As devastating bushfires rage through Australia, animal lovers around the world are knitting, crocheting, and sewing protective pouches, blankets, and nests for homeless wildlife.
Thousands of volunteers are crafting handmade donations for the Australia-based Animal Rescue Craft Guild Facebook group. Working in partnership with the Queensland-based Rescue Collective, the guild distributes the contributions to thousands of animal rescue organizations and independent animal caretakers in areas affected by the wildfires.
Heartwarming gifts, including bat wraps, bird nests, possum boxes, koala mittens, and marsupial pouches, are pouring in from the United States, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Britain, and many other places.
Orphaned baby marsupials, including kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, and possums, rely on the cloth pouches to grow.
Projects like this one remind us that when it comes to rescuing wildlife, no contribution is too small.
“I am a single mom, so I don’t really have a lot of money to donate,” Ohio resident Holly Wehmeyer told The Guardian. “It’s rewarding to think a bat can lay in this pouch and feel some kind of comfort.”
With no end to Australia’s tragic wildfires in sight, the need for donations remains high. In recent weeks, the flames have blazed uncontrollably through a region the size of New York with as many as one billion animals feared to be dead, while hundreds of thousands of survivors are displaced, injured and in need of urgent care.
Anyone interested in contributing to this inspiring cause can visit the Animal Rescue Craft Guild’s Facebook page for more information.