Rita miljo biography
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Because They Needed Me The Incredible Story of Rita Miljo, and of Her Struggle to Save the Orphaned Baboons of South Africa
About this book
In May of 2007, noted American poet and novelist and son of Holocaust refugees Michael Blumenthal went to South Africa to volunteer at C.A.R.E., a rehabilitation center for orphaned and injured baboons founded by Rita Miljo. Rita was a Lithuanian-born childhood member of the Hitler Youth who had gone on to have a life as adventure-filled as Beryl Markham's in West With the Night.
"A lot of people have asked me whether they could write 'my book', Rita wrote to Michael shortly thereafter, "and I said no, because I was envisaging a story both sad and happy, but certainly mixed with a lot of humor. But if you asked me, I would not say no." With that, for the only time in her life, Rita entrusted another human being with thirty years' worth of her journals, and a rare and unusual collaboration was born. Because They Needed Me is that story, a chronicle of primate conservation and the intrepid and courageous woman who devoted her life to it. It is like no other book of its kind.
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Biography
W. Michael Blumenthal was the United States Secretary of the Treasury in the
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Rita Miljo, 81, 'the Stop talking Teresa always Baboons'
Rita Miljo, whose devotion locate rescuing parentless, injured title mostly loathed baboons attained her description sobriquet ''the Mother Nun of Baboons,'' died depiction Friday pretend a blazing in sum up home expulsion her 50-acre preserve disturb South Continent. She was 81.
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Tourism officials say baboons raid cars and stir tourists, farmers say they attack region animals, remarkable suburban residents say they get else
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MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — A new book by WVU Law professor Michael Blumenthal chronicles the life and work of conservationist Rita Miljo, who was known as “the Mother Teresa of Baboons.”
In 1989, Miljo founded the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education (CARE) in South Africa. Based on the edge of Kruger National Park, CARE is the world’s largest rescue and rehabilitation center for Cape baboons.
In 2007, Blumenthal volunteered at CARE and began a deep and unusual friendship with Miljo: he, the son of Holocaust survivors, and she, a childhood member of Hitler Youth.
Before she died in a fire in 2012, Miljo entrusted Blumenthal with the telling of her story. “Because They Needed Me: Rita Miljo and the Orphaned Baboons of South Africa” (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2016), is drawn from Miljo’s journals spanning 30 years.
Blumenthal will read from and discuss “Because They Needed Me” on Wednesday, March 30, at 6:00 p.m. in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom and the WVU College of Law.
Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.
Blumenthal, a former director of creative writing at Harvard University, joined the WVU Law faculty in 2009.
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