A helping hand?

Initial reaction: heartbreak.  The intensity of the connection you feel staring into the eyes of an orangutan is vastly underestimated.  Visiting Km 38, a facility with 18 caged orangutans was an experience not quickly, nor easily, forgotten.  The NGO Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) built most of km 38 in response to the 1997/1998 forest fires when enormous tracts of rainforest habitat were destroyed.  Most of the burned, injured and displaced orangutans were brought to BOS.  While the facility was busy and crowded then, after more than 10 years the buildings are now vacant and crumbling, their tenants long gone to more hopeful and hospitable places.  But in behind these relics, nestled in the trees, are 18 remaining orangutans locked in cages.  For these 18, hope is lost for release or rehabilitation.  Diagnosed with hepatitis, TB or physically handicapped, they have been left at km 38 to live out the remainder of their lives.

There were two female orangutans in a cage together who made a point of befriending a few of us, smiling and passing gifts of grass through the cage bars and reaching out to hold our hands.  I was shocked by how much emotion I could feel, how much could be communicated through a few small gestures back and forth, and how pure the interactions felt.  There is something quite humbling and excruciating about a caged creature reaching out to you in such a literal way.

There is work in progress to test whether the ones with hepatitis or tuberculosis have a strain that is transferable to humans or not, which could create an opportunity for some of them to be moved from km 38 to Samboja Lestari, a rainforest re-growth and animal sanctuary program started by Willie Smits and BOS.  At Samboja Lestari, BOS has an orangutan rehabilitation and release program as well as several man-made islands for the primates who  (from a variety of causes) wouldn’t be capable of surviving in the wild. The project also has a volunteer program, where people can come stay at the Samboja Lodge and help with feeding, repairs and building or cage and enclosure cleaning.

(check out the TED talk about Samboja Lestari by Willie Smits at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/willie_smits_restores_a_rainforest.html )

Staying at the lodge for the past few days, having the opportunity to see first hand these situations and meeting some of the people fighting for their survival, it seems I’ve already dedicated myself to fighting for them.  Their struggle will always be prevalent to me, in the actions I take and choices I decide on.  Sometimes all people need to be motivated to take action is a personal connection to the fight, and with something like rainforest destruction being something so distant and intangible for most, the faces of those affected, like these orangutans, can make all the difference.