Charity Special: Budi’s Bananas
Budi in 2019 (photo: International Animal Rescue)
Budi’s Bananas
We like to support various charities at the shop and always have a Yorkshire Air Ambulance collection tin for customers to drop their change into if they wish to donate. We have done various local collections as and when we are asked, as well as several food bank collections and fundraising initiatives such as sweetie hamper raffles.
Over the last five years our customers have helped us raise nearly £4,000 for charities that are involved in saving and protecting the Great Apes from the threats of deforestation and Oil Palm plantations as well as poaching and bush meat.
In Borneo we have helped raise funds for International Animal Rescue, where I spent a month volunteering in 2015, and witnessed the arrival of Budi, a very sick baby orangutan. I returned last November and was thrilled to see him swinging in the trees on one of the islands I help build and planted the trees round. The November return was with Orangutan Veterinary Aid to take a digital x-ray machine to the site, which a large amount of the money raised through the shop went towards.
On an ongoing basis we support a charity out in Kisoro, Uganda that educates and supports the local children that are being taught the importance of protecting the habitat of the mountain gorillas and chimpanzees, as well as helping them with their education so they have no need to poach. In fact, they taught me how to grow vegetables and fruits. These children have nothing, but they are dedicated to protecting these magnificent creatures that live close by.
Sadly, both the great apes and the friends out in Indonesia and Uganda are under the same threat of Coronavirus. All the rescue centres are closed to volunteers, the Orangutan Veterinary Aid fundraising trip this year has been cancelled and in Uganda there is a very tight lockdown – no flights or visits to the forests/national parks for the foreseeable future.
How you can help
While we are aware of the struggles and hardship here in the UK, we felt that we needed to do something to help. So, the £1 bags of Mini Foam Bananas will be back on sale in the shop again, and a 250 gram bag will be added to the website with £1 of every sale going to the charity Orangutan Veterinary Aid. Hopefully, this will all add together so it can help while all the normal fundraising channels are limited.