While each of us has the ability to minimize the impact of our individual lifestyles on today's climate change, combating deforestation, habit loss and illegal poaching on a global scale is much more difficult. It is much harder to survey land, clear protected areas, protect individual species and conduct research to support progress in all of these areas. These necessities are not obvious to the Western world, so it's easy to think that this is an immediate problem.

Uganda has made many major strides over the past decade, stepping up anti-poaching and conservation efforts, leading to increases in vulnerable elephant and endangered mountain gorilla populations. The Gorilla Project in Uganda is an award-winning project to aid these efforts, bridging the gap between indigenous communities and the gorillas who share their rainforest home, and helping to build sustainable farming and education systems.

While committing to an effort like this requires a lot of time and financial commitment, I wanted to immerse myself in the African continent as deeply as possible, into Ugandan culture, getting to know the people, speaking Swahili with them, and building up with those who are closely related A rapport in the process because I wholeheartedly want it to be a part of my life forever. My experience with the Gorilla Project would be a springboard for me to start my own nonprofit to support international conservation volunteers looking to make a lasting impact.
about me:

I am a personal trainer and business owner with a passion for conservation, wildlife conservation and anti-poaching of all things. Throughout my life I have wanted to volunteer in Africa to help with these endeavors, which I hope will become a regular occurrence in my life.

While I want to help all endangered species, from polar bears in the Arctic to orangutans in Borneo, my heart is in Africa and has always been. I have a group of mountain gorillas tattooed on my chest, several anti-poaching rangers guard the neighborhood, and I have Serengeti elephants, giraffes and rhino mothers and calves on my back. From a very young age, I have been following and inspired by the amazing work of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey.

My weekly volunteering at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, FL, has made me really invested in preparing for volunteering abroad. I've been teaching myself Swahili using audiobooks for about a year, and I'm so pleased with my progress that I recently started an hourly tutoring session with an English-speaking Tanzanian named Gasto.

By understanding the ins and outs of the volunteering process, I hope to use what I've learned and experience to create and run my own nonprofit to help others who share the same passion for saving the planet and fighting the current, funded international volunteer trips we're going road.

I firmly believe that the higher powers that we have been seeking to understand all our lives are evident in nature. This is natural. Forests are the lungs and oceans are the blood, energizing the heart of the earth. Nature is not for human purposes. We are just a sentient expression of it.

Thanks for visiting my page, watching my videos, and listening to my story!