Another Angel

“. . . Jane Goodall has $1500 to send. . . .” The sentence in one email from Mary Lewis, the assistance of Jane Goodall, to my wife Meidy aroused the remembrance of my feeling seeing the awakened patients of mine from prolonged deep coma caused by cerebral malaria in Papua. Finally I found the second angel, someone who gives a donation in significant amount without being asked for and who expects nothing personally in return. Though it is not a surprising deed coming from Jane, a compassionate primatologist famous for her study on chimpanzees, it still astounded me, happily. Hundreds of people know–through my website and Facebook page–that I need funding desperately to save the remnant of Malenge Island’s wildlife while struggling to live on a meager income from walking tourists in the forest. Why does only Jane, who only read one posting of mine and sent me mail twice, do something beyond words? She must have something in common with Nat Cohen and Jerry Lloyd, my consistent supporters.
In 2014 in Bali Jane asked me how she could help me run my conservation program. Since I knew she was not a billionaire and has worked hard to raise fund for her Jane Goodall Institute (www.janegoodall.org), I asked her to do me a favor with the second item on my need list. She introduced me to someone who she thought that would be able to help me find volunteers. Years passed, there was no news from this person in spite of promise to contact me. I find this behavior is a common human nature: excited in helping famous or rich people (many of them do not really need the help offered) but reluctant to do so with the lesser people (who desperately need it).
In January 2017, I submitted a grant proposal to some donating agencies and asked Jane if she was willing to be one of the referees. I had hesitated to do so—Jane is a very famous person internationally and, though 83, she still travels around the world trying to save non-human primates—until Dr. Eric Chivian of Harvard (one of the editors of ‘Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity’) pushed me hard. And, not only the reference has she given me, but Jane has offered some money as well.