Primarily Primates, Incorporated is a non-profit sanctuary in Bexar County, Texas that operates to house, protect, and rehabilitate various non-native animals. The private refuge currently houses several hundred nonhuman animals, and, as the name implies, focuses primarily on caring for apes and monkeys. Many are cast-offs from the pet trade and biomedical research institutions

In the last two years, we’ve achieved a complete rebound for Primarily Primates, with an investment of $1.5 million to renovate the 30-year-old sanctuary – to install solar panels and wind energy, a new septic system, new refrigeration, climbing pathways for the animals, new living and sleeping areas, plus a full-time veterinarian, an abundance of produce each week, and full-time staff to care for 450 animals.

There are two main types of gorilla, each containing several subspecies. The mountain gorilla is a type of eastern gorilla species (which also includes the Grauer’s – or eastern lowland – gorilla) and is found in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a total population of only about 700 gorillas. Western gorillas are found in west and central Africa, and include the western lowland gorilla, which is the species commonly found in zoos, and the Cross River gorilla, with a tiny population in the 200s.

Because of the extensive research begun by Dr. Dian Fossey in the 1960s and since carried on by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the mountain gorilla is perhaps the best understood of all wild gorilla populations.

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International closely monitors several groups of mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Parc National des Volcans. Staff at the Karisoke Research Center visit the mountain gorilla groups daily and report on their activities, as well as conducting anti-poaching patrols. Other gorilla groups designated for eco-tourism are also regularly monitored.

You need sunglasses in Brazil even when the sun goes down. The primary colours of the city are sandwiched between lush green jungle and golden yellow sands, and just when you think it can’t get any brighter, you meet the kids on your community project. We work with a number of groups in Rio de Janeiro which all offer a wide range of support services which aim to open up educational and social opportunities. Rio being Rio, there is a great emphasis on the arts and the project provides workshops on percussion, circus skills, capoeira (a mix of martial arts and music) and even graffiti.

Trip Highlights:

Volunteer abroad opportunities volunteering in over 40 countries worldwide through United Planet! Our unique Volunteer abroad program combines volunteering abroad, language learning, cultural activities, learning excursions, and more to provide an incredibly fulfilling experience for volunteers and valuable support for communities in need. Volunteers of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds are invited to join 1-52 week volunteer abroad programs in 40 countries worldwide.
The purpose of the volunteer opportunities in Ecuador is to promote a deeper level of cultural exchange and understanding through meaningful volunteer work at local schools, social activities with the local community, and both free and guided excursions. You can work with children from low-income families at a day care or center for special needs. We have also several projects in the Cloud Forest of Nanegal. Volunteers can plant seeds and organic coffee or identify flora and fauna.

Travel with Founder Matt Mitro, Senior VP Ben Stone, and the remarkable women of Rwanda as they discuss the empowering approach of Indego Africa, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit social enterprise devoted to helping artisans lift themselves out of poverty.  Indego Africa – which stands for INdependence, DEvelopment, and GOvernance – partners with cooperatives of world-class artisans in Rwanda, composed entirely of women, and sells their fair trade handicrafts at high-end retailers across the U.S. and on its WebStore. Indego Africa then applies 100% of profits and other grants or donations to its long-term skills training programs in financial management, entrepreneurship, literacy, and computers – which are administered by Rwanda’s top university students.  Indego Africa is a member of the Fair Trade Federation and the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.

Every year, millions of rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and other animals worldwide are subjected to tests that cause suffering and even death to assess the safety of many of the types of products sold at your local drugstore, from lipstick to laundry detergent, before they hit the shelves.

These tests are not required by law, and scores of companies have figured out how to market safe products without harming animals by employing effective alternative tests or using only ingredients with a safe history record. Despite all of that, many companies still continue to test their products on animals.

It can be hard to tell if the lipstick, hairspray, or even deodorant you buy has been tested on animals.

Cockfighting is a centuries-old blood sport in which two or more specially bred birds, known as gamecocks, are placed in an enclosure to fight, for the primary purposes of gambling and entertainment. A cockfight usually results in the death of one of the birds; sometimes it ends in the death of both. A typical cockfight can last anywhere from several minutes to more than half an hour.

Yucaipa, California law enforcement and The Humane Society of the United States teamed up to rescue hundreds of birds from a possible cockfighting operation.

The dry season is a deadly time of the year for the Borena people. They struggle to keep their cows alive, as they are their wealth, their future, and their pride. But there is little water and the pastures are usually bare of grass. Herders move their livestock around looking for something to eat as the dry wind whips the dirt into red dust devils, twisting silently hundreds of meters into the blue, cloudless sky.

In the area near Dubluq, Borena clans have wells with earthen ramps leading their cows down to flat areas with mud troughs so their animals can drink water passed up, bucket by bucket, by teams of men in a vertical chain, all singing to keep rhythm. These traditional eela wells, also called singing wells, are crucial in the dry season, and the clans have a schedule for which herds can access the wells on different days.

A well provides water, and song, for cows in Ethiopia’s dry season. Check out this video to see how Oxfam America helped one clan optimize their well to make it more efficient.

The Yanacocha gold mine is currently operating on 26,000 hectares (about 63,700 acres), high above the city of Cajamarca in the Andes mountains of Peru. But that is just a small area: The government conceded a total of 282,000 hectares (690,000 acres, slightly , larger than the state of Rhode Island) to Minera Yanacocha, a company comprised of majority owners Newmont Mining of the United States and Minera Buenaventura of Peru. Yanacocha continues to be a significant part of Newmont Mining’s global production, contributing about a quarter of the 5.3 million ounces of gold Newmont sold in 2007.

Minera Yanacocha is working aggressively to expand the mine. In 2004, the mine began exploring for gold on Cerro Quilish, a small mountain that comprises the top of the watershed supplying the city of Cajamarca and the rest of the valley. Dairy and potato farmers in the area and many others opposed to mining Quilish blocked the road to the mountain in 2004. There were weeks of violent confrontation between police and protesters. In the end, Minera Yanacocha stated publicly that it had underestimated the concerns of local people and asked the Ministry of Energy and Mines to revoke its permit to explore for minerals on Cerro Quilish.

In northern Peru, local governments, community leaders, and farmers say the proposed Rio Blanco Copper Mine would be devastating to local communities. In an area where drinking water is already scarce, pollution from the mine would be an environmental disaster for the entire region.

In remote areas of Mozambique many rural communities struggle to maintain Afridev handpumps, the preferred technology in many developing countries.

People living in poverty hundreds of miles from the nearest town find it nearly impossible to get hold of, or afford, the necessary spare parts. WaterAid research has shown that only 10% of Afridevs are mended within a week. This can have dire health consequences as most communities with a broken pump revert to collecting drinking water from risky sources such as unprotected traditional wells, swamps or rivers. Some take off the handpump and fetch water with a bucket and rope. This exposes them to the risk of potentially fatal water-related diseases such as typhoid and cholera.

To get around the spare parts problem, WaterAid Mozambique has been piloting the use of simple rope pumps in its projects since early 2003.
The most common problem in a rope pump is a broken rope, and even in the remotest areas rope is fairly to easy to find and cheap enough for communities to afford.