Aiunau’s New Rescue Center
Donation protected
Help AIUNAU build a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, preserve natural habitat, and transform a community!
If you donate $50 or more to this project, you will receive an invitation to stay in a bungalow that will be built on the property and is otherwise closed to the public.
Aiunau is a non-profit foundation working to protect the Xenarthrans - sloths, anteaters, tamanduas, armadillos - of Colombia. In the past 22 years, they have successfully released every animal they’ve rehabilitated, which is an incredible achievement and shows the dedication their organization has to life in the wild.
A tamandua currently being rehabilitated for release.
Their motto?
“Keep them in your heart but leave them in the forest.”
So many of us have become completely smitten with sloths. This is a way that we can really help them.
RESCUE CENTER
Aiunau currently has a rescue center near Medellin, which I had the opportunity to visit a couple months ago. While there I met an orphaned sloth from Cordoba, a province in the North of Colombia which the biodiverse lands of the Choco region stretch though, where forests are rife with poaching.
This orphan was calling out, crying like a baby.
It needed to be fed, and to feel safe and secure. It was given that protective nurturing and nourishment by the wildlife rehabilitator and founder of Aiunau.
Sloths are heavily poached and trafficked in Colombia and need our help.
PRESERVE NATURAL HABITAT
With your help, we’ll be able to finalize not only a new center for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, but also preserve some 500ha (1236 acres!) of land, interconnected by biological corridors of tropical dry forest.
TRANSFORM A COMMUNITY
As you may well know, Colombia is emerging from a violent past. In the particular area where the new center is located, Mejor Esquina, the first massacre by paramilitaries took place 30 years ago.
Now, with renewed peace, ex-coca farmers and their armed guerrilas are seeking new sources of income. Aiunau aims to work with local communities which have turned to extracting wild fauna. Their goal is to educate on the importance of protecting the environment and its inherent value, encourage alternative sustainable sources of income, and contribute to the transformation from conflict to peace.
This is Bareta. She was kidnapped from the forest and purchased by a drug dealer for the price of a spliff. The name “bareto” refers to a joint of marijuana.
Her worth alive and thriving in the forest far exceeds the monetary value she was purchased for. Thankfully she is now in the compassionate care of Aiunau. She is currently being rehabilitated and will be released back into the forest, where she belongs.
Meet Rosa. Her mother was killed by a hunter in the Choco region of Colombia. While the hunter was carrying the dead, bloodied sloth over his shoulder, a woman in the village saw it and realized there was a baby still alive and clinging to its mother.
The hunter used a machete to kill the mother, and as you can see, stuck the face of the baby as well, creating a large wound and damaging the nose.
The kind woman took the baby and healed its wounds. During this time, the woman received roses for her birthday. The little baby sloth ate the entire bouquet of blooms and was then named Rosa.
Once little Rosita was well enough, she was brought to Aiunau where she is now being fully rehabilitated and will be released back into the wild.
VENTURING TO THE SITE
I will be making my way north to visit the site of the new rescue center and document its progress. I will also be checking in on Bareta and Rosa!
The construction of the rescue and rehabilitation center is well underway. This fundraiser is to help finalize these structures and is urgently needed.
SLEEP WHERE THE SLOTHS ARE
There will be a couple bungalows on this site and donors of this project who invest $50 or more will get a special invitation to come stay in these closed-to-the-public spaces.
Please don’t get it in your mind that you will be cuddling sloths - this is a center which is dedicated to the rehabilitation of WILD life. They cannot be released if they are imprinted by humans. Their lives would be in danger were they to depend on or desire to be around people.
Rental rates have yet to be determined.
This is me with the founder of Aiunau, Tinka Plese, at the rescue and rehabilitation center outside of Medellin.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the habitat preserve or rescue center!
If you donate $50 or more to this project, you will receive an invitation to stay in a bungalow that will be built on the property and is otherwise closed to the public.
Aiunau is a non-profit foundation working to protect the Xenarthrans - sloths, anteaters, tamanduas, armadillos - of Colombia. In the past 22 years, they have successfully released every animal they’ve rehabilitated, which is an incredible achievement and shows the dedication their organization has to life in the wild.
A tamandua currently being rehabilitated for release.Their motto?
“Keep them in your heart but leave them in the forest.”
So many of us have become completely smitten with sloths. This is a way that we can really help them.
RESCUE CENTER
Aiunau currently has a rescue center near Medellin, which I had the opportunity to visit a couple months ago. While there I met an orphaned sloth from Cordoba, a province in the North of Colombia which the biodiverse lands of the Choco region stretch though, where forests are rife with poaching.
This orphan was calling out, crying like a baby.
It needed to be fed, and to feel safe and secure. It was given that protective nurturing and nourishment by the wildlife rehabilitator and founder of Aiunau.
Sloths are heavily poached and trafficked in Colombia and need our help.
PRESERVE NATURAL HABITAT
With your help, we’ll be able to finalize not only a new center for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, but also preserve some 500ha (1236 acres!) of land, interconnected by biological corridors of tropical dry forest.
TRANSFORM A COMMUNITY
As you may well know, Colombia is emerging from a violent past. In the particular area where the new center is located, Mejor Esquina, the first massacre by paramilitaries took place 30 years ago.
Now, with renewed peace, ex-coca farmers and their armed guerrilas are seeking new sources of income. Aiunau aims to work with local communities which have turned to extracting wild fauna. Their goal is to educate on the importance of protecting the environment and its inherent value, encourage alternative sustainable sources of income, and contribute to the transformation from conflict to peace.
This is Bareta. She was kidnapped from the forest and purchased by a drug dealer for the price of a spliff. The name “bareto” refers to a joint of marijuana.
Her worth alive and thriving in the forest far exceeds the monetary value she was purchased for. Thankfully she is now in the compassionate care of Aiunau. She is currently being rehabilitated and will be released back into the forest, where she belongs.
Meet Rosa. Her mother was killed by a hunter in the Choco region of Colombia. While the hunter was carrying the dead, bloodied sloth over his shoulder, a woman in the village saw it and realized there was a baby still alive and clinging to its mother.
The hunter used a machete to kill the mother, and as you can see, stuck the face of the baby as well, creating a large wound and damaging the nose.
The kind woman took the baby and healed its wounds. During this time, the woman received roses for her birthday. The little baby sloth ate the entire bouquet of blooms and was then named Rosa.
Once little Rosita was well enough, she was brought to Aiunau where she is now being fully rehabilitated and will be released back into the wild.
VENTURING TO THE SITE
I will be making my way north to visit the site of the new rescue center and document its progress. I will also be checking in on Bareta and Rosa!
The construction of the rescue and rehabilitation center is well underway. This fundraiser is to help finalize these structures and is urgently needed.
SLEEP WHERE THE SLOTHS ARE
There will be a couple bungalows on this site and donors of this project who invest $50 or more will get a special invitation to come stay in these closed-to-the-public spaces.
Please don’t get it in your mind that you will be cuddling sloths - this is a center which is dedicated to the rehabilitation of WILD life. They cannot be released if they are imprinted by humans. Their lives would be in danger were they to depend on or desire to be around people.
Rental rates have yet to be determined.
This is me with the founder of Aiunau, Tinka Plese, at the rescue and rehabilitation center outside of Medellin.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the habitat preserve or rescue center!
Organizer
Janelle Kaz
Organizer
Grants Pass, OR