tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10004867693766607742011-07-30T10:04:27.620-07:00SOS is dedicated to the conservation of Sumatran orangutans and their forest home. Our international branches raise awareness of the threats facing wild orangutans, and raise funds to support grassroots conservation projects in Sumatra. Together with a team of committed Indonesian conservationists we work with local communities living alongside orangutan habitat. We visit schools, plant trees and provide training to help the local people work towards a more sustainable future for their forests.Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.comBlogger271100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-70045329780573564662010-10-22T03:37:00.000-07:002010-10-22T03:37:01.122-07:00

The world’s voracious appetite for palm oil - an ingredient found in up to half of all packaged supermarket products in the UK - is fuelling the destruction of some of the most biodiverse rainforests on the planet, home to countless species, including the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan (see www.orangutans-sos.org). Whilst every individual has the right to make choices about the food

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How protecting one species can help protect thousands more – and aid in the fight against climate change too. As awareness about our impact on the world around us grows, so does the power of the flagship species – emblematic animals which draw attention to an urgent environmental issue, or a critical habitat under threat. Take the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), a critically endangered species

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-10383663161820524082010-06-17T02:11:00.000-07:002010-06-17T05:31:13.410-07:00

We know boasting isn’t the British thing to do, but we’d like to break with tradition for just a minute. Some months back, we teamed up with a new not-for-profit video site called See The Difference (STD), and we were one of the very first charities in the UK to get involved. With STD, you can choose a charity project that means something to you (and, not being funny, but ours is totally awesome

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-81935593399175681902010-06-03T08:25:00.000-07:002010-06-17T05:31:13.415-07:00

Jason Hanaman is an American sculptor specialising in orangutans. He has created a sculpture of Abdul, an orangutan Lucy helped rehabilitate many years ago and 25% of money raised through sales is donated to SOS. The story of AbdulAbdul died in April 2008 after being shot by a local farmer. He was killed because he was raiding crops. This is further evidence that human-orangutan conflict is on

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-67175867592057332282010-05-26T05:47:00.000-07:002010-06-17T05:30:57.539-07:00

On Monday evening our team in Sumatra received a report from a local farmer in Meka Makmur village, of an orphaned orangutan. The story is conveyed by Putup (a RARE-OIC staff member); the farmer found the young orangutan in his durian tree. After hearing the orangutan crying, and searching for his mother, he decided that the orangutan was stressed as he had been "abandoned" by her. The farmer

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Saturday was the big "Meet the Artists and Conservationists" day in London. We packed our bag full of business cards and headed to town. Luckily for us it was a lovely day, probably one of the hottest days this year, so Londoners and tourists alike headed to the parks for a nice picnic and day out. The turn-out was really great, we must have talked to well over 100 people, telling them about our

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And the story about Harapan continues... We have started getting photos from people who have visited Harapan in Green Park. We are hoping to get loads and loads of photos of you and Harapan so keep sending them in and we will start posting them on our facebook page in a couple of weeks time. For those of you that don't know, we launched a simple photo competition which is open to all, a couple

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-25987818572476890312010-05-07T04:50:00.000-07:002010-06-17T05:31:13.430-07:00

Just a quick blog today to let you know that Harapan has been spotted by CNN and is featured on their website.  We think he is looking rather dashing, you have to go to the CNN website to see his photo. Now we are just waiting for Londoners to start taking their snaps with him.

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-56922338705170637052010-04-30T05:11:00.000-07:002010-06-17T05:31:13.434-07:00

What are you doing this coming bank holiday Monday? From 3rd May Harapan, the life-size baby (fibreglass!) elephant can be found in Green Park and we are launching a special elephant/orangutan competition! It’s really easy to enter, all you have to do is go and visit Harapan, take your photo with him and post it on our Facebook Page or e-mail it to info@orangutans-sos.org and we’ll post it

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-36232245991916389732010-04-30T03:58:00.000-07:002010-06-17T05:31:13.438-07:00

We have just finished picking the five lucky winners of the Facebook competition. Since we made it to well over 100 fans in April, we chose five people who won our Jason Monet designed T-shirts. The winners are: Jane, Abby, Alexandra, Viviane and James!  We chose the winners with help from a highly qualified and impartial friend! So, Jane, Abby, Alexandra James and Viviane; please drop us a

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-8041997030851310152010-04-29T05:18:00.000-07:002010-06-17T05:30:46.754-07:00

Thank you to everyone who helped support us during this past month. As most of you may know we have been taking part in a special project competition on the GlobalGiving website. Our aim was to make £1000 in donations from at least 50 different individuals, and it is with delight we can let you know that we just met that target. Our fundraising work for this project is not yet over, as a

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-11454936392001189492010-04-19T06:37:00.000-07:002010-06-17T05:31:13.443-07:00

In light of the recent massive disruptions to UK and European air travel because of the Icelandic volcano eruption, many marathon runners have been disappointed as they are missing their chance to run a marathon. Runners scheduled in for marathons in Paris, Antwerp, Hamburg, Boston, London, Brighton, Vienna, Nice and Belgrade, have been left stranded and unable to make their destinations in time

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Hi, I'm Rebecca Sutherland, and I have designed and painted Harapan for The Elephant Parade.I usually design things that can be scanned, photo-shopped and attached to emails. And although a life-sized baby elephant was never going to fit on my scanner, it was probably one good reason to say yes to this project. It was going to be BIG, three dimensional and extremely unusual. How hard could it

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It makes us really sad when people that are visiting the jungle feed the orangutans. I will tell you why: 1. Bukit Lawang is a site where both semi-wild and wild orangutans live. The semi wild orangutans have been returned to the forest to that they have the chance to be fully independent again, but in the meantime they will get more dependent on people if tourists feed them. 2. Our DNA is

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Hi, My name is Suzanne Turnock and for the past two months I have been funded by The Vodafone Foundation to work with SOS. I entered a competition called ‘Vodafone- World of Difference’, the prize was to work with a charity of your choice for two months and all wages are paid by Vodafone. I jumped at the chance and I knew straight away who I wanted to work with. I have been the Volunteer

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-35825372011224481492010-02-10T02:00:00.000-08:002010-06-17T05:31:13.462-07:00

The EU Commission is proposing to reclassify palm oil plantations as “forest” in order that biodiesel from palm oil plantations can still meet EU biofuels sustainability criteria under the Renewable Energy Directive.Please click here now to support the campaign to overturn this proposal - and please pass this on far and wide.

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A couple of weeks ago we received an e-mail from ROLE Foundations Eco Learning Centre in Nusa Dua. ROLE have leased 1 ½ hectares of land down on the Bali bukit, and they want to use this area in an educational manner, working with the poor and disadvantaged. They are focusing on education and creating eco-friendly job and business opportunities, locals to make a comfortable income, without

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Last month Lucy Wisdom, founder of SOS sadly lost her longstanding battle against cancer. Lucy was working as a performance artist in Europe in 94, when a holiday to Indonesia to recuperate from cancer treatment unexpectedly changed her life. On a visit to a rehabilitation centre for endangered Sumatran Orangutans, she found herself overwhelmed with the desire to help. For the next three years,

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-86890751231118859852010-01-07T20:30:00.000-08:002010-06-17T05:31:13.471-07:00

Being a volunteer in a foreign country should always be more than just sitting in an office. It should be about making new friends and experiencing a different culture. Luckily for me this is easy in Bali, where the locals are superfriendly, and especially being based in Ubud, which is known as the cultural heartland of Bali. So it was with great anticipation and a big smile on my face I accepted

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-84259644622295842792010-01-04T18:53:00.000-08:002010-06-17T05:30:46.795-07:00

First of all Happy New Year, or Selamat Tahun Baru, as we say here in Bali!A bit belatedly as I have been visiting gorgeous Lombok over the holiday.I wont go on about that, instead let me tell you about some of the stuff SOS did in the time leading up to Christmas and NY. We were invited to the Bali International School (BIS) down in Sanur to attend their annual Christmas Bazaar. With two days

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-50633404504661423782009-12-27T18:09:00.000-08:002010-06-17T05:30:46.800-07:00

So firstly I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas! Here in Bali we celebrated with a traditional BBQ feast. The boys got up at 5am and went to the local market to get fresh fish, prawns and squid. We girls were in charge of gutting and preparing all the lovely seafood and the condiments so on Christmas day you could find us up to our heads in fish guts and chocolate mousse! A splendid mix if I

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Ok, so this year, May I believe it was, SOS Bali opened the JungleShop, a thrift store in the heart of Ubud.We have a volunteer Shop Manager and local staff manning the store. The shop has loads of exciting merchandise, because not only do we get second hand donations, we also get new items from boutiques down in Kuta and Seminyak! SOS has put in loads of hard work to ensure that locals, ex-pats

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Arriving in Bali was like stepping into a totally different country. Indonesia consist of 17,000 islands and the difference from one to another soon becomes clear, especially as you leave Sumatra behind and head to the tourist paradise that is Bali. SOS has an office in Bali, which is where I am working from for the next month or so. The rationale behind the Bali office is quite obvious: there

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During my time in Sumatra I also had the opportunity to go along to a school visit. SOS supports OIC so they can visit local schools, show presentations and films, have Q&A sessions, hand out activity books and even maintain a OranguVan –which contains mobile environmental libraries and film units. The school we visited is situated in the midst of a massive oil plantation area. Most of the

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-73925565142490850222009-12-02T20:18:00.000-08:002010-02-17T14:08:33.883-08:00

After visiting the orangutans in Bukit Lawang we headed north to visit a replanting site in Besitang, North Sumatra. The area we went to used to be a massive illegal palm oil plantation and is actually located inside the national park; the main problem with the Palm oil here in Sumatra (simply put) is that so much rainforest is being cleared to make room for the plantations that is has a direct

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One of the main SOS projects in Sumatra is an ecotourism programme in Bukit Lawang, site of the old Orangutan rehabilitation centre inside the Gunung Leuser National Park. Bukit Lawang is a small village about three hours away from the hustle and bustle of Medan city and our office. You can’t really go to Sumatra and not go trekking to see the jungle and hopefully some of the amazing wildlife. A

Orangutans-SOShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10806578951837712743noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1000486769376660774.post-48526092681823514632009-11-23T22:01:00.000-08:002010-02-17T14:07:36.167-08:00

Hi, and welcome to our newly created blog.Through this blog we hope to spread the word about the Sumatran orangutans, the work we do in the Sumatran rainforest and how you can help us save a species.About me- My name is Ida and I am going to be working with the Sumatran Orangutan Society for the next few months. I will be based in their Bali office in Ubud, which I am really looking forward to.

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