When actress Portia de Rossi surprised her wife, television host Ellen DeGeneres, with a 60th birthday gift in 2018, she helped fund a major conservation project in Rwanda. The project improved wildlife protection and gave local people more chances to learn about the environment. By September 2023, the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund had welcomed more than 40,000 visitors to its site outside Volcanoes National Park. During the same period, the educational centre hosted more than 7,500 Rwandan schoolchildren, giving them access to practical science lessons and conservation training. The project began as a gift inspired by DeGeneres' long-standing admiration for pioneering primatologist Dian Fossey. It later grew into a permanent, 12-acre research centre designed to protect endangered mountain gorillas and support nearby communities.
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