The parents of Sacha Stephen N1981 and Susannah Stephen N1977 endowed a fund in memory of their daughters which serves to assist Seniors either in their Gap Year or soon thereafter. Here recent recipient of The Sacha and Susannah Award, Bella Rennie N/O2024, describes the incredible opportunity the award gave her:
As part of my year off before University I decided to volunteer at a monkey rehabilitation centre in South Africa. The centre cared for Vervets, Baboons and Samango monkeys, an endangered species since 2015.
When I landed in the tiny airport in Hoedspruit and drove to the wildlife centre in the middle of the South African bush, surrounded by lemon trees and vast expanses of greenery, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Certainly, I never expected to fall so in love with the place, the people and in particular the monkeys.
The rehabilitation centre separated the monkeys into multiple camps; they were separated by species and their stage in the release process. For example, we had two semi wild enclosures, one for the vervets and one for the baboons. These enclosures housed the monkeys who we were getting ready to release back into the wild. Indeed Mias, the owner of the centre, had intended for the semi wild baboons to be released this summer. We did not interact with the semi wild monkeys, apart from to the feed them. There were also three baby monkey enclosures and we were encouraged to interact with them in order to provide enrichment. One of the baby enclosures was a mix between baby vervets and baby baboons. Mias explained to me that this was of benefit to both species; the baboons taught the vervets how to groom effectively and the vervets, being naturally better climbers, helped improve the baboons ability to climb.
Many of the monkeys at the centre were rescued and brought by the NSPCA to the centre for rehabilitation. Some of their origin stories were particularly harrowing. For example one of the first monkeys I met, called ‘Boy George’, had been rescued from a Witch Doctor who had cut off his fingers and bits of his tail. Others were kept as pets. What was initially upsetting was witnessing the impact of the trauma on the monkeys. Many of the monkeys who had been kept as pets suffered from attachment issues. In particular a vervet named ‘Einstein’ used to scream when he was left without human interaction – he didn’t seem aware that he was a monkey, preferring the company of volunteers to his fellow vervets. What was really amazing was being able to see the progress in just a few weeks of rehabilitation. By the time I left, Einstein was comfortable playing and eating with his fellow vervets, although he was still very happy to have a cuddle with us volunteers.
My official chores for each day alternated between cleaning clinic and feeding the monkeys. Feeding the monkeys involved immense preparation – the monkeys had a very varied diet consisting of porridge, bread, milk, fruit, vegetables, nuts, corn and pellets (a special treat was eggs for the clinic monkeys). The baby vervets (around three months old) had milk three times per day alongside the fruit, snacks and porridge in the mornings. It was really important that the monkeys continued to gain weight. In order to monitor their progress, we weighed all of the monkeys every Monday. Halfway through my stay the head of the project discovered that some of the monkeys were plateauing or decreasing in weight so we had to increase their food consumption rapidly and within a week the monkeys had all gained a significant amount of weight. This showed me how perceptive and active you have to be when caring for animals and how a small change can have a significant positive impact in a small space of time. We volunteers noticed a real change in behaviour with the extra food; the monkeys had much more energy than before and were incredibly playful.
I was also incredibly lucky to see Mias (a qualified Vet) perform an operation in the onsite clinic for one of the Vervet’s whose arm needed stitching. This was such a unique experience and really interesting to witness the process and then also the intricacies of recovery for the animal.
An important part of my day involved taking the slightly older baboons (around 2 – 3 years old) on baboon walks down to the river. This was really important for their development and enabled them to interact with nature (climbing trees and foraging) as they would in the wild; and hopefully as they will
in the future upon their release. What was really special was when Tani (the biggest baboon) started grooming me. They were quick to cuddle and I felt like one of the troupe.
Ultimately the goal of the centre was for all of the monkeys to be released back into their natural habitats through rehabilitation and it was such a privilege to be a part of that process. Seeing the monkey’s in Kruger out in the wild was incredibly moving because I could picture our monkeys having the same experience in the future. I absolutely loved being able to make a difference to the lives of these monkeys and the opportunity to give back to nature by being a small part of something bigger than myself.
From my volunteering I have learnt a lot about monkeys but also a lot about myself. Most importantly I have learnt that I am incredibly passionate about wildlife conservation and will definitely go back to South Africa to volunteer again. Hopefully I will be able to help with the release of the current semi wild baboons next summer! Crucially, none of this would’ve been possible without the generous donation from the Sacha and Susannah Memorial Fund and I would like to express my deepest gratitude for their generosity.