Today’s Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants will be presented in Spanish, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai and Spanish.

Everywhere in the world, we can observe and be touched by acts of kindness. People from all walks of life, faiths, and cultures extend themselves beyond the call of duty to help others unconditionally. Through their noble deeds, humanity as a whole is elevated.

To commend virtuous actions and encourage more people to be inspired by their examples, Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly created a series of awards, including the Shining World Leadership Award, Shining World Compassion Award, Shining World Hero and Heroine Awards, Shining World Honesty Award, Shining World Protection Award, Shining World Intelligence Award, and Shining World Inventor Award, to recognize some of the most exemplary, generous, caring, and courageous people who walk amongst us.

Located in Peñaflor, about 40 kilometers from capital city of Chile, Santiago, the Center for Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates is a loving home for monkeys who have been mistreated, abandoned, or injured as a result of animal trafficking and exploitation. The Center for Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates was founded by Ms. Elba Muñoz Lopez in 1994. Since 1996, the Center has cared for and rehabilitated 176 primates of 12 different species.

The center started in my house. That’s where the center started. And as our work became more successful, we began rescuing more monkeys and people were giving us monkeys that they had as pets. So we bought this land. We started to move some of them here. Then we left those that need special care at my home. My daughters live in this center, so the monkeys are cared for 24 hours a day.

Through the vicious animal trade primates are sold to entertainment businesses, circuses, zoos, pet stores and institutions that conduct animal testing. And in all of these environments the animals face lives of misery, pain, torture and early death. The Center for Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates offers a permanent haven for such traumatized individuals. Let’s now meet some of the monkeys residing there.

Esperanzo was left in a house about 10 years ago. He has several fractures that healed wrong, bonded wrongly. And the conclusion we could draw is that he became sick in the hands of a trafficker, and since he didn’t know what to do with him, he left him. So he threw him at a house because he could not sell him.

This monkey is blind and has several fractures in the body that make his tail go forward, so he cannot use it as the other monkeys do. But he is a monkey that has an incredible love for life. We have the whole habitat conditioned to him and we do not move anything because he makes his way around by memory.

Come Pilila, come. This is Pilila, she is a woolly monkey who has severe brain damage and she also has leukemia which is under control. So, that is why the monkeys that are here stay in my home. It’s like in a hospital, but an outdoor hospital where they can lead their life as normal as possible. You see that she has tremors.

Come on my girl.

Hallo girl.

How are you?

Hallo girl. Hallo girl. Hallo, hallo. I raised her since she was 10 days old. Her mother died at that time. The mother was confiscated by the agriculture-livestock service with a group of monkeys, and the mother was pregnant and ill. And this monkey was 10 days old when her mother died. So I had to raise her by hand, as they say. Now she is already one year old and is part of a group, but she recognizes me as a part of her family.

Old Lady lived in a laboratory. Her story is that a family in Brazil had her as a pet and they gave her to a zoo in Sao Paulo thinking that she would be able to live with others of her species. And since the zoo had many of these monkeys, they gave her to the vivarium. On her they made studies of the morning-after pill.

About 10 years later, they gave her to our center. This monkey has already been operated. She was made to reproduce throughout her entire reproductive life in the laboratory, and then they took all her reproductive organs to examine them. This monkey is now suffering from problems, lack of estrogen. She has bone problems, arthritis, suffered from depression.

But now she is in very good condition. She is in constant treatment. This monkey is about a little over 100 years old in human years. Hallo Old Lady. She is a very sweet monkey and here she lives with monkeys, these two monkeys that are smaller, and she acts as a grandmother. Hallo Old Lady, hallo pretty girl.

We will return with more on Ms. Elba Muñoz Lopez, recipient of the Shining World Compassion Award. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

I watch Supreme Master Television every day, because I think that it teaches a lot. It helps and makes people aware of how important animals on Earth are. They are our partners in this journey, and human beings have no right, even being a species which appeared much later on the planet, to exterminate them in such a cruel way.

Welcome back to today’s program on Ms. Elba Muñoz Lopez, founder and director of the Center for Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates in Chile. She is a recipient of the Shining World Compassion Award from Supreme Master Ching Hai. Some of the Center’s primates have physical disabilities, which in turn may affect their mental and social well-being.

Imagine that this species, its tail is not prehensile, and the greatest importance of the tail in this species is for balance. So, that monkey that is completely missing its arm and on top of that, has no tail, is a monkey that has a hard time balancing. So for her, we had to make a very special habitat with monkeys that she gets along with very well and has no conflict with, because she does not know how to defend herself. You can see, there she goes walking.

Here she improved a lot. She arrived in a very depressive state. She was very depressed. Imagine being without an arm, without a tail. She was in a bad condition. But in this group she has managed to succeed.

The woolly monkey is one species whose richly complex social structure makes it impossible for them to survive in captivity. The Center for Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates is one of just four places in the world that is able to protect a family of woolly monkeys.

There is another colony in Holland, another colony in England and in France. They are the only countries where they have succeeded in forming a colony, which means that there is a male leader and a female leader, they reproduce and have a compact and big social structure. Here for example, there is a grandfather, there are uncles, there are cousins, a niece, and that's a colony.

Primates’ lives are centered around their families. This is precisely why Ms. Elba Muñoz Lopez strongly disapproves the practice of monkey trafficking.

Regarding monkey trafficking, I always say to the authorities, I fight it not so much because of its legality or illegality, but I fight it because of the cruelty involved. Separating a young from its mother, separating them from social groups, with all the suffering that this implies, it is an irreversible damage to nature and that is why I dedicate my life to it.

For her years of protecting and nurturing the most vulnerable primates to better health and spirit, Supreme Master Ching Hai honored Ms. Elba Muñoz Lopez with the Shining World Compassion Award. The following is an excerpt from Supreme Master Ching Hai’s letter of appreciation:

“Dear Ms. Muñoz, This Award is presented in recognition of your courageous stance against animal cruelty, for your loving efforts to protect and nurture primates, and for selflessly dedicating your life to these precious and beautiful co-inhabitants, thus creating a more humane, peace-loving and kinder future of equality, respect and freedom for all beings. …we hereby applaud and celebrate the outstanding, compassionate and heroic deeds of Ms. Elba Muñoz Lopez. With Great Honour, Love and Blessings, The Supreme Master Ching Hai”

Very nice, thank you. It is really nice.

With the letter, Ms. Muñoz Lopez was presented with a beautiful crystal award plaque. Furthermore, before the award ceremony, Supreme Master Ching Hai had contributed a donation of US$10,000 toward the rehabilitation of the primates at Ms. Muñoz Lopez’s center.

First of all, I want to thank the Master because this money was actually like a blessing. I really did not expect a reward for my work. I feel very blessed by Master. You cannot imagine how useful it has been. We have built habitats, we bought many materials, bought trees, fruit trees, which will remind us of Master for many years, because those trees will be growing, and monkeys will eat the leaves, eat the fruit, and they are useful for them as environmental enrichment. It serves for them to see a more beautiful environment. We bought working tools. There are really a lot of things that we have been able to buy with what Master sent us.

Ms. Muñoz Lopez was also presented with a number of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s DVDs and books, including her #1 international bestsellers, “The Noble Wilds,” “The Dogs in My Life,” and “The Birds in My Life.” Once more Ms. Muñoz Lopez expressed her thankfulness to Supreme Master Ching Hai.

I want to thank Supreme Master Ching Hai for the financial help that she given us and for those beautiful gifts. I can’t wait to start reading them, and to watch the videos.

We commend Ms. Elba Muñoz Lopez and the Center for Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates for opening up a new and happy outlook for so many primates in need. May your wonderful haven continue, as we join in praying that all our animal co-inhabitants may someday soon live in peace and comfort.

For more details on the Center for Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates, please visit

Thank you for joining us on today’s program. Coming up next is Enlightening Entertainment after Noteworthy News. May Heaven’s grace be with you and your cherished ones.

Maiti Nepal is a warm home for Nepali women and girls who have been victims of human trafficking, abuse and neglect by their families, and exploitation.

The pain, the sorrow I see in the girls, the sufferings which I see in the children keeps me going on.

Mother Teresa, she always told me, “Continue all your work, don’t stop your work.”

Please join us for “Maiti Nepal, Champion of Women’s Rights”, Sunday, April 4 on Good People Good Works.