Een school, chimpansees en een haan
En toen was er ineens een school! Althans het plan om er een te bouwen. Tijdens mijn vorige verblijf in…
En toen was er ineens een school! Althans het plan om er een te bouwen. Tijdens mijn vorige verblijf in…
LOMA in de spotlights: Giving Day for Apes 2021 Elk jaar rond deze tijd zetten we er nog een tandje…
Mondjesmaat gaan opvangcentra voor mensapen eindelijk weer open voor publiek en vrijwilligers. Het verlies door de Corona pandemie is niet…
Over het belang van dit Groen Project van Limbe Wildlife Centre en andere succesvolle natuurbeschermingsprojecten die ik van nabij meemaakte…
For projects or Rescue Centers where Rowena personally has been involved with or still is.
So we know first hand on how the money will be spend. And often Rowena has been given the opportunity to decide herself to which project the funds would go to.
Rowena also wants to be with her 2 feet in the dirt. As a volunteer animal caretaker in Rescue Centers both in The Netherlands and other countries. She has worked and still works with Chimpansees, Orangutans, Gibbons, Macaques, Leaf Monkees and many other wild animals.
Rowena writes a weekly Blog and posts daily on Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn) about her adventures and experiences, what inspires her, relevant news, insights and break-throughs.
About Rowena's work as a volunteer, what drives and inspires her and why that matters. At companies and institutions, but also at schools where she hopes to raise the awareness of the youngest generation for the challenges around wildlife and our planet.
In a humble attempt to help to stop great apes from extinction, I started working in 2013 as a volunteer Chimpanzee caretaker at Stichting AAP in The Netherlands next to my paid job as a communication advisor. Still today I work every Friday in their Chimpanzee Center as a volunteer. My favorite day of the week. Stichting AAP was instrumental in educating me on Great Apes biology, how to take care of them and which policies to apply.
Soon after, I decided to do more and enhance my knowledge and experience about wildlife rescue centers and the destruction of the natural habitat of great apes in particular. In the field - with both feet in the mud – working in rescue centers both in Asia and Africa, the homes of the great apes.
I learned a lot! From the challenges each management of rescue centers faces to working with the local care takers and medical teams. I walked with rangers, helped when baby orphaned orangutans and chimpanzees were brought to the centers after being confiscated and visited so called forest schools where toddlers and juveniles learn how to climb trees and search for food.
I helped pouring concrete for building a little bridge in one of the centers, trained disabled chimpanzees, strolled markets to buy food for the apes and drove miles and miles through palm oil plantations to see with my own eyes the devastating impact of destroyed rainforest. Apart from helping with the daily care of the rescued apes, I raised funds and helped with social media strategies and plans which I also do from home for a couple of centers. What moved me the deeply was to be invited to join an inspection team to visit a brand new site deep in the jungle of Borneo, where soon after 3 orangutans would be released into the semi wild. Very emotional.
I was also super fortunate to bump into an annual summit of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), the largest association of wildlife centers and sanctuaries in Africa, form which a warm relationship developed leading to being a proud member of the PASA family now.
But the fact remains that that Great Apes and other wildlife are on the verge of extinction. Due to poaching for bush-meat and body parts. Due to the wildlife pet-industry and tourism, trophy hunting and the biggest cause of current extinctions: destruction of habitat.
One of my biggest insights is that rescuing, taking care of and rehabilitating wildlife is merely addressing the symptoms rather than the wider underlying problems. We need laws and law enforcement. But also environmental education and outreach programs to empower local communities, teach them sustainable methods in creating a living and to show them the benefits of preserving their own natural habitat.
Most centers I have worked with have implemented outreach projects but most of them on a pretty small scale due to limited funds and resources. I’m convinced this and education are key to take the local communities along to make significant shifts. For that reason I will start to also focus on that aspect whilst continue to do what I do.
For starters I’m now involved with the potential roll out of a conservation program into many (primary) schools in Sierra Leone. I can’t wait to get started but need to hold my breath until the Corona Pandemic is under control and safe travelling can be resumed.
Together with my husband Ruud Severien we founded the foundation “Go-Ape” in 2014, which helps and support initiatives who rescue and rehabilitate Great Apes.
Please join me!
Next to her weekly Blogs and daily posts on Social Media, Rowena gives presentations for companies, organisations and schools. To create more awareness and get more support for endangered wildlife and in particular Great Apes. But she also wants to get to work herself, with her own 2 feet in the dirt. By taking care of Chimpansees at the Ape Foundation in The Netherlands every Friday, but also by traveling 2 times a year to Rescue Centers elsewhere in the world. Would you like to support Go-Ape and Rowena's work and donate? The Apes would be super grateful and so would we!
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