Senkwekwe Gorilla Orphanage
Senkwekwe Gorilla Orphanage
Senkwekwe gorilla orphanage is located at the headquarters of Virunga National Park in Rumangabo. It is the only facility of its kind in the world and it is aimed at looking after orphaned gorillas most of which are survivors of poaching and animal trafficking.
The young gorillas usually have seen tragedies of families being murdered and therefore need comforting. These gorillas have now been given human caregivers to put back their live on track.
The facility has highly experienced doctors to attend to the gorillas since most of them are brought here with poor medical conditions.
Before 2009, the park had been taken over by rebels and in the early 2009 the park was recovered from the rebels and handed over to the rangers. They began a campaign to rehabilitate the scattered gorillas that has run away during the reign of the rebels.
The park staff set out and raised money that built the park headquarters. In the evening of 2009 the facility was also opened in the same area and it was named after a dominant silverback that was murdered in 2007 that belonged to the Rugendo Family.
He had been murdered together with three of his family members.
This facility being the only one of its kind in Africa and the world at large receives gorillas from Uganda and Rwanda.
In 2010, Two gorillas where brought in from Rwanda and had also been victims of the war and it is believed they had escaped from the area and joined the other families in Volcanoes but found it had to blend and so they found a small town that they occupied. These were Maisha and Koboko.
The center plays a vital role in comforting and rehabilitating the lowland gorillas as well that have been saved either from poachers or traffickers. Once rehabilitated, these gorilla orphans are transferred to the GRACE facility for eastern lowland gorillas.