My inspiration and motivation comes from being face-to-face with gorillas on one continent and continues with cousins on another. Tracking mountain gorillas in Rwanda earlier this year gave me a deeper appreciation of our primate cousins and a desire to learn, and do, more. I'm volunteering for two weeks at an orangutan sanctuary on Borneo in February. These endangered Great Apes are seeing their natural habitat, tropical rainforests, being decimated by palm oil plantations.

During my time with the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, I'll be involved in two activities: supporting orangutans by making enrichment and foraging items that helps prepare them for re-entry into the wild (if that's possible) along with maintaining the physical infrastructure on their sanctuary islands, and reforesting by planting trees to bring back the rainforest habitat. I want to raise awareness and support for these close relatives of ours. I'm covering all of my own costs, so that all the funds raised will go to the Foundation to further its work. I hope you'll join me.

Phil