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Hi. I'm Swen Lorenz
and I'm the Executive Director
of the Charles Darwin Foundation.
The Charles Darwin Research Station
is the most visited visitor site
in the entire archipelago of Galapagos.
Every year, we receive more than one hundred thousand visitors
who come and see the work that we're doing
for science and conservation in the Galapagos Islands.
In order to better serve our visitors
since 1989 we have been operating a souvenir store.
There you can purchase a huge variety of products
that you can take home as a memento of your trip.
You can purchase t-shirts
jackets, fleeces with our logo
to take home and give to your friends
to tell them about your visit here.
You can also choose from
many books about the Galapagos Islands,
chocolate from Ecuador,
which is one of my favorites.
We have adventure clothes
sunglasses,
ceramics from the mainland of Ecuador,
A huge variety of products,
some of which will be useful for your trip
and other items will just be wonderful
to give to your friends as a present.
The income we generate there
is really important for the organization.
As an example,
we are also funding scholarships for students
from the Galapagos Islands.
Since 1970, the Charles Darwin Foundation
has funded more than 1300 scholarship students.
No other organization in the Galapagos Islands has done that
and income that we generate from activities like the souvenir store
is really important to keep these programs going.
Our income also goes into continuously improving
our visitor's site,
providing interpretation material
to make your visit more interesting
and it directly feeds into funding our science projects.
Our work is completely privately funded.
Between 60 and 70 percent
of our charitable income
comes from visitors to the Galapagos Islands.
It is really important that you support us.
You can help us protect the Galapagos
for future generations.
And we're looking forward to having you here.
We hope that you will have a very exciting time
learning about the incredible work
that is being done here
to help protect the biodiversity
of the Galapagos Islands.