In order to conserve the small population of savanna chimpanzees in Senegal, West Africa our organization Neighbor Ape works to educate people living alongside them and to aid in their welfare as well. Our project includes educational workshops at villages sharing land with chimpanzees, as well as providing scholarships for village children so that they can attend mission schools in regional towns or nursing school in the capitol city of Dakar. We especially try to assist young women.
Humans and chimpanzees are increasingly coming into conflict in Senegal as the population of the country grows with increasing economic development, specifically due to the development of new gold mining projects. Educating people about chimpanzees helps them understand apes here & provides them a means with which they can work to solve their conflicts. Problems chimpanzees face are the same ones that humans will also face soon with increasing resource extraction & environmental change.
Education correlates with positive conservation practices, especially the education of women. In addition to educating the local human population & working to absolve conflicts between chimpanzees and people who live alongside them in Senegal, we contribute to the education of more than 60 village children yearly, who are given the opportunity for better education by access to mission schools in regional towns, specific educational programs such as nursing school, or the new dormitory we built.
This project will educate people about chimpanzees and work to resolve conflicts between chimpanzees and people living in more than 30 different villages and a number of schools within chimpanzees' range in southeastern Senegal via a workshop series. We will also sponsor the education of village children in mission schools in regional towns and in professional schools (such as nursing school) in the capitol. We are helping build a dormitory so that village children can attend school in town.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
