PROJECT MONYET
About
Dame Dr Jane Goodall DBE, formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, a world-renown primatologist, UN Ambassador of Peace and environmentalist. She is considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, after 60 years studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. Together, we launched our very first project, PROJECT MONYET, in November 2019, because it aligned with our hearts to do good by working with passionate people such as herself.
Our home, Malaysia, has a large variety of animals and plants and is home to 24 species of monkeys. But due to the destruction of the rainforest, illegal pet trade, and uncontrollable urban expansion, our native animals, especially our monkeys, are under threat. Primates are directly linked to the health of their habitat. Conserving their species would save the Central Forest Spine (our rainforests) and water supply. So we worked hard and had fun getting this important message out to our fellow Malaysians. Check out Project Monyet's Instagram.
We were fortunate to work with celebrated nature photographer Peter Ong on Project Monyet. Here we worked on the fundraising strategy for Project Monyet, procuring financial support from Yayasan Hasanah, Yayasan Sime Darby as well as Allianz who provided 2 billboards at two of the busiest LRT stations to create awareness on the importance of conserving our habitat, namely the Central Forest Spine and mangroves.
As part of the fundraiser strategy, merchandise was sold comprising hand-painted tiffins of a monkey native to Malaysia, painted by single women from a shelter. In addition, tote bags designed by Menn Studio carrying Dr Goodall's quotes as well as names of all our primates sold well too. The event took place at Ruang, by Think City.
Tiffin with the pig-tailed macaque drawn on it
Project Monyet tote bag designed by Menn Studio
The LRT billboard for Project Monyet provided by Allianz
Co-founder of Abundant Ventures Sdn Bhd, Kee E Lene with Peter Ong, visionary & photographer of Project Monyet