There is something especially magical about seeing our rescued monkeys home in the Amazon rainforest. Climbing through the trees, watching butterflies, swinging on ropes, picking through the undergrowth, tasting things, finding treats, always so inquisitive, examining anything new, grooming each other, and just being together in their family groups.

We save these animals from horrific abuse. Captured from the wild, terrified, they are taken to live lives of isolation, chained, abused, and many have their teeth snapped off to stop them biting. I have seen horrific infections from these crude mutilations, which would have been fatal had we not been there in time.

For these animals who have endured so much, our aim is to always try to give our rescues a life as close as possible to what nature intended. The life they lost. We have successfully returned monkeys to the wild, but for many, the physical and emotional damage from abuse has left them in need of special care for the rest of their lives. That’s why I need your help today.

It is now ten years since ADI supporters, like yourself, helped us to build our complex of monkey habitats in the Peruvian rainforest at Pilpintuwasi – one of the most challenging construction projects we have faced – but also the most innovative, like when we decided the little white capuchins would enjoy having a stream run through their habitat and needed to build the fence under water, into the rocks. Within days of completion of the homes, we took our first 39 primates, coati mundis, and kinkajous – cut from chains in circuses, restaurants, and taken from wildlife traffickers – home to the rainforest. Watch them return to the jungle here

Since then, this safe haven has been a lifeline for many animals, like baby Chaska, a woolly monkey saved from traffickers, living her best life in her natural habitat, reunited with her own kind.

That said, caring for animals in their natural jungle habitat, humid, with regular heavy rainfall, comes at an extra cost.  And of course, it is often the busy, inquisitive, dexterous efforts of our primates themselves which results in weakening of the habitat fencing, while swinging through the trees at great speeds, leaping onto houses and other structures and landing with force, that takes a toll on enrichment structures. Some of our residents will be with us for 30 years or more.

Ten years of repairs to withstand enthusiastic monkey pounding has brought us to the point that we need to undertake some major work and replacements to fencing and structures.

Can you help us to raise $10,000/ £8,000 for comprehensive repairs and improvements to this beacon of hope in the Peruvian forest, a lifeline for so many animals?

We have undertaken some of the most urgent repairs but need your help now – for more rolls of mesh, metal poles, concrete, wire, wood, and other materials. We have a limited window to get all of these in place because we are moving into the season where the river will begin to drop, making it very difficult to get everything to our remote location.

Together, we have given these animals the closest thing to the natural life that was stolen from them.  We have reunited them with their own kind, ended their loneliness and created families, allowing them to swing through the trees again and be monkeys.

Spider monkey Pepe was chained in a circus for eight years until ADI rescued him. I’ll never forget the day he looked into our eyes as we cut him from his chains, nor the time we waited anxiously for him to come around after hours of dental surgery to repair his teeth, brutally broken by the circus, and deeply touching, when he was first reunited with his own kind, meeting the beautiful Valerie with her blue eyes, followed by many more spider monkeys; then his final hug to me, before bounding into his new forest habitat.

Pepe is 19 now, and a spider monkey can live to 40 years old. He will grow old in the forest with his own family of spider monkeys. That is how important this special rainforest place of safety is, for these monkeys.

The clock is ticking for us to get everything delivered for these vital repairs. Will you help raise the $10,000 / £8,000 we need?

Please make a commitment for the monkeys in our care and for the many more who have not yet been saved, with a donation today.

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With your help, we can make sure that our rescued monkeys stay safe and we can provide a home to others in need, in the future.