When the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation one year ago, for the sake of our staff as well as our orangutans, the BOS Foundation closed its rehabilitation centres to the public. This led to a sharp decline in visit-based funding which served as an important source of financial support for our operational activities.

Despite the sudden challenge presented to us, we continued to provide for the basic needs of the more than 400 orangutans under our care, including food, enrichment, and vitamins. At the same time, we also strengthened the biosecurity protocols for staff who worked at the rehabilitation centres and in other working areas with orangutans. Just as the pandemic was beginning to affect our operations, widespread panic buying also disrupted our supply lines for essential items such as masks, sanitation supplies, fruits, and vegetables, and caused market prices to soar.

At the very start of the pandemic, we also halted development activities, including orangutan releases. This was done in consideration of the safety and well-being of our staff and orangutans. It was certainly not an easy decision to make as there were orangutans ready to be returned to the wild. We instead focused our efforts on stricter health and safety protocols in the centres so that Forest School and other rehabilitation activities could continue with minimal disruption. As the months passed and more resources, in terms of COVID-19 testing, transportation, and personal protective equipment became available to us, we started to evaluate our release protocols and draft new ones, designed specifically to minimise the risks posed by transportation during the pandemic.

All of our hard work paid off! In February 2021, we were able to implement our new protocols and restart our orangutan release activities! In our first release of the year, we saw ten orangutans successfully returned to their forest homes. Our work is not done, however, as many other orangutans are awaiting the same opportunity!

We are grateful for all the support that we received during this particularly challenging year. It was thanks to your help that we were able to overcome all obstacles placed before us. However, there is much left to be done, and we are remain fully committed caring for the orangutans at our centres and protecting those who are fortunate enough to be living free in the wild.

With such a long road still ahead of us, we still need your support! To all those who have been part of our story already, we would like to thank you being an important part of the BOS family. Every bit of support matters because, together, we can beat extinction! #saveorangutan #saveothers