The Animal Health Foundation of California (AHF) announced a new partnership with the Orang Utan Republik Foundation (OURF) to support needy veterinary students in Aceh, Sumatra. AHF will provide the funding for special scholarships within the OURF’s Orangutan Caring Scholarship program. The competitive awards, given to different students each year will cover the cost of tuition during the students’ four years of college and the final year of internship leading to a practicing veterinarian.
The competitive Orangutan Caring Scholarship (OCS) has been one of OURF’s main education programs in Sumatra where the organization has been collaborating with the Yayasan Orangutan Sumatra Lestari-Orangutan Information Center (OIC) for the past six years. OIC promotes and oversees the program in-country while OURF seeks fiscal support for the program. OURF President Dr. Gary Shapiro stated, “The Orangutan Caring Scholarship program is an investment in long-term orangutan conservation by supporting talented students who will advocate for orangutans as professionals.”
Since granting the first scholarship in 2006, 33 students have received 4-year scholarships to attend the schools of biology and forestry in North Sumatra and the school of veterinary medicine in Banda Aceh. In 2009, the University of Syiah Kuala in Banda Aceh entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the OIC and OURF to encourage NGO support of students within the university’s faculty of veterinary medicine. Twelve students have received scholarships to Syiah Kuala in the past three years.
AHF will be adding four new scholarships to the program in 2012 that will provide additional benefits to the successful applicants. The AHF Award will provide five years of support: four years of tuition at the university and an extra year for the internship needed to become a practicing DVM.
The successful applicants will be obligated to provide periodic updates to OURF and AHF to be shared with organizational supporters. Maintaining a consistent line of communication will enable donors to track the progress of the student as he or she matriculates and encourages others to contribute to the program. The AHF intends to promote Acehese veterinarians as one element of successful wildlife management in this highly biodiverse region of the world.
AHF will also be assisting the University of Syiah Kuala by providing professional veterinary journals and books for their library. If you are a veterinarian or library with books to donate, please contact Pam Becker at executivedirector@animalhealthfoundation.net
More information about OURF and its program can be found at www.ourf.org.