Dear friend,
Let me be among the first ones to welcome you to our Sahaya guesthouse!
In case you wonder about the story of this guesthouse and the name, here is our journey.
I was born in 1965, and I grew up in Belgium. As a child, my passion was always animals. Thus, it made sense that I decided to become a veterinary doctor. I always had the dream to do something with wildlife. Towards the end of Veterinary School, I decided I wanted to pursue a graduate degree in the USA. I was fortunate to receive a 1-year fellowship. The day I received the award letter in the mail, I celebrated by going to the cinema to watch “Gorillas in the Mist”. That movie inspired me, and I placed “doing something for mountain gorillas” on my bucket list.
A few months later, in September 1989, I moved to the USA to start my PhD studies at the University of California, Davis. After graduating, I decided to stay there. I established a career as medical researcher in infectious diseases, with special focus on HIV and AIDS.
In 1997, I was invited to present my HIV research at an AIDS Conference in Chennai, India. Witnessing the poverty outside the conference halls was for me a big shock. But instead of closing my eyes, I decided I should try to do something, no matter how small. Fortunately, at the conference, I met a social worker, Selvam, who had started a grassroots organization in a remote rural village. He inspired me to also become socially engaged. My initial fundraising efforts – selling embroidered cards made by the Indian women in his village -and seeing the impact, inspired me in 1999 to start during my free time the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization Sahaya International (Sahaya means “help” in Sanskrit). You can learn more at www.sahaya.org, where you can also view the 2013 documentary “Sahaya – Going Beyond” (narrated pro bono by Hollywood actor Jeremy Irons). Sahaya International remains 100% volunteer-run, so that the maximum of the tax-deductible donations that we raise can be sent overseas to support the programs. I remain full-time researcher, and thus I spend most of my free time on the various aspects of managing Sahaya International. My sister in Belgium and her friends became inspired to start the partner organization, Sahaya-Sawes (www.sahaya-sawes.org) to help our fundraising efforts in Europe.
Over the years, we expanded our support also to partners in other countries, including here at Bwindi. When in 2021 the opportunity arose to purchase farmland adjacent to the forest – land where gorillas regularly hang out- this was an opportunity not to be missed (remember my bucket list!). This was the start of our reforestation program, including the construction of this guesthouse. We still plan to do a lot more. You can learn more at www.sahayawildlife.org.
Thank you for reading this. And thank you for your support. Your stay at this guesthouse supports our community-based conservation programs.
I’d love to hear how your visit to Bwindi went! Please leave a note in our guestbook. Or if you like to chat, learn more, or are considering getting involved more and join our “Sahaya family”, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.
Warm gorilla-hugs,
Koen Van Rompay (DVM, PhD),
Founder, Sahaya International