INTEGRATION IN PARANÁ SANCTUARY

Omega was born in Africa and when he was a baby was taken to Lebanon, where he worked in a bar, serving water to hookah. When he became a teenager, was locked in a cage in a lost zoo at a village in the countryside. Omega was addicted to cigarettes and when he arrived in Brazil became famous because he was a smoking chimp. But he overcame his addiction when his life changed from hell to paradise. it was a chimp smoking, which ceased to be so to change his life: from hell to paradise. Omega is a relaxed and playful chimpanzee and was left alone for months waiting for a company.

The company arrived from Israel: Judy, a female that came from a small private in the country that had already sent two other chimpanzees to the sanctuary of Anami Institute, in Paraná state, Brazil, affiliated to GAP Project.

Days ago the long-awaited moment arrived. Judy was already visually in contact with Omega for 10 days, but without physical contact. When this happened, the result was a close hug and shouts of joy, especially from the part of Omega, which had never lived with another like him.

A few meters away, another integration occurred. Mizrahi, who had arrived more than a year ago, also coming from Israel, joined Jena, who arrived from the same country with Judy. Here the integration was even faster, possibly because they knew each other of some moment in the life at that tiny zoo.

The great apes in many ways teach life lessons to humans. Here’s one to be assimilated. While there are conflicts in the Middle East for hundreds of years, two chimpanzees that lived divided by the same boundaries that were artificially created humans join in an emotional and meaningful embrace. In the case of any primate, human or not, the borders should not convert them into irreconcilable enemies.

Let us follow this example and Peace in the world will be more real and true!

Dr. Peter A. Ynterian
President, GAP Project International