[Travelhappy.info] Volunteer Thailand: Help The Gibbons!

[Chris]

Volunteering is one of the best ways to see Thailand and meet Thai people - and animal lovers now have the chance of helping look after gibbons at the Highland Farm gibbon sanctuary in Mae Sot

There's a company called SmilingAlbino.com based in Thailand that organises volunteer trips to the gibbon sanctuary. The Nation newspaper recently ran a piece describing the sanctuary and the work of the volunteers:

When I set out for a holiday in Thailand with my nephew, I didn’t expect to be bottle-feeding a two-month baby gibbon near the Burmese border.
But that’s what happened when my nephew and I hooked up with six volunteers working on the Highland Farm gibbon sanctuary near Mae Sot.
The volunteers were spending part of their holiday in Thailand taking care of gibbons and building a new enclosure for them.
The six-inch-tall baby gibbon, Raymond, clung to my T-shirt and looked up at me with his dark, bulbous eyes as he sucked on the baby formula. His mother had pushed him away, probably because she lacked milk.
Now he was living in a wire cage in the main house of the sanctuary with Pharanee Chotiros-Deters, 63, the main custodian.
It was difficult not to feel tender-hearted towards the little creature with its dark, human-like face. But unfortunately, humans haven’t been kind to gibbons.

Read the full article to find out more, including how you can sign up yourself.

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Posted by Chris to Travelhappy.info at 6/19/2006 10:00:58 AM