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About the Wildlife Ranger Challenge:
COVID-19 has brought tourism revenue to a halt across Africa, threatening the important work and livelihoods of the rangers who protect iconic African wildlife such as elephants, pangolins, rhinos, lions, and more. Ranger teams are now uniting around the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, a running race with one goal: to raise money to support thousands of their fellow rangers. Now is the time to go the extra mile—it’s time to race to support our rangers. Every dollar donated will be matched by the Scheinberg Relief Fund, doubling your generous contribution.
Your contribution will help support 125 Fossey Fund rangers and an estimated 200 livelihoods across Nkuba Conservation Area in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
The role of rangers:
The rangers provide daily protection to individual gorillas and their families, remove snares, and deter illegal activities. They protect Grauer's gorillas in DR Congo and mountain gorillas in Rwanda.
How your donation will help:
It would help us offset increased costs associated with keeping our teams in the field (additional food, salary, and equipment costs) and ensure that we can maintain 365 day a year boots on the ground protection for this critically endangered and conservation dependent species.
Effects of the pandemic:
Purchasing protective equipment, rehabilitating camps near the forest so that our staff can live onsite and be isolated from the larger community to minimize any risk of transmitting COVID 19 to the gorillas, who have a genetically identical receptor system for the virus as we do.
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Tusk is registered with JustGiving in the UK (or GoFundMe.com in the USA). Our online fundraising sites allow you to create a sponsorship form with easy access for your supporters, knowing their money is going directly to Tusk. UK tax-paying donors can enhance their contribution by agreeing to Gift Aid their sponsorship (for every £10 you raise, Tusk will receive another £2.50 from the Government provided you are a UK taxpayer). US supporters wishing to make a tax deductible donation can do so via GoFundMe.com.