Track gorillas in Uganda with the people who protect them

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

The gorilla is gargantuan. There’s a promise of raw power in its chest, supreme agility in arms that ripple with muscle, and wisdom in its dark, deep-set eyes. It looms larger than the trees, taller than the mountains, dwarfing even the sun — a canary yellow sphere sketched in the corner of the page.

Ten-year old Akankwasa’s drawing captures a mythic vision of the forest, winning first prize in a local competition run by the Gorilla Organization . The charity’s Ugandan arm works from a simple conviction: that change begins in classrooms. With fewer than a dozen staff, they support 28 schools that cling to the edges of the gorillas’ kingdom, the mist-cloaked slopes of Mgahinga and Bwindi National Parks in the co