Evacuation
Paul Ferris, SumOfUs
5,000 kilometres of Indonesia are on fire right now. While children choke to death and members of the government wear face masks to conduct official business, countless endangered species including orangutans, leopards, the Sumatran rhinoceros, and Sumatran tiger are dying while their homes burn.
It’s being called the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century -- and it’s a direct result of corporate greed.
These fires could have been 100% avoided if not for corporations like Starbucks, PepsiCo, and Kraft Heinz recklessly burning Indonesia’s forests to plant palm oil plantations.
Relief organizations have asked SumOfUs members to chip in to help evacuate women, children and the elderly.
Will you chip in to fund urgent evacuation efforts now?
Data released by Indonesian Agency for Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics (BMKG) shows the particulate matter in one city has reached 3,700. For comparison, good air quality is between zero and 50.
Right now, our partners are working to evacuate babies and infants, breastfeeding mothers, pregnant women and the elderly and other vulnerable groups. They urgently need your help to cover evacuation costs and also to fund safe houses for evacuated people to live.
Here's how your donations will be used:
- Evacuating vulnerable groups, including babies and infants, breast-feeding mothers, pregnant women, the elderly and others who have been exposed by the smoke from Indonesian fires on palm oil plantations;
- Medical check-ups on people who have been exposed to the smoke and fires;
- An independent evaluation of the government's response to the forest fires;
- and to help with legal fees to sue local governments around their poor response to the fires.
We can get funds quickly to the ground where they are needed most. Any bit that you can donate will help to fund these efforts.
Thanks for all that you do,
Paul, Hanna and the rest of the SumOfUs team