September 2010 E-Update

BWF donates to MOUNTAIN GORILLA VETERINARY PROJECT (MGVP)
Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo

There are approximately 720 Mountain Gorillas left on earth; they live only in two small parks, one in Uganda and one that includes a corner of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Core Focus: Critical Attention & Support in order to ensure a healthy future for this special animal, the gorillas are monitored on a regular basis, and are provided life-saving medical care, have health studies, and all is done to build local capacity in veterinary medicine and ecosystem health.

"My friend Jack Hanna had introduced me to the great work that Dr. Mike Cranfield and his staff are doing at the MVP and having visited their facility in Rwanda, I saw first-hand that their work is absolutely essential for the long-term survival of the mountain gorillas." - John Banovich

BWF & Safari Club International Foundation
ELMENTEITA DISPENSARY
Central Rift Valley, Kenya

Last year, BWF helped arrange a large grant from Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) Humanitarian Services to improve the conditions in the communities near Soysambu Conservancy in Kenya.

This donation was personally implemented by SCIF humanitarian Services Director, Gene Rurka. Gene traveled to Kenya and immobilized a large support group of community members whom together provided school desks, microscopes and efficient cooking stoves. They installed a large water tank and laid 3 kms of pipe to provide clean water. When opened, this dispensary will provide essential medicines and medical services for about 6000 people from all over the region.

BWF Contributes to Primary School Food Program Soysambu Conservancy, Kenya
BWF contributed to a primary school food program where approximately 115 children benefited by receiving a hot lunch daily at school. In stretching the funds as much as possible, the current school lunch consists of a type of porridge with milk and sugar. With continued funding, the school lunch program wishes to add a more nutritious lunch of Githiri (corn and beans).

BWF Donates Art Supplies to UBUMWE COMMUNITY CENTER(UCC) Gisenyi, Rwanda
With the guidance of Partners in Conservation (PIC), Banovich's first visit to the UBUMWE COMMUNITY CENTER(UCC), GISENYI, RWANDA, was in 2008. UCC is a non-profit corporation committed to providing assistance, food, shelter and education to the handicapped population and to the street children of Gisenyi. Banovich met one of the center founders, Frederick Ndabaramiye, an artist as well... and it was Frederick's life story that moved Banovich and inspired him to visit the center again in June 2010, bearing four large boxes filled with art supplies for the center.

"I felt that with Frederick's skills as an artist, he should have the best supplies and plenty of them - for not only teaching painting to people at the center, but for his own paintings!"- John Banovich

Frederick Ndabaramiye is a young man who lived at the Imbabazi Orphanage. Frederick was maimed in 1998 - by those responsible for the genocide - when at the age of fifteen he refused to kill other people. Frederick was in the hospital for almost a year and when he was ready to leave the hospital, the Red Crescent Society brought him to the Imbabazi, which is where the PIC team met him. In 2002, the Columbus Zoo, Columbus, OH, provided all medical and prosthetic expenses pro bono for Frederick.

Frederick told PIC members, "The Columbus Zoo gave me a chance to be independent again and now I want to help other people who are just like me." In 2005 Frederick and Zackary Dusingizimana, a teacher at the Imbabazi Orphanage, founded the UBUMWE Community Center in Gisenyi, Rwanda, with their own money.

The goal of the UCC is to respectfully assist handicapped children, adults and street boys. In 2007, the UCC started a new program to help deaf children who had never been able to attend school. Frederick says that they have been "hidden" in their homes, but now these children come to the center everyday and are receiving classroom instructions in sign language.

In 2008, 14 children and adults from the Center received new braces and prosthetics with funding from PIC. PIC is also providing operating expenses for the center and is funding a hot lunch program for more than sixty children and adults who attend the center every day; for most of these people this is their only meal of the day. Frederick's dream has become a reality, because he is helping would say people who are "just like him." The construction of a new building for the Ubumwe Center began in February of 2008. The new building is being funded by the Columbus Zoo, individual donors and Partners In Conservation. The center opened in October 2008.

The Banovich Wildscapes Foundation would like to thank Jane & Frank Lyon and Gary & Carolyn Dietrich for their generous donation towards the center's art supplies.