Mothers Day is coming up this Sunday, and many of us will be honoring our mothers with cards and gifts. But some of us don’t have mothers to celebrate- including the hundreds of orphaned orangutans who live in care centers across Indonesia.

These orangutans often lose their mothers at a young age to hunters or poachers. The babies are then sold illegally as pets, where they are kept in harsh conditions without proper nourishment. Some of the babies are rescued by organizations like Orangutan Foundation International or Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and taught how to survive in the wild so they can eventually be released.

This Mothers Day, we wish to honor orangutan mothers in the annual Missing Orangutan Mothers (M.O.M.) event hosted by Orangutan Outreach. In addition to thanking your own mothers this Sunday, please take a few minutes to thank orangutan mothers as well- whether it’s a social media post, a conversation with a friend, or a second thought about your shopping list.

Orangutan mothers are dedicated parents, raising their children for eight to ten years. Without the support networks that human parents have, orangutan mothers parent by themselves, teaching their children everything about how to survive in the wild. Please take a few minutes on Sunday to honor them and their memory. Now that you’re quarantined at home, you have the time to dedicate a few minutes to conservation.

If you wish to donate to the Missing Orangutan Mothers campaign to benefit the rehabilitation program at Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, you can do so here.

Make sure to attend our talk at Athena’s on May 19!

~Pangaea Finn

Founder, The Orangutan Gang