Baraza

Category: Uncategorized, WildlifeDirect news | Date: Apr 13 2008 | By: admin

I have been in the USA for 3 weeks so far in New York, DC, Madison and now I’m in an internet cafe in Minnesota at the Minneapolis Airport waiting for a flight to Montana. I have been fund raising for wildlifedirect to try and raise core funds to enable the organization to expand and support more organizations across Africa, Asia and south America. Since we do not make any deductions from donations for this, we have to raise these funds independently.

It has been an extraordinary experience and some people and organizations who have made it possible for me to spend this much time in the country - I’m especially indebted to Nancy A, Turtle Pond Publications and many individuals who have hosted me or put me in touch with critical contacts. We haven’t raised enormous amounts of money yet but we do have a few possibilities in the pipeline. It has been 14 hour days for 3 weeks with one weekend in the country so far. Sleep deprivation is beginning to get to me but I only have 5 more days to go

I’ve learned how to live like a New Yorker…. using the subway is quite an experience, I love watching the bands play energetically for coins - I could just stay there and dance! America and her people always amaze me with their energy, creativity, generosity and love of life. These images of my trip and facts from Philanthropy statistics

New York is one of the busiest, most exciting places to be. It is rich in culture, art, intelligence, energy and money… beyond description.

Did you know that 89 percent of US households give to charities?

The average annual contribution of those who give is $1,620.

American giving reach a record high in 2006, with donations totaling $295-billion.

Giving to the arts and education saw donations rise more than 6 percent in 2006.

There was an overwhelming philanthropic outpouring to natural disasters in 2005.

The book I talked about previously Owen and Mzee did well because of the link to the Indian Ocean Tsunami. It is a best seller and is translated into 17 languages. I read it to 3rd graders at the John Muir school in Madison. What an exilirating experience! Two days later I received adorable letters with drawings and messages from each child.

One of the girls wrote

“thank you for reading your book. It was a great story. PS. You are a good friend”

another child wrote

“…after you left Ryan told me that you are staying with his family. He said you spend most of your time on your laptop. I wanted you to stay with me because Ryan is lucky that you are staying at his house”.

It’s not true! I sometimes get off my computer and do go out for a walk and here’s the evidence -Ryan introduced me to my first American predator ..a Cayote …here the evidence!

Books are a good way of raising awareness. The sequel to Owen and Mzee “the language of friendship” won a Christopher award last week. The award “salutes media that affirm the highest values of the human spirit. Their goal is to encourage men, women and children to pursue excellence in creative arenas that have the potential to influence a mass audience positively. Award winners encourage audiences to see the better side of human nature and motivate artists and the general public to use their best instincts on behalf of others.”

Here is our book on display with its flashy golden award sticker!

It was awarded to us by Caroll Spinney of Sesame street fame the puppeteer behind big bird and Oscar the Grouch seen here.

Why does Owen and Mzee matter in terms of charitable giving in USA? Because it inspires people to be kind and generous. We hope that our upcoming book “Miza” a true story of an orphaned baby mountain gorilla in Virunga, which is also published by Scholastic, will inspire the same sentiments and becomes a best seller because the funds raised will directly benefit mountain gorillas in Eastern Congo. As you can imagine, the situation there is absolutely critical, rebels control the gorilla sector and rangers are unable to protect the gorillas. We could lose these amazing animals if we fail to take action quickly. Rangers Diddy and Innocent are keeping us informed of the situation on the ground on the gorilla protection blog

Consider these facts.

Charitable giving accounted for 2.1% of gross domestic product in 2006.

Between $6.6 trillion and $27.4 trillion in charitable bequests will be made between 1998-2052.

^{However, only 3% of this will go to animals and nature}

Of that 3%, less than 3% will go to international programs. I cant understand why conservation in the worlds most biodiverse regions can rank at such low the priority on the agenda of charitable people. It is hard to imagine how we can save the most vulnerable species and conservation areas if they occur outside of the richest places of the world.

I wonder ambitiously, could we, you readers, and bloggers on WildlifeDirect turn this around and create awareness of the needs in Africa, Asia, latin America? Could we create a critical mass of information and change the giving behaviours of the richest, most generous people on earth?
The situation is urgent, multinational firms are beginning to greedily extract Africa’s rich natural resources taking oil, minerals, timber, crops and fish, ….we must ensure that the development of Africa does not leave it with a legacy of destruction that future generations of poor Africans have to pay for.

Can we prevent the destruction of the worlds heritage by creating a massive global network of caring people and organizations - before it is too late?

I took a walk at 10 pm one night past the Rockefeller Center and watched the skating with amazement. I sometimes think it would be easy to give up the tough task of conservation in Africa, and just get used to working and living in New York. But I know I’d miss home and Africa too much, because I could not fulfill our mission to save the gorillas, elephants, lions and trees - they need us in Africa.

While I’ll be sad to say goodbye to USA when I finally leave next week, I’ll be so glad to be going home with even more energy and blogs including snow leopards, sun bears, grizzlies, lemurs, …..to name a few.

Tags: 33, 330, 718, 778, 790

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Category: Amazing facts | Date: Mar 11 2008 | By: admin

Have you ever had an Owen and Mzee moment? You don’t know what I’m talking about do you?

Yesterday I heard that pygmy hippos have been rediscovered in Liberia. It caught my attention which surprised me because I was only half listening to the BBC that day – the story is covered here, here and on this blog called reasons to be hopeful. The interviewer asked the scientist to describe pygmy hippos and as he talked of it’s diminutive size and perfect hippo shape, a feeling over came me, I wasn’t alone in feeling a massive maternal pang for Owen. Owen you ask?

This is a short walk down memory lane. On the 26th of December in 2004 a baby hippo was orphaned in Malindi when the Indian Ocean Tsunami separated him from his family. The waves had somehow carried him away and he was found five kilometers from the river mouth where his family lived. We rescued him exhausted and sunburned after four days in the sea. He was wild and angry after the local villagers and tourists on the beach rescued him.

We couldn’t return him to the river, it was impossible to know which family he was from, he would almost certainly be killed. So we put him in the back of my covered pick-up truck and I brought him to Haller Park , a restored limestone quarry in Mombasa that I was managing at the time. Though I doubted he’d survive, before I drove off from Malindi, I asked the rescuers, mostly local fishermen, for a name. They unanimously chose ‘Owen’ after Owen Saubion, a tall, blonde, awkward hippy of a guy who was volunteering with the Kenya Wildlife Service. He was the only rescuer who dared to rugby tackle the hippo at a critical moment.

Immediately we released Owen in Haller Park he met a grumpy old giant tortoise called Mzee (whose name literally means’ old man’ in Swahili). What developed next was the most celebrated animal oddity of decades. These pictures illustrate just how close they were.

They spent most of their time snuggled together

When Owen wanted to move he would shove Mzee and mouth his back foot, but when the old tortoise wanted to move, he would push Owen and nip his tail

Stephen Tuei is the animal keeper at Haller Park, he’s worth his weight in gold

Desmond Tutu got a copy for his birthday from Craig Hatkoff, our partner in this project. It was Craigs 6 year old daughter Isabella who came up with the idea of doing a book to explain a relationship that she was asking a lot of questions about. The photographs in the book were taken by Peter Greste, a BBC correspondent.

If you don’t know the story you have to read the book, visit the website and watch the documentary film and read the Owen and Mzee blog which is still maintained but sadly is no longer the voice of Stephen Tuei, the animal keeper at Haller Park .

Owen and Mzee are not together any more because we introduced Owen with Cleo, an handsome female hippo who was in need of a friend. Masumi and I spent a lot of time with Owen and Mzee who became Kenyan celebrities when the book Owen and Mzee: the True story of a Remarkable Friendship became a best seller eventually being translated into 17 languages including Swahili and Braille. We also produced a sequel, Owen and Mzee: the Language of Friendship and various board books for children and plushies. We even made a film that is freely down loadable from their own website Owen and Mzee

Well, I’m not stopping there. I thought that the friendship was extraordinary, but there is still a huge mystery that I’m hoping one day to solve.

We wanted to celebrate the success of the book with Owen Saubion and tried to contact him from information he gave us.  Failing that we asked people he knew, nobody had an email address, phone number or address! In fact, we have never been able to find a shred of evidence that he existed yet many people knew him.

One of the other rescuers recalled that the hippo was going crazy as hundreds of people chased him through the inter-tidal pools and coral outcrops to catch him. But he claims that as soon as Owen touched him the hippo instantly calmed down. Another observer noted that he had asked Owen what he was doing in Kenya and he responded, ‘I’m here to help someone find himself’.

I get goosebumps every time I recall my meeting with Owen. He begged us not to use his name but the fishermen were shouting ‘Owen, Owen, Owen’…I had to accept that this was their wish, the name for the rescued hippo would be Owen.

Owen once even visited the hippo at Haller Park a few weeks later to witness the amazing friendship that had caught global headlines, and we took photos of Owen with Owen…but now going back nobody can find a single photograph of this mysterious fellow Owen Saubion! Wierd.

Even though Owen and Mzee are no longer together, I’d still like to find the namesake, are there any private investigators out there? The really wonderful thing about the story is that it has touched and inspired so many children in Africa and America. If you haven’t seen them already check out the hipposodes created by two young American boys

Here are some Owen and Mzee moments that I wanted to share…..

Snake befriends a hamster that was supposed to be lunch

Lion adopting a baby oryx 6 times!Polar bear befriends a husky

Tiger adopts piglets Turns out to be a very cruel tourism attraction!

And other amazing stories are on a blog called Dig your own Grave here

The wonderful thing about Owen and Mzee is that their story has inspired a series of childrens books with real life lessons. We will be telling you more about these projects soon.

Tags: 725, 742, 764, 778, 782

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