Foundation Statement

      In recent years, whether at home in North America or through travels in other parts of the world, we've increasingly come in contact with people whose efforts to protect Wildlife, the Natural Environment and Human Rights* are an inspiration to us. Providing financial assistance for their various projects is the primary mission of the Maue Kay Foundation. However we also hope to enlist additional support for their exemplary work, through the information, images and video clips, featured on our various project pages. Each page contains a link to the organization in question, in case you wish to obtain additional information, including how to make direct contributions,
Please point your mouse at the titled images on the left to view the listed project pages.

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Notes from the director:

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Dr. Birute Galdikas and Orangutan Foundation International (OFI): In our last post we mentioned that we were looking forward to meeting Dr. Birute Galdikas of OFI. We are glad to report that last Saturday, while in San Diego for an OFI benefit performance by John Kay & Steppenwolf, we had the great pleasure of doing so. We met and chatted with Dr. Birute as well as Drew Fellman, producer of the film “Born To Be Wild”, during the band’s sound check. Before the show that evening, after screening the trailer of “Born To Be Wild”, featuring Dr. Birute’s work in Borneo as well as Dame Daphne Sheldrick’s work with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, I introduced Dr. Birute to the audience. The crowd was respectful and attentive and was clearly interested in what she had to say and relate. In addition to the benefit show’s ticket sales, funds were raised for OFI through a profitable silent auction. All in all, a successful and rewarding evening. The next day – Mothers Day – a special OFI benefit screening of the Born To Be Wild IMAX film was held at the San Diego Science Center. During the film not a single sound was heard from the audience, a testament to the spellbinding effect of this motion picture. Drew Fellman and all who had a hand in bringing this film to life can justly be proud of having created an important document that will reach the core of anyone with a beating heart. We have seen the film 3 times and would gladly see it again. After the screening Dr. Birute and I took questions from the audience. It was heartening that some of the most concerned questions came from many young people, particularly “What can one do to help preserve and protect the Orangutans”. Dr. Birute ask, in fact begged them to avoid products containing Palm Oil, because most of the often illegally cleared land – it is estimated that 78% of logging in Indonesia is done illegally – is usually converted into yet another Palm Oil Plantation. These stretch as far as the eye can see for thousands of acres and of course enormously reduce the remaining habitat for Orangutans and all other forms of life, including indigenous people that live there. One of OFI’s goals is to raise funds to purchase and protect land that has not been logged and is prime habitat for Orangutans. There is obviously no point in nurturing and raising the over 300 Orangutan orphans currently in OFI’s care, if no viable habitat remains into which these orphans can be released.. Therefore, while our Foundation will certainly continue to support OFI, we encourage you to visit www.orangutan.org to learn about OFI’s important work and lend a hand. There are many of our not too distant cousins at OFI, waiting for someone like you to sponsor them. JK & JMK

Wednesday April 6, 2011

Born To Be Wild, indeed. Weeks ago we were informed that Warner Brothers was shooting an IMAX film in 3D titled “Born To Be Wild” about 2 truly outstanding people and their life long work, namely Dame Daphne Sheldrick of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya and Dr. Birute Galdikas of the Orangutan Foundation International in Borneo, Indonesia. Dame Daphne and her helpers have rescued, raised and reintroduced back in into the wild over 100 orphaned baby elephants, while Dr. Birute and her staff have done the same with untold orphaned baby Orangutans. Our foundation has been supporting both of these projects, so we were delighted to learn that this film will now bring the remarkable work of these two women to the attention of the greater public. You can view a trailer of the film, which is narrated by Morgan Freeman and additional clips of the making of the film etc. at: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810189903/video/24796643 48 hours after being notified about the production of the film, we were contacted by Science North: http://sciencenorth.ca/ who’s David Lickley it turned out, is the director of the BTBW film, but Science North’s inquiry concerned a major fund raising event and not the film. After learning about the conservation related work done by and at Science North - which brings thousands of people and particularly children through its doors every year - Jutta and I agreed to participate in the planned event. Making people aware of the need to protect our global natural treasures is paramount, if we hope to preserve what is left and Science North does an admirable job of doing just that. So last Saturday, following a gala dinner, I spoke about related matters on behalf of our foundation, while Jutta’s wildlife and foundation project images were projected to illustrate my points. Afterwards I joined four fine local musicians who had donated their time and talent to learn several Steppenwolf songs which we performed together for a crowd of post dinner guests and those who came to only attend the fund raising party. I believe a fine time was had by all, including Jutta and myself, but most importantly much needed funds were raised to enable Science North to continue its crucial work. In May we’ll meet Dr. Birute Galdikas and learn more about her work with the over 300 orphaned baby Orangutans that she and OFI are currently nurturing at Camp Leakey in Borneo. We will then post our report. JK & JMK

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Once again it’s been far too long since the last update, so there’s much to tell. In April 2009 we visited Kasiranga National Park in Assam, a remote region in northeast India, known for its active and at times violent separatist / independence movement. Our aim was to track the Asian Rhino which has managed to thrive in Kasiranga due to successful conservation efforts by the local people, who seem to have a reverence for the natural world and its creatures. On several occasions we observed a number of these primeval looking – very different from African Rhinos in appearance – large, heavy animals. Their plate like hides reminded one of Samurai armor. They are a force to be reckoned with and it’s wise to give them their space. We also saw several wild Asian Elephant groups which seemed keen on keeping their distance. Considering Asian Elephants are used as beasts of burden etc., I don’t suppose that’s surprising. On our last day in the park a group of Dutch Birders made the mistake of leaving their vehicle and walking into Elephant territory which resultedin the death one man who was trampled. We spent the following days on a boat cruising the Brahmaputra River, which is India’s second largest. A couple of standout experiences were visiting Majuli Island, the largest river island in the world as well as the “Mising” (or Missing / Mishing) tribe people who were gracious and welcoming. Our last stop in India was Kanha National Park where we spotted Wolves, Leopard and on our last day a Tiger, although the thrill of the latter experience was overshadowed by the fact that the few remaining Tigers in the park are tracked daily and when found, a parade of tourists (ourselves included) are brought to where the animal is resting, to observe it for a couple minutes. Although the tourist dollars help protect these magnificent creatures it’s nevertheless far from an ideal existence for the animals. Upon our return to New Delhi we flew to the mountain Kingdom of Bhutan, a peaceful, serene country. Other than a group of Yak, which we came upon while crossing a mountain pass, our visit to Bhutan was not about observing wildlife but about people and their culture. While many countries rely on “Gross National Product” as an indicator of economic heath, Bhutan prefers “Gross National Happiness” as its measuring stick for determining how the Bhutanese feel about the quality of their lives. It seemed to us that this primarily Buddhist country has, by and large, managed to keep from falling victim to outside influences so far. After several days of exploring the countryside with its many rice terraces, shrines, temples and monasteries we reluctantly said Good Bye to our guides and one of the most interesting places we’ve encountered. Later that year in October, our photographer friend Albert and I (JK) visited our school in Cambodia. Once again we brought school supplies, picture books, new computers etc. for the students and teachers at the Tith Mom School. After the 4 hour drive from Phnom Phen we spend the rest of the day meeting and greeting all concerned. We were pleased to see that everything was in order. The well, garden, cooking shack, teacher’s house, satellite dish for internet access, solar panel, generator, all were functional and serving the school as intended. Later in the afternoon we visited some of the students’ families in the nearby villages. All were most gracious and many expressed their appreciation for the school. The father of one of the girls that attends the school had painted a large picture of the Temples at Angkor Wat and presented this to us as a gift of gratitude. In now hangs in our home and needless to say, we treasure it and its special meaning. The next day, in Phnom Phen we visited the two girls we’ve sponsored to secondary school education, at the “Bright Future Kids Home” They had eagerly waited for our arrival and were happy to finally meet us and excitedly showed us around the place. The BFK Home is a bright, cheerful place, run by an “earth Mother” Cambodian woman who has one of kindest faces I’ve ever seen. All the kids are well looked after and seem to flourish in her care. She also takes care of a number of orphans, housed in an adjoining building, who sang a couple of songs for us. There are moments when one’s eyes seem to get moist and this was one of those. Saying “Good Bye” to our two girls was very hard, but we’ve remained in touch via email and plan to see them again this year. In March 2010 we traveled to the Mala Mala Game Reserve in South Africa. We had heard that this private reserve adjacent to the enormous Kruger National Park had an abundance of wildlife and we were not disappointed. In fact we saw an astonishing variety and great number of animals which all together easily matched the wildlife we had seen in East Africa in previous journeys. From Mala Mala it was a short flight to the Lebombo region of Kruger Park where once again we found numerous animals that seemed to be doing well in this area. Thereafter we were off to Botswana once again, this time not only to Chobe National Park where, we’re happy to say, the Elephant population is still thriving - which is not the case elsewhere in light of the recent surge of ivory poaching – but also to the Kalahari Desert. One morning, just before sunrise, we sat next to the dens of a colony of Meerkats. Once the Sun appeared, they emerged to warm themselves before leaving to pursue their foraging. They took no notice of us other than to climb onto our shoulders and even our heads. This gave them a higher vantage point from which to keep a lookout for predators. They are charming and delightful little creatures and we had a most enjoyable time with them. The Kalahari and particularly its enormous salt pans, is a stark, but fascinating place. While the harsh conditions give the initial impression that nothing much could live there, that is far from the case. Aside from some of its unique animals such as the Brown Hyena, the Kalahari hosts the second largest wildlife migration – the Serengeti migration is even greater – in the world. Although they congregated at a fair distance from us, we were at times surrounded by literally thousands of Zebras and Wildebeests, grazing on the hard but mineral rich grasses. When night fell, the clear African skies revealed a humbling spectacle of countless stars, while in the distance we could hear the Zebras snorting and barking. It was a moment when one’s smallness and insignificance in the greater scheme of things, becomes abundantly clear. Stay wild: JK & JMK