Our presence at Pakawi Park in Olmen was the highlight of July 2022! On Sunday 17 July, we had a stand in this beautiful zoo, to honour World Chimpanzee Day (which takes place every year on 14 July). It was a lovely sunny day with a great number of visitors! Pakawi Park is home to 5 chimpanzees: Sammeke, Bieke, Con-Khi, Izzy and Jimmy. The purpose of our presence was to raise funds through our Chimp Guardianship programme and the sale of books and promotional materials, but also to create awareness for Jane Goodall’s work. As JGI Belgium also reaches out to young animal lovers through the Roots & Shoots programme, we had fun activities for children, with facts about chimpanzees. Our games and tombola were a great success and put big smiles on the faces of the winners! Several kids had their faces painted as chimps so they could put on a play face. We are also following up on the planning of a new home for the chimps. The management of Pakawi Park wants to improve their welfare and will start fundraising for the construction of Monkey Island: a larger, more elaborate enclosure where the animals will have more freedom of movement and which is more in tune with their natural habitat. Thank you Pakawi Park, visitors, volunteers and donors!
Images: Anouska Plasmeijer, JGIB