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Activists Around the World: Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steph
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told your production by Heart Radio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome to another edition of Activists around the World.
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  Speaker 2: And today we wanted to feature a veterinarian and conservationist,
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  Speaker 2: doctor Gladys Kalama Zigsoka. So. Doctor Kalama zig Zoca is
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  Speaker 2: a Ugandan veterinarian who has created quite a stir in
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  Speaker 2: the world of gorilla conservation by dedicating her life to
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  Speaker 2: not only saving the endangered mountain gorillas of Africa, but
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  Speaker 2: also dedicating her life to helping humans and the gorillas
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  Speaker 2: to coexist together, which we love. She has talked about
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  Speaker 2: her own childhood and how she was impacted at an
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  Speaker 2: early age in animal preservation and care. So from a
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  Speaker 2: recent As Like Last CNN article featuring her work and life,
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  Speaker 2: she talked about her love of animals while growing up,
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  Speaker 2: so They're right. Growing up in political turmoil, Kalima Seksuka
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  Speaker 2: found solace with her many household pets. Her older siblings
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  Speaker 2: often rescued stray cats and dogs who became her companions,
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  Speaker 2: and she decided at a very young age that she
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  Speaker 2: wanted to be a veterinarian. It was her neighbour's pet
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  Speaker 2: monkey Poncho that sparked her interest in primates. The mischievous
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  Speaker 2: creature would sneak in through the window and pull the
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  Speaker 2: dog's tail, steal food, and even plunk keys on piano.
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  Speaker 2: As a teenager, Kulama Sugzoka joined her school's Wildlife club,
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  Speaker 2: and in some reports it's that she actually created this club,
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  Speaker 2: by the way. Going on and on a field trip
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  Speaker 2: to Queen Elizabeth National Park, she saw firsthand how little
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  Speaker 2: wildlife remained even in conservation areas. I started thinking to myself,
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  Speaker 2: why can't I become a vet who brings back the
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  Speaker 2: wildlife of Uganda? And after attending school at the University
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  Speaker 2: of London Royal Veterinary College and then attending Northern Carolina
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  Speaker 2: State University getting a master's in veterinary Medicine, she would
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  Speaker 2: go on to earn other masters by the way, in degrees,
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  Speaker 2: like she got a master's in business. Why not I
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  Speaker 2: love people who just keeps going on with their ventures
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  Speaker 2: in education because I did not. Kudos to y'all. However,
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  Speaker 2: she actually started her career in wildlife conservation even earlier.
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  Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty four, as a student she was in
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  Speaker 2: the Jungles of Uganda in the Bewindi Impenetrable National Park
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  Speaker 2: when she first saw a mountain gorilla and it was
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  Speaker 2: a silver back, by the way, so giant. Here's a
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  Speaker 2: bit from the CNN article about that experience. Pushing through
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  Speaker 2: tangled lines and roots in the thick forest, she could
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  Speaker 2: hear bubbling waterfalls, bird squawking, and chimpanzees hooting. But gorilla,
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  Speaker 2: she says, are silent. You don't hear them, but you
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  Speaker 2: see their trails as you're walking Suskolama Ziska. You can
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  Speaker 2: be looking for them, thinking will I ever see them,
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  Speaker 2: and then suddenly they're there. Is such a magical feeling
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  Speaker 2: sitting in a forest clearing was a silverback gorilla. When
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  Speaker 2: I go to see these gorillas, having wanting to see
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  Speaker 2: them for so long, suddenly this gorilla was sitting there
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  Speaker 2: chewing on a piece of bark, and I was like wow,
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  Speaker 2: recalls Colomba Xisoka, now fifty five. So she has talked
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  Speaker 2: about the impact of this encounter and how this experience
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  Speaker 2: has expanded into a lifelong career. Through the tough political times,
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  Speaker 2: she and our family suffered quite a bit, including the
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  Speaker 2: disappearance of her father who was a minister in the
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  Speaker 2: administration at the time and was abducted by the overtaking
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  Speaker 2: of the administration and the political disruption, and she was
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  Speaker 2: never able to see him again. And with that at
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  Speaker 2: the same time, with the revolts and a lot of
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  Speaker 2: battles happening and fighting happening. This also including the damagage
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  Speaker 2: and killing of wildlife animals and destroying the wildlife lands.
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  Speaker 2: But with her help, she and many others are working
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  Speaker 2: to preserve the endangered species, including the mountain guerrillas in
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  Speaker 2: the land. So it was soon after she began her
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  Speaker 2: work in the area she discovered an outbreak among the
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  Speaker 2: gorillas that caused skin to disease that affected hair growth
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  Speaker 2: and had like scabby skin. After consulting with the doctor
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  Speaker 2: or physician, she figured out that the disease was very
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  Speaker 2: similar to what humans experience with scapies, so they think
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  Speaker 2: this is like a crossover type of disease that was
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  Speaker 2: contracted into the gorilla community. And with the close link
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  Speaker 2: of human health and gorilla health, she figured out there
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  Speaker 2: was things that need to be done and the impact
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  Speaker 2: of it all she actually says, and I've seen videos
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  Speaker 2: of her saying this repeatedly. This made me realize that
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  Speaker 2: you couldn't protect the gorillas without improving the health of
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  Speaker 2: their human neighbors. I just watched a video of her
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  Speaker 2: talking about the fact that other diseases like malaria was
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  Speaker 2: also causing issues for the gorilla population as well, and
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  Speaker 2: so her and her many others are trying to spread
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  Speaker 2: awareness and al She helped both the human and the
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  Speaker 2: gorilla populations, and it was because of this she began
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  Speaker 2: the organization Conservation through Public Health in two thousand and three.
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  Speaker 2: So from their site ctph dot org, they write, conservation
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  Speaker 2: is rooted in earning the support of the local communities
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  Speaker 2: who share a backyard with some of the most biodiverse
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  Speaker 2: wildlife in the world. Many of the most isolated and
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  Speaker 2: impoverished families live around protected areas in Africa, their lifestyles
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  Speaker 2: imposing an imminent threat to the survival of wildlife and
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  Speaker 2: habitats and eventually themselves. Land encroachment and competition for food,
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  Speaker 2: and the spread of zoonotic disease between people, wildlife, and
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  Speaker 2: wild stark are all grim everyday reality, and it goes on.
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  Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety six, the first scapies outbreak in the
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  Speaker 2: gorillas of Bewindi Impenetrable National Park resulted in the depth
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  Speaker 2: of an infant gorilla and the rest of the gorilla
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  Speaker 2: group recovered with avramectin treatment. The fatal disease was traced
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  Speaker 2: back to the local communities living around Bewindi Impenetrable National Park.
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  Speaker 2: A few years later, in two thousand and one and
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  Speaker 2: two thousand and two, another scapes outbreak occurred. Fortunately there
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  Speaker 2: were no des because the gorillas were treated soon enough.
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  Speaker 2: So with all of that, CTPACH is a nonprofit, non
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  Speaker 2: governmental organization with an innovative methodology that focuses on the
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  Speaker 2: interdependence of wildlife and human life in and around Africa's
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  Speaker 2: protected areas. So they have three integrated strategic programs that
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  Speaker 2: are the Gorilla Conservation one, Health and Alternative Livelihoods. So
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  Speaker 2: it's poverty alleviation and improving rural public health will contribute
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  Speaker 2: to greater biodiversity, conservation and sustainable development in and around
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  Speaker 2: Africa's protected areas. So they did talk about those three,
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  Speaker 2: so I kind of wanted to talk about. They also
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  Speaker 2: have a thing called Gorilla Conservation Coffee which you can
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  Speaker 2: actually buy from their site, So if you want to
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  Speaker 2: go to CDPH dot org or from Gorilla Conservation Coffee
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  Speaker 2: dot org and this is from that site. It says
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  Speaker 2: Gorilla Confreservation Coffee was launched after doctor Gladys Coloma's exoca
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  Speaker 2: visited farmers living adjacent to but when the impenetrable forests here.
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  Speaker 2: She learned that the farmers were not being given a
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  Speaker 2: fair price for their coffee and were struggling hard to survive,
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  Speaker 2: forcing them to use a national part to meet their
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  Speaker 2: basic family needs for food and fuel wood. So it
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  Speaker 2: is an enterprise that she began and they actually take
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  Speaker 2: the profit and help split it between the families, which
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  Speaker 2: gives them a better profit than when it was being
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  Speaker 2: used by other companies, as well as the helping improve
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  Speaker 2: the habitat. So it goes on to say, this helps
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  Speaker 2: to improve the coffee quality and increase production yield. Supporting
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  Speaker 2: local farmers helps to protect the critically endangered gorillas and
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  Speaker 2: their fragile habitat. Gorilla Conservation Coffee makes a special effort
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  Speaker 2: to support women coffee farmers, helping to provide opportunities for
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  Speaker 2: women's economic empowerment, disrupt male financial dominance, and break ingrained
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  Speaker 2: stereotypes in the communities. I feel like they just know us,
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  Speaker 2: they're making us fall in love, So you definitely need
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  Speaker 2: to go check that out. I will be checking that out.
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  Speaker 2: I will be buying some coffee. You can also take
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  Speaker 2: tours and visit the organization to learn more about what
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  Speaker 2: they're doing. You can take it walks. I'm sure it
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  Speaker 2: is very protective and you have to sign some things,
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  Speaker 2: but this is all on their site. If you want
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  Speaker 2: to go check it out to see what else you
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  Speaker 2: can participate. So as you may have already guessed, Doctor
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  Speaker 2: Colomba Sisoca has earned many awards and accolades for herself,
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  Speaker 2: including the Leopold Award in twenty twenty, the Whitley Gold
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  Speaker 2: Award in two thousand and nine, EarthCare Award in twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: the Edinburgh Medal twenty twenty two, BBC one hundred Women
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three, and is a National Geographic Explorer
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  Speaker 2: officially she's actually titled that, and yes she does have
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  Speaker 2: a book, Walking with Gorillas by doctor Gladys Colombie Zixsoca
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  Speaker 2: with a ford from Jane Goodall. As expected of course,
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  Speaker 2: so you should definitely go check out their site, go
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  Speaker 2: get their coffee. They have other merch as well that
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  Speaker 2: supports their work, and she is adamant about bringing women
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  Speaker 2: as part of the veterinarian world and protecting the lands because,
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  Speaker 2: as we've talked about many a times, specifically on this segment,
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  Speaker 2: it is many of the women marginalized people who go
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  Speaker 2: through to protect the lands and the species, the wildlife
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  Speaker 2: out there and the people.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, yes, yes, another book to add to our list.
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  Speaker 1: Someone want us things, Yes, we'll definitely have to check
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  Speaker 1: back in very fascinating story listeners. If you have any
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