Follow the OranguVans and See The Difference

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), know exactly where your money goes and then See The Difference you make as we will post feedback updated clips on on each project. Cool, huh?!

We got together with the team at See The Difference to make three initial videos, which we will show you over the next week or so (or just watch them all on See The Difference). The first one we will share with you shows you our OranguVan project. Many communities living near forests in Sumatra don’t know the importance of conservation. Equipped with a mobile environmental library and conservation cinema, our OranguVans travel around the island to teach locals about the forest, and the impact of deforestation on Orangutans and people.

Click on the picture below to see our video.

We worked closely with the STD producers to make it the very best we could… and, not being modest, we think we did a brilliant job!

So, now we’ve done a bit of bragging, it’s your turn! We wouldn’t want you to feel left out…

Imagine getting proof that you helped change the world? That’s got to be worth a decent amount of bragging right? Plus, you’ll be one of the first people ever to get involved!

If you do nothing else after reading this, please do go and watch our video… leave a comment, and go a bit crazy with the Share buttons! Post it to your Facebook, email it to friends, print out the page and glue it around town… whatever floats your boat!

Get vocal! It’ll be sooooo much easier for us to purchase a new OranguVan with your help!

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Orangutan Sculpture

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 Abdul

Abdul 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 the increase as the forest shrinks. Abdul was 19 years old when he died; a wild orangutan’s natural life span is around 50 years. He arrived at the Bohorok centre as a 4-year-old in 1993, when it was an active rehabilitation centre. SOS founding director, Lucy Wisdom, was actively involved with Abdul’s rehabilitation process. He was fully released into the wild in 1998, but found his way back to the Bohorok centre 7 months later. Looking healthy and mature, he was now sporting a beard. He was again released in 1999 but a few months later turned up at the centre. Lucy says, “In some ways it was reassuring to see him back, looking so well and knowing he had survived the past few months independently in the wild”. Most of his first four years were spent in a cage.

Abdul back in Bukit Lawang relaxing on the grass when he was still alive

Abdul was a good teacher for younger orangutans on the rehabilitation programme. Lucy said “I remember Abdul getting a pointy stick and working it into a hole in a tree. When he withdrew the stick it was covered in wild honey, which he promptly licked off, then repeated the process. Several younger orangutans watched him intently and copied his technique. I had no idea there was honey in this tree; it was in an area I often visited with my young charges as the lianas were good for climbing practice. After that I used it to teach orangutans about wild honey extraction.”

The Sculpture

Two versions are available

One is cast stone with a bronze coating and patina. Limited to 150 castings, price: $100

The other is an eco cold cast bronze made with environmentally friendly aqua resin and bronze powder. Limited to 100 castings, price: $150.

Size: 7 inches tall, 6 inches wide.

The Abdul sculpture

25% of money from sales of the sculpture will go to SOS (and 25% to Orangutan Republik)

Domestic shipping within the US: $12

International shipping: $30

To order your sculpture please e-mail: jssculpture@hotmail.com

Click here to see more of Jason’s work

The Abdul sculpture can be found here

Enjoy! XX

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Hope for marathon runners left disappointed after volcanic ash disruptions

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 for the marathons.
SOS has one free slot for the Edinburgh Marathon taking place on 23rd May. If you have been unable to get to your chosen marathon due to the flight chaos, please get in touch and you could run for SOS in May.
You have to give us a ring or drop us an e-mail asap as we would need to finalise registrations before Thursday 22nd April at 17.00 BST.
Ida Bondø
PR, Communications and Outreach Officer
Sumatran Orangutan Society
Tel: +44 (0)1865 403341
E-mail: info@orangutans-sos.org


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Painting Harapan, the elephant.

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 possibly be? Paint elephant - job done.

Throwing myself into the project I worked out the design and ordered lots of paint and brushes, then waited. I wanted the design to reflect the endangered elephants and orangutans along with the habitat that links them. As the ele/tree trunk pun was arrived at, the rest followed easily. SOS were originally allocated a sitting elephant, however after measuring both front door and side gate, it was clear it wasn't going to fit. The Elephant Family took pity and found us the slimmer standing variety - which was great. The next problem was where to put it.

When the elephant arrived I was excited. There he was, clean and white, just like the weather outside. We stood him in the centre of our unheated glass box conservatory, and I soon found out that to work out there was akin to working in the garden. A blow heater blasted air at me as I made the first brush strokes. Half an hour later I was driven back by the cold. So behind glass doors the first badly rendered vines caught my eye as winter stubbornly kept its grip on February. Never mind, I had plenty of time.

On into March, and I acclimatised to conditions. And as the weather warmed I'd like to say I painted away oblivious to everything, mixing away on my plates then standing back to admire my progress. But daylight hours were still short and I had a full workload of other projects on. The only solution was to get up early and work late into the night. Progress was made slower by my complete ignorance of painting with acrylics, so I discussed my feeble efforts at length with my arty friends. Ultimately it was time and practice that taught me.

Four weeks later and I was only halfway up the legs, and with one week to go it didn't take a genius to figure out I wasn't going to make it. Yet my old friend fear drove me on. Then as my deadline was extended I breathed a sigh of relief, just before more work that needed my undivided attention fell on to my lap. An illustrator never turns work away, and I was determined to get it all done.

Legs, trunk, back, tail, eyes and orangutan were all eventually underway, but it wasn't until I began the background that I actually began to relax and enjoy what I was doing. I'm like this on every piece of work, not sure of what I'm doing and willing to let the autopilot of experience get on with it. Art and design looks easy, but can be as hard as writing an essay or doing a maths equation. And when that step back moment comes and I take it all in, I know if my work is good or, well, not so good.

Thankfully Harapan was good - I liked him.

Before I started this project I remember telling Helen Buckland I wanted the SOS elephant to stand out like a jewel. Well he certainly became a bit of a local attraction here, with even my window cleaners loving him. One said he reminded him of Goa where he'd seen their festival of colour. That's what I was wanted to achieve; a festival of colour.

Finally, Harapan is Sumatran for hope, a wholly appropriate description of what SOS represents. For all the difficulties encountered Harapan was certainly worth it. Because the reward is riding on the front of him, as the eye-catching and fabulous orangutan we all hope to save.


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