Will Travers

Ian Redmond - Global Great Ape Conservation

Fundraising for Born Free Foundation
£2,410
raised of £10,000 target
Donations cannot currently be made to this page
Event: Flora London Marathon 2004, on 18 April 2004
Born Free Foundation

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We work worldwide to ensuring all wild animals are respected

Story

Dear Ape Friends

I've promised to remove the chain from Gentil's neck - will you help me? Please sponsor my run in this April's London Marathon and help protect our great ape cousins. Using a Born Free Foundation (www.bornfree.org.uk) 'Golden Bond' place, I'm seeking sponsorship from ape-lovers everywhere.

**NEWS FLASH - carrying a gorilla placard with 'SAVE THE APES' across the top, I made the 26.2 miles in about 4 hours and 40 minutes, spurred on by enthusiastic crowds chanting 'GO APE-MAN GO' and 'WE WILL SAVE THEM'. Thank you to all who stood in the rain to support the runners - and do tell your friends it is not too late to sponsor me!

Funds raised will be divided between the Ape Alliance and Born Free ape projects great and small - from Gentil and other chimp orphans at Lwiro Sanctuary in Congo (see below), to the UN Great Apes Survival Project.

Apes are in crisis and there's no time to lose. Chimps, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans face imminent extinction due to human exploitation. We destroy their forest homes, hunt them for 'bushmeat' and steal their babies for pets.

The world must act together NOW to stop the slide to extinction. I've been hooked on great apes since working with Dian Fossey in the 1970's to protect the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. I'm determined to do everything I can to save our great ape cousins. Please help me.

To sponsor me please click the 'Sponsor me now' button and follow instructions. Thank you.
Yours, with hoots and chest beats, Ian Gentil's story: This young chimpanzee is cared for at Lwiro Primate Sanctuary in eastern DRC. He is kept permanently chained by the neck as the fledgling sanctuary has no other way to keep him from raiding neighbours' crops. Ian has made a personal promise to Gentil to get him off that chain (see pic above). Like the other primates at Lwiro, Gentil was born in a forest and cared for by his mother. But she was killed, probably for bushmeat, and Gentil was sold illegally as a pet. Luckily Congolese authorities confiscated him and brought him to the sanctuary. Now Born Free is raising money to remove Gentil's chain and build him a large enclosure. With enough funds Born Free could create a permanent forest sanctuary in DRC for all Lwiro's primates.

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About the charity

Born Free Foundation

Verified by JustGiving

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We work tirelessly to ensure all wild animals, whether living in captivity or in the wild, are treated with compassion and respect. Working across the world to preserve, protect and rescue wild animals in need. Help us take action and Keep Wildlife in the Wild.

Donation summary

Total raised
£2,409.20
+ £340.21 Gift Aid
Online donations
£1,261.20
Offline donations
£1,148.00

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