Our charity this year: Saving the Orangutans!

Michael’s birthday is coming up soon. Michael would’ve been 56. Earlier this year, I was fortunate to come across a lovely charity that I’m sure Michael would love, and Bubbles would highly approve of! :)

The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (also known as the BOS Foundation) rescues orangutans that are displaced by farming and habitat destruction, and also apes that were forced to perform in circuses. The BOS Foundation rehabilitates these orangutans before releasing them back into the wild. The foundation’s rehabilitation centres are located in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, on the island of Borneo.

The BOS Foundation currently cares for almost 750 orangutans, with the support of 400 staff members. This is never a fixed number because orphaned orangutans arrive very often.

Little Jumbo’s mother was killed. Starving, he wandered into an oil palm plantation to look for food and was caught and kept as a pet.

Due to habitat destruction (by us humans and our over-consumption), some species of orangutans are now endangered, and some are highly endangered. Orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia are displaced in great numbers by land clearing for oil palm plantations. The mothers are often killed, leaving the babies orphaned. Read about how orangutans are rehabilitated and introduced back into the forests.

Staff members moving Kent to an acclimatisation enclosure

The BOS Foundation encourages the protection of Bornean orangutans and their habitat, empowers communities surrounding orangutan habitats, and supports research and education for the conservation of orangutans.

You can read more about the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation at their website.

Follow them on Facebook.
Follow them on Twitter.

You might also like to follow this excellent page which has regular updates on orangutan causes and news:
Friends of the Orangutans, Indonesia. (It was through this organisation that I first learned about the BOS Foundation.)


How to donate

To support the BOS Foundation in their effort to save orangutans, for US$40, you can adopt one of the orangutans for 3 months. Just hover over one of the photos and click "Adopt Now", and proceed from there.

If you would like to make a regular donation, go to the BOS Foundation’s donation page.

1. Fill in your info and choose or fill in the amount you would like to donate.

2. Fill in your credit card info or log in to Paypal. (For those not paying in USD, you might want to compare exchange rates. If you log in to Paypal, the next page will show you your exchange rate. Paypal had a much lower rate compared to credit cards for me.)

3. Follow the instructions and complete your donation.

4. Message me with your donation and receipt number. Done!



Please follow us on Facebook or Twitter for updates. Share this post with your MJ friends so that we can carry on Michael’s charitable legacy!

What about sunrise..
What about rain..
What about all the things..
That you said we were to gain?

What have we done to the world?
Look what we’ve done!
Did you ever stop to notice
This crying Earth, this weeping shore?