Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

Big Wins and Giant Losses for Wildlife Centre…

15 November 2011

Categories: Homepage News, Primates Campaign News, Rescue News

This week has been one of enormous highs and massive lows at Lilongwe Wildlife Centre.  We barely had time to celebrate our huge award win (the Responsible Tourism Award for “Best for Conservation of Wildlife and Habitats”) before we found out the devastating news that we had been robbed.

A gang of thieves broke into the offices in the middle of the night and stole the equivalent of £3,000 and 12 laptops destined for our education programme plus a wealth of other equipment.  They also dropped our projector on the floor and smashed it.  Nothing has ever happened like this to us, and apart from the losses it has been a huge blow to us that we would be targeted in the first place.    

We have, however, been overwhelmed by the support of friends of the Centre, old volunteers and the local communities who are disgusted by the whole episode.  Luckily one of our team was in London for the Awards, and friends are donating some laptops for her to take back to Malawi so all is not lost there.  One nearby orphanage who has a container on the way from the UK has amazingly pledged some of their donations to help us, and even friends at the RSPCA have rallied around to help!  In total over £600 has also been donated by individual well wishers. 

We are however bereft without our projector, so if anyone’s company has an old one that they could donate then please let us know.  If you would like to support the project you can also make a donation here or email Kate at marketing@llwc.org.  Thanks to all those who have supported us so far, we will not be beaten…