It’s a bright, sunny morning in Costa Rica and we are all quarantined inside our beautiful jungle homes. We are social distancing and practicing solitary sloth-like existences in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
But most importantly, we are trying to find alternative ways to continue running our sloth conservation programs without endangering ourselves or the communities that we work so closely with.
News from the jungle
Costa Rica has declared a National State of Emergency, with the number of coronavirus cases steadily increasing. The borders have been closed and everyone has been advised to stay home and self-quarantine. The months ahead will no doubt present some big challenges for our team, but we remain committed to doing everything that we can to help the sloths and our communities throughout this unpredictable time.
Thankfully, there are some bright spots among the gloom. We are excited to be experimenting with innovative new ways to carry out our programs that embrace social distancing and minimize human contact.
You can join us live from the jungles of Costa Rica!
A huge part of our mission is education, and in response to the global school closures, we are going to be offering live video learning opportunities for parents and families on our social media channels. These will include exclusive question & answer sessions with SloCo founder Dr. Rebecca Cliffe, as well as sloth adventures streamed live from the jungle with the SloCo team!
Saving the World From Your Sofa
Sloths are big supporters of the self-isolation lifestyle. As a solitary prey species they enjoy lots of personal space and become stressed out if anyone gets too close. In the coming months it seems that we will all need to be much more sloth-like. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the COVID-19 virus in what is an incredibly challenging time.
Coronavirus – we are all in this together
As you can imagine the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc not only on people’s physical and emotional health, but also on their financial stability. In the last few weeks we unfortunately have experienced an unprecedented decline in donations.
We understand – in times of global crisis, charitable giving is the last thing on your mind. But as a registered non-profit organisation we receive no financial support from the government and everything we do to safeguard a future for sloths is dependent on receiving donations from supporters like you.
As a relatively young foundation, we do not have the same financial safety net that many larger organisations have built up. This means that financial instability in the months ahead is going to leave us and our sloth conservation programs vulnerable.