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The H.E.L.P. Project it is men and women who sacrificed their time, their money to support the cause of the chimpanzees

In Congo

Jamart Aliette : President of H.E.L.P. Congo, Founder-Member of H.E.L.P. International. In 1989, this Frenchwoman living in Pointe Noire since the Sixties, decides to take in charge at her own house the chimpanzees and other primates living under miserable conditions at the zoo of Pointe Noire: << We initially take out two babies from the zoo. The male died, the female, Jeannette, I decided to take back to my home... once we took chimpanzees with us, it becomes impossible to be detached from them. I do not know how we can do that.. > >.
Very quickly, orphans, victims of the poaching, are added to the first residents. Aliette knows that collecting them is not enough. It is necessary to stop the illegal traffic, to multiply the seizures with the assistance of the National Forestry Commission agents but also to fight upstream and reinforce the anti-poaching surveillance in the forest.
February 15, 1990, to officialize its action, Aliette Jamart founds H.E.L.P. Congo and defines its missions.

In France and elsewhere

Benoit Goossens : President of H.E.L.P. International. Doctor of biology, it has been 7 years that he carries out his research projects in genetics of the conservation of the endangered species. Orang-outangs, chimpanzees, forest elephants, rhinoceroses and pandas are the species on which he works. He shares his time between the United Kingdom (University of Cardiff), Sabah (Malaysia, Borneo), the Republic of Congo. His first visit in Conkouati goes back to January 1999. In January 2000, he takes part of the founder team of H.E.L.P. International. He occupied the post of treasurer during one year. Since then, he is the president. His constent work regarding the search of funds and communication on the H.E.L.P. Project is at the origin of the major  part of the funds reserved for this project.
The reasons for which he is invested to 99% in this project :
<< Since my first meeting with Aliette, I was fascinated by her determination to give freedom to these chimpanzees. That is not complicated: this woman gave me her passion and her energy, as well as a total confidence in this exceptional project. If the H.E.L.P. Project is a success today, it is because of Aliette, with her entrepreneurship and her engaged character, but also thanks to the exceptional team which surrounds her and which I'm part of. We succeeded where others failed. We proved that it was possible to slacken chimpanzees in forest, and we showed that these chimpanzees are able to rehabilitate themselves with their environment and to be integrated in wild groups (with regard to the females). Since my meeting with Aliette in 1999, I did not ceased to invest myself in the HELP Congo project, sometimes at the expense of much of other things. But I do not regret anything. I learned enormously during these seven last years with HELP, and I continue to learn everyday. > >

Agnes Schwartz : Treasurer of H.E.L.P. International during 4 years - Person in charge for the French community life and coordinator of the publicity campaigns in France and in Congo. Social psychologist, she discovered HELP at the age of 20. Attracted by the animal world and Africa since always, she had the advisability of leaving as volunteer on the site of HELP in Congo:<< this stay was an experiment of a great richness. As I came back I wished to involved me actively so that this small corner of paradise never get lost. Today, using my knowledge in psychology in order to allow a better articulation of the human questions and animal protection is of primary importance to my eyes. > >

Carole Tisserand : She began with H.E.L.P. as a volunteer in 2001, a 3 months stay enabled her to get closer to Africa, its bio-diversity and to the HELP Project. Animated of a deep desire for setting out again as fast as possible and for investing herself within the association, she could thanks to a young Défi grant for a project of plantation on the camp of the sanctuary in the park of Conkouati Douli leave again for 4 months in August 2002. Since her return in December 2002, she was in charge of the recruitment of volunteers until August 2005. And today, she takes again the topics: adhesions, sponsorships, donators: << To plant fruit trees, acacias and eucalyptus in the papered dry grass savanna to the tough systems racinaires, is not a small matter. Indeed, it was necessary to control the art of clearing of undergrowth, to handle shovel and pickaxe for finally on more than 3,75 hectares capacity to make the ground ready to receive small fragile growths, which will have to deserve all our care in order to avoid their drying, the attacks of insects or other organizations less visible (parasites and mushrooms). > > This sentence summarizes all the H.E.L.P. Project: enormous difficulties but a will of all to go further.

Carmen Vidal : Vice-president of H.E.L.P. International during 3 years - This veterinary surgeon was born in Barcelona, Spain, and lives in Bilbao and elsewhere. When she is not in Africa, she works in a private clinic veterinary surgeon. She tries to associate her work and her passion. << I engaged myself with H.E.L.P. since 1997, during the second released. A French friens, knowing that I always wanted to go to work in Africa with primates, wrote to me that a project named H.E.L.P. was going to make in Congo a second reintroduction of chimpanzees in forest. I reached contact with Aliette to return to Congo as a volunteer. After this first three months marvellous contact I went back six months every year to Congo. > >


© H.E.L.P. International - 2006 // last update 22/02/2007