When Goodall arrived at Gombe in 1960, more than 1 million chimpanzees populated the dense forests of Africa. Today there are fewer than 200,000. The animals she sees now are in zoos. But she says the beaming faces of kids at the schools she visits provide the encouragement she needs to catch the next plane and place her suitcases at the foot of the bed in yet another hotel room. The projects are designed around compassion for animals and caring for the environment and community, such as growing plants and giving them to nursing home patients.
Shoots seem very weak, but to reach the light they can break open brick walls.
Imagine that the brick walls are all the problems we have inflicted on our planet. Hundreds and thousands of roots and shoots, hundreds and thousands of young people like yourselves around the world, can break through these walls. After meeting with the children, she is escorted to a luncheon with some of the city's wealthiest residents. She gives an abbreviated version of a 90-minute speech she normally offers at universities. She politely signs autographs before she is whisked back to the hotel.