Crowds gathered to hear the aims of the Solar Sisters project to the village

Hi, this is Sam,

I’ve just got back from a trip Kagandu, one of the many small villages dotted along the border of the Mgahinga National Park here in Uganda. Here, along with my Gorilla Organization colleague Regina, I was exploring the possibility of getting the community involved in our Solar Sisters project, which is already on track to transform hundreds of lives in four different villages across the border in DR Congo.

Certainly, Kagandu meets the criteria for being considered for the project. The Barefoot College in India, where women are trained in solar engineering skills, requires communities to be without a reliable source of electricity and likely to be without one for the foreseeable future. Well, let me tell you that Kagandu definitely ticks this box! It’s a full hour’s walk from the nearest main road and none of the 380 houses here have ever been fully electrified.

But what Kagandu may lack in infrastructure, it more than makes up for in spirit! The village chairperson welcomed us with open arms and even said she felt her community had been blessed by God to have this opportunity to become electrified! After a brief introduction, we held a productive meeting with several leading members of the community, in which they put forward two women to become Solar Sisters. They also agreed to provide funds to pay the ladies to maintain the village’s solar equipment upon their return from India.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to see this project extended into Uganda. Having access to electricity is a basic human right, and so to know that this village will soon have what so many of us take for granted is truly a cause for celebration. What’s more, I’m optimistic about how this project will benefit the gorillas living in the Mgahinga National Park. For too long now, people living in villages such as Kagandu have been forced by poverty to enter the protected forests for food and other resources. By allowing them to work and study after it gets dark and even to set up their own small enterprises, solar power will help them pull themselves out of poverty and will mean they will no longer be so reliant on the precious gorilla habitat.

Here are a few more pictures I took from my recent trip. I promise to keep you informed of all the latest developments and, on behalf of everyone in Kagandu, I thank you for your wonderful support!

The report I made to assess how the village could benefit from solar power

The village nominates the ladies they feel should go to India...

...and then, we choose our next Solar Sisters!

Gorillas are extremely shy, so researchers are count night nests to work out how many live here

Hi, this is Sam,

As some of you may know, a mountain gorilla census is currently being carried out in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest here in Uganda. The count will allow us to see how well the gorillas living in this national park are doing and, just as importantly, will help us see what more needs to be done to safeguard these remarkable creatures for generations to come.

Now, counting gorillas is no easy task and it’s certainly not simply a matter of asking them to fill in a form like you have with a human census! Not only is Bwindi vast, the vegetation here is also extremely dense. Meanwhile, the gorillas themselves are understandably wary of humans and so all but the few habituated groups living here will retreat into the forests if they hear people coming.

So, how do you count mountain gorillas? Well, the most important thing to realise is that the researchers are not actually on the lookout for gorillas as such. Rather, they look for the clues they leave behind as they roam through the dense forest. Thankfully, being heavy and walking on all-fours, gorillas leave an easily detectable trail of flattened vegetation for researchers to follow. Once they have found the spot where the group they are researching spent the night, the team will get to work. Firstly, they’ll count the number of night nests dotted around the site, with this allowing them to put a figure on group size – though it’s worth remembering an infant will share a nest with its mother up until the age of two. Alongside this, the team will also look out for any distinctive silver hairs that may have been left behind by an alpha male and then they will also measure and collect samples of the dung left behind by the group. This last but may seem a bit yucky, but it’s a great way of determining the sex and age of a group’s members. What’s more, taking some samples back for analysis in a laboratory should help us check for signs of parasites, bacteria and even the presence of human viruses among these wild gorillas.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, this is no overnight process. Instead, it will be several months before we know the results of this latest census. For now, all we can do is cross our fingers, hope for the best and carry on with our efforts to help both the gorillas and the communities living alongside their forest home.

One of the 22 mountain gorilla babies named at the Kwita Izina ceremony

Hi, this is Tuver,

So, the seventh Kwita Izina has now come to an end, and what an exciting few days it has been! It was so inspiring to see so many people come together to celebrate these latest additions to Rwanda’s mountain gorilla population.

After the serious nature of the opening day’s conference, where delegates investigated ways to work with the communities living on the edge of the Volcanoes National Park to protect the endangered gorillas, it was time to party. And what better way to celebrate our remarkable forest-dwelling cousins than to ‘baptise’ 22 of the babies born over the past 12 months names in traditional a Rwandan ceremony?

Rwanda’s prime minister Bernard Makuza, as well as the Dutch ambassador to the country and various conservation group heads were among those naming the new gorillas. So, from now on, the Gorilla Organization will be keeping an eye on Indamutso (meaning ‘greetings’ in Kinywarwanda), Urahirwa (meaning ‘prospects’) and Sakaara (meaning ‘known everywhere’). Also, I’m sure you’ll be interested to hear that the twins born to Kabatwa back in February were given the names Isangano (or ‘meeting place) and Isango (’appointment’).

Once the actual naming ceremony had come to an end, the crowd of thousands, drawn from the communities living on the edge of the protected gorilla habitat and joined by government officials and numerous visiting dignitaries, were treated to a concert of dance and live music.

Here are a few pictures from this great weekend and let’s hope we’ll be naming even more mountain gorilla babies this time next year…

Dignitaries name the mountain gorilla infants while costumed conservation fans look on

People from communities on the edge of the Volcanoes National Park flocked to Kwita Izina 2011

Once the ceremony was over, it was time to party - Rwandan style!

It has been an exciting week for the people of Rusayo village in the North Kivu area of DR Congo. 200 homes have this week received a fuel-efficient stove from the local NGO Aide-Kive, thanks to funding from the Gorilla Organization and the people who support this blog!

These precious stoves will make a huge difference to the fight against deforestation in the Virunga National Park as families will now need to use much less fuel for cooking than they did before.

Deo Kalus, who works for Aide-Kivu presented the stoves to the local families and at the same time ensured that they understood that there was now no need to cut down trees or collect wood from the national park, the gorillas’ forest home.

Families were extremely grateful for their new stoves and reiterated their commitment to protecting the forest. They also reaslise the econimic gains the stoves will bring to all of them as they save time and money on collecting fuel.

Have a look at the photos below. It was quite a sight to see al the stoves lines up and to see how grateful the families of Rusayo were to receive their new stoves!

The fuel-efficient stoves are lined up, ready for distribution to local families

Deo explains the importance of the stoves and how they prevent deforestation and save the gorillas. Deo’s speech is followed by instructions on how to use the fuel-efficient stoves.

Smiles as the first stoves are handed out.

There is one for every household in the village!

I am really sorry to have to bring you some very bad news from the Virungas. Yesterday morning a vehicle belonging to the ICCN (the Congolese wildlife authority) was attacked. During the attack eight people were killed. Three of the victims were park rangers and five were members of the national army who were working with the rangers.

The car was traveling along the road between Mabenga and Rwindi through the middle of the park. It was deploying the men on board to help keep the road safe for local people as in recent weeks this area has been very insecure as a result of the presence of illegal armed groups. The early morning patrol car was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade, the attackers fled the scene immediately on foot. We are not certain of who the perpetrators are or which rebel group they came from, however we do believe that they are from the FDLR Rwandan militia and the search continues to find the attackers.

This is the worst attack on ranger patrols in over a year. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the families of these brave men who lost their lives.

Thank you all for your comments and interest in the ladies who have travelled to India from the DRC to take part in our unique initiative to promote sustainable development and support gorilla conservation in the Virungas.

I have been having weekly contact with the women in India and Bunker Roy, who is the manager at the college there – the women are doing amazingly well! During the past few weeks they have learnt how to make solar lanterns and the circuits that will power the lanterns, and in the last 20 days they have made 10 lanterns and 15 circuits, which is an excellent achievement – Bunker tells me most trainees take 2 months to achieve this. What I find so amazing about this whole project is the way the ladies are learning and communicating – all the Congolese ladies speak Swahili, a language that is not spoken by anyone else at the college. All the learning and communication is done through diagrams and colours!

The Congolese women are training  with women from  Kenya, Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Colombia, Jordan   and   Indian  trainers. So they are meeting people from all over the world. The ladies tall me they are enjoying the Indian food and really interested in learning all about the Tilonia culture.

Here are some photos of the ladies at work in India!!

Here is a photo of the pedal-powered cinema in action. The viewers take it in turns to pedal the bike, which generates enough energy to power the film!

Madeline Westwood, the director of the Great Apes Film initiative, who is partnering with the Gorilla Organization on this project, and Colin Tonks, the “wonder technician” and inventor of the cinema, came to Uganda from the UK to set this project running.

The first film showings were amazing – at one screening as many as 800 children came along to enjoy the Gorilla Organization’s film. And they were so excited – it was wonderful to see. The bike adds an extra element of audience participation to the screenings and children where queuing up to do some pedaling and power the film!

The children were amazed at what they saw. Some were so interested in the gorillas, and are now so desperate to protect them that they wanted us to make sure that their parents could watch the film too – I have no doubt that each and every one of them went home to tell their families about what they had seen. This is a huge step for gorilla conservation – the more local people who what to protect the gorillas, the more likely the gorillas are to survive long into the future.

As well as providing invaluable conservation education, the bikes provide an entirely clean source of power. No petrol is needed, no electricity is needed and as a result there is no negative environmental impact of showing these films.

Conservation education is now reaching remote communities, villages with no electricity and a whole host of others who have never before been able to see films or access this type of education – for this we are extremely proud.  In the three weeks that the project has been running 11,600 school children, 184 teachers, 110 soldiers and 46 park rangers, all living around the Ugandan gorilla habitats, have seen the films – wow!

Here is a photo of children transfixed by the film and the bike in motion!

On Monday, I took part in something amazing. I helped five illiterate Congolese women, all of whom are grandmothers, head off on an amazing journey to India. The women, who are from four villages on the edge of the Virungas National Park are taking part in a unique project that will help them to lift their villages out of poverty and in doing so relieve the human pressure on the national park that is threatening the precious gorillas.

The women are taking part in a joint project between the Gorilla Organization and the Barefoot College in India. They will spend six months in India learning everything there is to know about solar technology. They will become electricians, ambassadors, experts and life-savers. When they return to their villages in DRC they will set up solar panels in the village that will for the first time ever bring electricity and light to these poverty stricken communities. They will maintain the solar panels and train others in everything that they have learnt.

Bringing electricity to a village goes a long way to reduce poverty. Families will no longer be restricted to work during daylight hours. They will be able to cook food in the evening whereas before this would have been difficult due to lack of light, meaning they can spend longer tending their farms during the day. Electricity will also open up a whole host of new opportunities for the community. All these things help families become self sufficient and help them earn an income, which means they will no longer be tempted to use the gorilla habitat as a supplement to their needs. The village gets electricity and the gorillas remain undisturbed in their forest home.

On Saturday, the women said emotional but uplifting goodbyes to their families. I was invited to one of the villages to take part in the celebrations and watched as families danced and cheered to mark the start of this exciting journey. These women have never left their villages before let alone go on a plane and leave the country. From the villages the women gathered in Goma where they were met by the governor of the province of North Kivu, Julien Paluku Kahongya.

(Saying goodbye!)

From Goma, Henry (the Gorilla Organization’s DRC programme manager) and myself took the ladies to Kigali airport and helped them board the plane to India. What an exciting adventure they are embarking on and what a difference they are making to their villages and to our cousins the gorillas.

(All ready to go!Good bye to the Provincial Minister of Environnment )

I hope to keep you updated on the women’s progress in India.

Last week I joined the entire Gorilla Organization field team, and our director Jillian Miller, for the Gorilla Organization’s annual strategy meeting. Every year in October we get together to discuss the year that has just passed and to make plans for the following year. It is a great opportunity to share experiences with our colleagues from other countries, who are working with different gorilla populations, and we always come away with new ideas!

Here is a picture of us at the meeting. You can see Jillian, our director, to the right of the photo. Next to her is Aimee, who fundraises in our London office and did an amazing job of taking the minutes. At the end of the table is Emmanuel, our Rwandan Programme Manager,  Sam, our Ugandan Programme Manager and Henry, our Congolese Programme Manager.

We began the meeting by discussing the work that had taken place in 2010. The current economic climate has meant that it has not been the easiest of years but despite this we were all proud of what we have achieved. Our gorilla conservation work has continued, and all our African partners have completed their targets for the year with our support.

There are great plans for our projects for 2011, which will make a huge impact on the protection of the gorilla habitat and the gorillas’ long-term survival projects. 17 project partners hope to receive our support in 2011, as do the wildlife authorities of Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo. For all these plans to materialise we need to raise over US$800,000 – it is going to be a busy year!!

Please do get in touch if you would like to find out more about the specific plans we have for 2011 or if you are able to support our work during the coming year.

Thank you!

The trees were provided by our resource centre and I joined the women on their 7km march to the site of the tree planting, where the Vice Governor of North Kivu Mr. Feller Lutaichirwa Mulwahale planted the first tree. These trees are not only a symbol of peace but also reinforce the reforestation of the area that began last year.

The World Day of Peace celebrations continued in Bukavu, where we also run projects to protect the gorilla habitat. President Joseph Kabila joined local women to deliver the torch of peace and all in all there was a very positive feeling surround this special day.

Have a look at some of the photos of the tree planting – it was a wet day but we were happy about rain as it is good for the trees!