The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, which continues Dr. Dian Fossey’s pioneering work protecting and studying endangered gorillas, considers education the key to conservation. The Fossey Fund supports education at all levels in the two countries where it operates: Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in order that the people who share the gorillas’ habitat can prosper and become informed stewards of their natural heritage.
The Fund’s commitment to education starts with the youngest children. In both Rwanda and the DRC, the Fund devotes some of the contributions it receives to rebuilding and maintaining orphanages, as well as, primary and secondary schools that had been damaged by war in the communities adjoining the forests where gorillas live.
Last year the Fossey Fund provided US $20,000 worth of textbooks and bookcases to Rwanda’s Bisate Primary School, which is attended by children of the staff of the Fund’s Karisoke Research Center. The Fund also bought all of the 24 teachers bicycles, sponsored language training for both pupils and teachers, and provided school supplies to all the students. In addition, Karisoke staff launched a program of wildlife education using puppets for primary school students, and provided conservation education to five secondary schools.
When the Fossey Fund expanded its programs from Rwanda to the DRC and began working with local communities on conservation strategies, education was the first development investment the communities requested. The Fund is now rebuilding four primary schools in the DRC and supporting two others with teacher salaries and school supplies, and supporting two secondary schools and an orphanage located near nature reserves that have been established by local communities. The Fund is also supporting development of a nursery school at the orphanage to help prepare children whose lives have been interrupted by war so they can succeed in the formal education system.
In partnership with the National University of Rwanda (NUR), Karisoke offers Rwandan students field courses and research opportunities in biodiversity studies, conservation, and primatology. During the past year, 45 students from NUR took a field research course at Karisoke, and students from the High Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and the Kigali Institute of Education, as well as NUR, conducted dissertation research or internships at Karisoke.
Karisoke is an important regional training center for staff from the Rwandan wildlife authority who protect a national park where the rare mountain gorillas live. Fossey Fund staff have also trained field workers who operate a group of community conservation programs in the DRC, supported by the Fund, that protect eastern lowland (Grauer’s) gorillas and other endangered species.
The Fund’s most innovative contribution to education in the DRC is a partnership with the Tayna Center for Conservation Biology (TCCB), a full-functioning university established and managed by local communities. Since its accreditation in 2006, TCCB’s enrollment has quickly grown to over 350 students who come from dozens of tribes and communities to pursue degrees in the faculties of Biological Sciences, Geology, Information and Communications, Polytechnic Institute, Economics, and Medicine.
The campus includes dorms, staff housing, offices, classrooms, a computer lab and a library. Its student-run radio station broadcasts news from the BBC, Voice of America and the United Nation’s Radio Okapi, as well as local news and conservation messages. Approximately half of the students are the children of families who donated the land for the nature preserves, who return to work in their communities after earning their degrees. Eighty-six students are due to graduate this September.
To learn more, visit the web site of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund at: www.gorillafund.org