Where is Jane?

Posted on November 30th, 2023.

Since June 2023 Dr. Jane has travelled non-stop!

She made a special visit to the USA and Canada for the premieres of the IMAX film ‘Reasons for Hope’ which plans to be shown in the UK in 2024. It is a wonderful film. It includes the reintroduction of buffalo into Montana and incredible footage of the European Bald Ibis flying high over the alps with Dr. Jane in a tiny microlite plane!

You would be amazed by the number of weekly virtual events Dr. Jane undertakes and indeed, she addressed the Teen Parliament of India, conferences in South Africa, France, Switzerland, and Ireland, in addition to recording new episodes of Hopecast.

In July she travelled to Japan to help with the growth of Roots & Shoots there and gave public lectures in Tokyo and signed copies of The Book of Hope which is now in Japanese and more than 20 other languages. Dr. Jane then travelled to South Korea to meet with our colleagues there and met former Secretary General Ban ki Moon whilst she received an Hon. Degree from the EWHA women’s’ university. Dr. Jane met with the First Lady Kim Gun-Hee. This led to her strong public support for a ban on eating dog meat. A giant Peace dove was flown at the DMZ border at the Roots & Shoots gathering event.

After just a few days at home in Bournemouth, Dr. Jane travelled to Tanzania where she visited our projects in Dar es Salaam, Kigoma and spent a few days in Gombe.

In Arusha, she saw the latest progress on the education centre there. This is a very exciting project which we hope will launch on 14^th July, World Chimpanzee Day. There will be exhibits about Dr. Jane’s life and the amazing discoveries at Gombe and about the work that JGI Tanzania does to help the local communities. There is a special garden and theatre for meetings and showing films. The building is named ‘Dr. Jane’s Dream’. Dr. Jane spent time hosting the USA Ambassador to Tanzania for his first visit to Gombe.

Then to Uganda to visit the JGI Uganda projects. It was the 25^th anniversary of the creation of the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary. She met the wife of the President and many of the Ambassadors from Embassies around the world including UK and Austria.

The two months’ tour finished with a two week visit to Brazil. There were lectures and Roots & Shoots events in Sao Paulo but then Dr. Jane went to visit rural communities whose health and rivers have been dramatically affected by the hideous illegal gold mining industry. In this process huge barges drag the rivers and to ensure that the particles of gold stick together they use mercury which makes the rivers the colour of custard, poisoning the fish and making many people very ill in the process.

After a few days in UK, Dr. Jane started her north American tour… USA cities included Aspen, San Francisco, Charleston SC, Atlanta, Boston, New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles with a mixture of Roots & Shoots gatherings, lectures to significant crowds, dinners and media meetings.

Then to Canada with some exciting events around Toronto.

In the last few days Dr. Jane attended a 3 day virtual meeting with the 25 institutes from around the JGI World and travelled VIRTUALLY to join the students on DARWIN 200 the wonderful ship which is currently in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Then to the unveiling of her portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK.

In 2024 Dr. Jane will celebrate her 90^th birthday and we are inviting you to think about ways we can honour that event through Roots & Shoots. Dr. Jane hopes to visit as many countries as possible, and she very much looks forward to seeing many of you in Dubai in January 2024 for the Roots & Shoots Awards.