Highlighting our heroes: Moses Arineitwe

Founder of the Pangolin Rescue Centre in Uganda, Moses Arineitwe is a hero fighting to protect pangolins and spread awareness about the vulnerable creatures in his community.

There is a childhood memory that is still vivid in Moses Arineitwe’s mind. A small, scared pangolin had somehow wandered into his village in Uganda. It entered a nearby home, where it frightened its inhabitants.

They beat the animal, killing it on the spot.

“In our community, when people encounter a strange animal, their first thought is to kill it to protect themselves,” Moses explains. “I want to raise awareness and protect our pangolins.”

Moses never forgot that moment. He says this is what inspired him to later become a champion and advocate for vulnerable creatures like elephants, rhinoceros, and the African pangolins.

Rescue & rehabilitation

That’s exactly what he has done with the Pangolin Rescue Centre. Founded and led by Moses the centre is based in Kanungu, in the western region of Uganda and has rescued over 165 pangolins.

The operation, run by volunteers and visiting experts, is dedicated to rescuing pangolins and providing medical and veterinary services. When the animals are ready for safe return to the wild, the centre works with wildlife officials to release them at the Bwindi Forest National Park in Uganda.

“We think it’s best to get all our pangolins into protected areas, where they cannot be so easily captured by those answering the high demand for them as bush meat trade and the pangolin scales,” Moses says.

Some days are quiet, and they focus on feeding the very hungry pangolins in their care (pangolins eat up to 20,000 ants a day!). Other days are busy, like recently where Moses says they rescued two pangolins in peril.

“First, I received a call from one of the local game lodges about a pangolin in one of the rooms. We had to go there to collect the pangolin and were just releasing her back to the wild when I received another call about an injured pangolin needing to be picked from police to be rehabilitated,” he says.

“All of this shows our work is paying off. We are grateful to all who support us.”

Don’t kill the pangolin

Moses and his team also work to spread knowledge about pangolins, and to dispel myths and misinformation that can lead to their endangerment.

“Fear and ignorance lead people to kill pangolins, and increases their threat from poaching,” says Moses.

“We work to raise awareness. We take photos into the communities and teach them about what a pangolin is, why we need to protect them, and how they can call us to come help whenever they find a pangolin in need.”

There have been countless moments when Moses visits a village to spread awareness and is told by someone that they killed a pangolin, yesterday, that month, or that year. “I say to them, don’t kill the pangolin. Call me. And what happens is, a few weeks later, they do call,” he says.

Lets help Moses!

Moses and his team are making a difference, but they can’t do it alone. They are in need of support to enable rescues and provide medical care.

Most urgently they need assistance to cover the costs of motorbikes and petrol, used to race out and rescue pangolins whenever a call comes through.

They are also in need of basic medical supplies, including gloves, gauze, and most importantly, medicines. Costs for tracking devices are also needed, to research and monitor the success of their released pangolins.

“All our funding comes from friends. We know there is a need for our services, and we hope to gather enough support to meet that need,” Moses says.

As calls continue to come, and more people in the community learn to protect pangolins, there is reason to believe that they will need that support now more than ever.

Our goal is to raise ZAR 50,000 (USD 2,500 / GBP 2,000) for Moses and the Pangolin Rescue Centre. Specifically:

• ZAR 500.00 (USD 30.00 / GBP 20.00) will cover the cost of motorbike fuel to go and recue 5 pangolins!
  
• ZAR 1,000 (USD 50.00 / GBP 40.00) will buy enough veterinary supplies for a month.
• ZAR 10,000 (USD 500 / GBP 400) will pay the salaries of the rescue centre for a whole month.
• ZAR 7,000 (USD 700 / GBP 300) will buy him a solar powered projector for his school program.

Please give as much as you can!

All donors will be kept up to date with how funds are spent. We will also share newsletters with photos and videos from Moses and his team.

Help us support Moses

We call on you – and all our #PangolinGuardians – to help get Moses the equipment, medicines, and supplies he needs. Every little bit helps!

Donate here:
https://www.givengain.com/campaign/helping-our-heroes-moses-arineitwe