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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
Banana-Fundraising and the Wilhelma Zoo
Stefanie Reska and the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart Germany are on a mission to raise money for Virunga National Park. I met Stefanie last December after she began to fund-raise for the park and was very impressed with the zoo and the way they support wildlife programs around the world. The fundraising methods are creative and surprisingly effective. They recently donated $6000 from a few fundraisers. Perhaps their example will be an inspiration to some of you.
Banana Fundraising
The zoo ordered 700 organic bananas, put them all in a heap in the middle of the zoo with a colleague in a monkey costume next to it, walking and behaving like a monkey. The kids loved it and their parents gave a coin for the monkey in exchange for a banana. The children walked away happy, and ate some healthy fruit as well. In four hours, they raised 350 € ($444) in cash after expenses.
Mobile Phone Recycling
Anne, Janne, and Nelle started a school project to collect old mobile phones to support gorilla protection.
The mobile phone recycling program has generated 15,000 € ($19,000) in three years - all going to support gorilla protection in the wild. It’s simple. People contribute their old mobile phones which the zoo exchanges for money from phone recycling companies. The great part about this program is that any business or school can collect the phones by simply setting up a box at an entrance, or school children can turn it into a class project. Large companies, such as BOSCH in Germany, have collected phones for this project, as well as small businesses such as Reiseland Travel agency in Stuttgart (below).
Lottery
Wilhelma Zoo has organized several lotteries to raise money for the park. These work best if the weather is good which always attracts the most visitors. In October, they got lucky with a gorgeous sunny day that attracted about 8000 visitors, and sold 2700 lottery tickets for 1 € each. The prizes range from little stuffed animals to Virunga postcards.
Educational Talks
The Congohounds team give a presentation at the Wilhelma Zoo in October.
The zoo also collects money by giving free educational talks on the weekends, asking people for a small donation into a Gorilla Box. In October, our own Congohounds leaders, Marlene Zähner, Christian, and Gracien, gave a presentation at the zoo.
The Congohounds team with the Wilhelma team. Stefanie is on the right.
We would like to thank Stefanie and the Wilhelma zoo for their continued support of Virunga National Park. If any of you have connections with a zoo near you, why not speak to the management about doing similar fundraising for Virunga? Or start your own mobile phone collection project. There are many creative ways to raise money for the park.
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RECENT DONATIONS
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23 May 2013Open donation
Megan 15 $ - 23 May 2013Protecting Park Area 204
Unregistered Donor 25 $ - 23 May 2013Protecting Park Area 208
25 $ - 23 May 20132 x Ranger Support
40 $ - 23 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 100 $ - 22 May 2013Protecting Park Area 37
25 $ - 22 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 10 $ - 22 May 2013Protecting Park Area 6
Unregistered Donor 25 $ - 22 May 2013Widows and Rangers Fund
Unregistered Donor 30 $ - 22 May 2013Protecting Park Area 38
scott l 25 $ - 22 May 2013Protecting Park Area 28
25 $ - 22 May 2013 Multiple items
Unregistered Donor 150 $ - 22 May 2013Widows and Rangers Fund
Unregistered Donor 30 $ - 22 May 2013 Guarding a Gorilla
10 $ - 22 May 20132 x Gorilla and Wildlife Protection
Unregistered Donor 40 $ -
21 May 2013Protecting Park Area 75
Katy A 25 $ - 21 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 25 $ - 21 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 25 $ -
20 May 2013Protecting Park Area 76
Kevin 25 $ - 20 May 2013 Multiple items
Unregistered Donor 40 $ - 20 May 2013 Guarding a Gorilla
Unregistered Donor 10 $ - 20 May 2013Monthly Support
Unregistered Donor 35 $ - 20 May 2013Protecting Park Area 169
25 $ -
20 May 2013Open donation
Tatjana D 10 $ - 20 May 2013 Multiple items
Unregistered Donor 40 $ - 20 May 2013Protecting Park Area 216
Unregistered Donor 25 $ - 20 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 25 $ -
20 May 2013Supporting Jomba School
Eugene Martin F 30 $ - 20 May 2013Supporting Gatovu School
Eugene Martin F 30 $ - 20 May 2013Supporting Bikenge School
Eugene Martin F 35 $ - 19 May 2013Open donation
100 $ -
19 May 2013Protecting Park Area 117
Anna L 25 $ -
19 May 2013Protecting Park Area 39
Bill W 25 $ - 19 May 201320 x Virunga's Surveillance Aircraft
Unregistered Donor 20 $ - 19 May 2013OPEN DONATIONS
Unregistered Donor 50 $ - 18 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 20 $ - 18 May 2013Widows and Rangers Fund
Unregistered Donor 30 $ - 18 May 20132 x Gorilla and Wildlife Protection
Unregistered Donor 40 $ - 18 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 25 $ -
18 May 2013Protecting Park Area 133
Janice T 25 $ - 18 May 2013Protecting Park Area 131
Unregistered Donor 25 $ - 18 May 2013Support Andre and the Gorilla Orphans
Unregistered Donor 10 $ - 18 May 2013 Multiple items
Unregistered Donor 20 $ -
17 May 2013Protecting Park Area 218
Thierry 25 $ - 17 May 2013Monthly Support
Unregistered Donor 15 $ -
17 May 2013Widows and Rangers Fund
stefanie r 30 $ - 17 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 40 $ - 17 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 50 $ - 16 May 2013 Guarding a Gorilla
stefanie r 10 $ - 16 May 2013Open donation
Unregistered Donor 10 $
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News from Congo- UN and World Bank in DR Congo peace push - Aljazeera.com
- World Bank Plans $1 Billion for Congo - Wall Street Journal
- World Bank pledges $1bn for DR Congo and neighbours - BBC News
- Hugo Daems Announces Release of 'Congo' - San Francisco Chronicle
- US Non-Intervention In Syria Could Mirror Outcome In Congo - NPR
- Congo-Kinshasa: SA Troops to DRC - AllAfrica.com
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: Civilians must be spared the fighting in Goma - ICRC (press release)
- QPI invests in Total E&P Congo - Oil & Gas Journal
- How Congress Is Using the Congo to Weaken Dodd-Frank - U.S. News & World Report (blog)
- Artillery lands in east Congo city, humanitarian camp - Yahoo! News
This website was funded by the European Union and the Prince Bernard Nature Fund.
6 Responses to “Banana-Fundraising and the Wilhelma Zoo”
this is awesome. If I asked all my acquaintances, students or colleagues to give me their old cells, could I send them to stuttgart and thus help the park?
Hi Anjy, I can put you in touch with Stefanie and you can work with her on doing the same as described here. Send me an email at [email protected], and I’ll send you her info.
Thanks for your support, Anjy. It would be great to meet you someday.
Dear team, should you have noticed a drop in traffic: since Dec. 29, google has listed the site as an attack site and is steering browsers with saftey features turned on away from it. A lot of sites get caught up in this, and google is as always intransparent about it. The cause can be things in third-party applications on the site, something in code installed inadvertendly, or an error by google (or some other scanning service looking for malware and attack web sites). Anyway, even I took a few days to decide to ignore and come visit again to let you know. I write this just in case you don’t already know. With all the things on your hands, it surely is the last thing you need to deal with … it is a bit of a process to identify the cause and to be de-listed. Until then, google and a lot of browsers with security on (like Firefox) strongly advise against going to the site and re-direct connect attempts. Here is one link explaining it:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/yes-youre-an-attack-site-that-contains-malware-now-heres-what-to-do-about-it/10035/
Keep up the great work with the site!!
If you google for “gorillacd” then already the listing will say “this web site can damage your computer”. So it is important to get de-listed (after finding the cause, if there is any).
I don’t receive the warning any more, so I guess the danger has been removed. I came back to the site after you said on facebook it was okay - and after updating my antivirus-software
Yay, looks clear to me, too! Great work by the team!! I can only imagine how hard it can be to track something like this down. Thanks to all involved - this web site is so important!