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 When
the squeeze on a rhino chute at Sepilok broke and needed repair,
Dr. Edwin Bosi called his friend Lee Foo Hwa, a contractor in the
area. Lee fixed the manual squeeze, which actually makes the chute,
a cage-like enclosure, squeeze the rhino so that the keeper or vet
can get better access to the animal. Since that day, Lee has remained
involved with SOS Rhino and has helped make sure the organization's
sundry needs are met.
Dr. Annelisa Kilbourn calls Lee a "jack of all
trades."
"He helps you get car insurance, he helps you when your car
breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He can even help you fix things
yourself over the phone," says Kilbourn.
When SOS Rhino needed a four-wheel drive vehicle to drive around
the rainforest, Lee took Kilbourn and others around to look at cars,
but as it turned out, the best car for the job was Lee's own Land
Rover. Lee was reluctant to sell his car, which he knew inside and
out and had rebuilt with a Toyota engine.
Lee ended up selling his car to SOS Rhino. He also maintains it
for them.
Lee is not the only one to go out of his way to rescue the staff
of SOS Rhino at Sepilok. His wife does, too.
Once, when Kilbourn was sick, Lee's wife made her soup made of
various ingredients, including a seven-year-old dried Mandarin orange
peel--an element of traditional Chinese medicine that the couple
swears by.
"The soup made me sweat a lot, but the next day I felt fine,"
Kilbourn says.
Lee has filled in a swamp, fixed a fence, mended different parts
of the SOS office, and supplied materials for the foundation.
Lee is instrumental in the fight to keep rhinos alive.
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