Fabio Cappellin, CEO and Founder of Vanilla Dream in Zurich, Switzerland approached us for the first time in February 2021 with his idea to make vanilla farming more sustainable and fair and link it to mountain gorilla conservation efforts. We liked the idea very much from the beginning and have since been discussing a closer partnership, especially since Vanilla Dream’s farmers are not far away from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the Kigezi region, Uganda. After Vanilla Dream’s successful launch in August 2021, we received the first donation, which we are truly thankful for. The donation allowed us to continue protecting the endangered mountain gorillas and supporting the local communities around Bwindi.

We were delighted to hear that Fabio is coming to visit us about one year later in early September 2022. After visiting the vanilla farmers and doing the gorilla trekking in Nkuringo, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Fabio stayed at our Gorilla Conservation Camp in Buhoma for five days. During his stay, Fabio was able to meet many of CTPH’s staff members and learn a lot about our work. He participated in the content making during the Tusk Wildlife Ranger Challenge, visited a Village Health and Conservation Team (VHCT) member’s home in the local community with Sharon Akampurira, our Community Health and Conservation Field Officer and was shown a live demonstration from the Human and Gorilla Conflict resolution (HuGo) teams, also known as Gorilla Guardians. These are volunteers from the community who we train to monitor gorilla health and safely herd gorillas back into the forest when they have strayed out into community land. During the evenings at camp, we had many interesting conversations and shared ideas with Fabio sitting around the campfire. It was also a great opportunity for Fabio to meet our Founder and CEO, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka.

Thank you very much Fabio, and Vanilla Dream, for your support in saving the endangered mountain gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. We look forward to seeing our partnership growing and developing further.