The Sanctuary has been closed to visitors for nearly 3 months, but behind the scenes Tacugama is very busy caring for 96 chimps. Despite the tough times, 40 staff members have volunteered to remain at the Sanctuary in lockdown, even though this means living away from their families so that they can look after the chimps and make sure they are safe and healthy. Without visitor income and rapidly increasing prices we are facing an extremely difficult stretch. About 50% of Tacugamas operations depend on visitor income stemming from Sanctuary tours, overnight stays, paying volunteers, and social events. With the Sanctuarys closure to visitors, were faced with an urgent need to somehow find a way to raise at least £10,000/month.

Our field projects have also greatly suffered and been placed on hold. Given the pandemics origins, we have a duty to educate people about the links between deforestation, human/wildlife conflict and the spread of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19. We work with over 70+ communities and are directly involved in 16 of UN's 17 sustainable development goals. Everything we do starts with the chimps and transitions into wildlife conservation, research, climate change mitigation, advocacy, law enforcement, environmental education, ecotourism, women empowerment, livelihoods and one health initiatives

Thanks to the support received over the last month we've covered the Sanctuary's running costs for March, April and May! Its a huge relief, but we are still on high alert as it's impossible to predict how much more of this madness we will need to endure. We are now turned our focus to raise funds for June, July and beyond. It's a difficult task considering the level of hardship and suffering all over the world, but perseverance is in our DNA and we somehow need to find a way through these crazy times, otherwise, 25 years of conservation work can easily get wiped out in an instant as well as the very species we are trying to protect.

Please donate to help the chimpanzees! Those of you who can't donate at this moment, please circulate this appeal within your networks and connect us with organizations who you feel might come to our aid.

On behalf of everyone at Tacugama, thank you for your support!