A hero team of Brits delivered medicines and equipment to an orangutan veterinary clinic after it was severely damaged in a landslide.
Dr Nigel Hicks and Dr Loretta Francia – both vets – and Sara Fell Hicks flew 7,300 miles to save the stricken primates.
Husband and wife Nigel and Sara are founders of Orangutan Veterinary Aid (OVAID).
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The charity is based in Launceston, Cornwall and they travelled to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme Centre (SOCP), near Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia.
A landslide had destroyed the clinic, its medical supplies and many of the enclosures killing two orangutans.
They delivered over 518lbs of kit to help care for the 39 critically-endangered rescued Sumatran orangutans at the centre, as reported by Need To Know.
The equipment included patient critical care monitors, an anaesthetic machine, autoclave, haematology and biochemistry analysers, surgical instruments and laboratory microscope.
Dr Hicks said: “Our focus is to re-equip their clinic facility with everything OVAID has donated over the years.
“OVAID has drawn on its charity resources to supply the centre’s most immediate and pressing needs, but fully re-equipping a new clinic facility is a daunting task and will take a huge sum of money.”
He said the charity had launched an appeal with a £25,000 target which could secure equipment and medicines and help the vets “to provide the utmost care for their beloved orangutans under the most difficult and taxing conditions”.
Dr Yenny Saraswati, SOCP Senior Veterinary Surgeon at SOCP’S Orangutan Rescue Centre thanked the British vets, saying: “I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support and generous attention to our situation.
“We deeply appreciate your kindness during what has been a challenging time for all of us.”
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