www.tacugama.com/donate.html – you can use our paypal account to donate through the links on this page and there’s also the details of a Euro bank account that you can transfer directly to.

Thank you – we’ll let you know how they get on!

Hello Again!

We’re happy to let you know that our Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary 2012 calendars are now available.   Featuring more beautiful photos of Tacugama’s chimpanzees they’ll make a great gift for family and friends!

The calendars cost US$15 plus postage.  They’ll be posted from the UK and should arrive within two weeks of your order. When closed they’re A4 size (approx 29x21cm)

If you haven’t yet purchased your copy, order today via www.tacugama.com!

Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary 2012 Calendar

All proceeds go directly towards our running costs.

For those of you in Sierra Leone we expect to have the calendars available at the sanctuary by the beginning of December.

We’re sure that you’re all aware of the funding challenges facing the Wildlife Direct team as they struggle to fill a very important gap in helping organisations like Tacugama to raise awareness and critical funds.

In 2007 we took our first tentative steps into the world of blogging thanks to Paula Kahumbu and her team at WD. We’ve not looked back, and while technology and time are not always on our side, blogging has become a very important way for us to connect with all of you, keep in touch and benefit from your support. It clearly has not been an easy decision for them to close the donation channel through WD – working with services such as Paypal from within developing countries IS NOT EASY!!

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If you’re going to be in Barcelona, Spain on the 11th or 13th of November or London, UK on the 21st November then we’d love to meet up with you!!

Bala Amarasekaran, Tacugama’s founder and Programme Director will be speaking at two fundraising evenings being organised on our behalf and if you could come along and give us your support it would be great to see you there.

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