Ngamba Island is a freshwater island, located in Uganda’s Lake Victoria. The lake, at 26,600 square miles, is Africa’s largest. It is also the world’s largest tropical lake and the world’s second-largest freshwater lake.

Since 1998, the island has been home to the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary. About 50 chimpanzees, rescued animals that cannot return to the wild, live there. Chimpanzees originally lived in the forests of more than 25 countries in Equatorial Africa (including Uganda), but are now extinct in four of them. Fewer than 150,000 chimpanzees are estimated to remain in the wild. The myriad threats to chimpanzees include habitat loss, poaching for commercial bushmeat and the exotic pet trade, infectious diseases, and armed conflict.

The Chimpanzee Sanctuary & Wildlife Conservation Trust (CSWCT), which operates this important sanctuary, is a leader in the conservation of chimpanzees. This locally run organization raises public awareness of chimpanzee conservation and engages with communities living alongside chimpanzee populations. It also educates approximately 200 visitors to the island each month. A Seacology grant will fund a solar-powered refrigerator to hold medicines for chimpanzees at the sanctuary.