Driven by empathy and compassion.
Sun Bear Outreach is a non-profit charity registered in France and founded in 2014 by Patrick Rouxel. Our first mission is to improve the well being of captive sun bears in Indonesia, our second mission is to help all animals in need, and our third mission is to raise awareness on animal welfare and environmental conservation.
We don’t run our own sanctuary nor do we actually have animals in our care, but we collaborate with local sanctuaries and refuges to help them improve their facilities and welfare practices. We work on site to supervise the projects we finance and to help care for the animals.
Sun Bear Outreach runs its activities thanks to donations and grands. We, the 3 associates of SBO, receive no salary from the charity for the work we do. We try to limit to the upmost our administrative costs so that the near totality of the funds we receive goes to the animals. We are transparent in our finances and we are in a relationship of trust with our donors.
Patrick Rouxel – founder and CEO
Born in 1966, I am half Swedish, half French and grew up in Malaysia and Singapore. I graduated with a BA in Humanities from UC Berkeley in 1987 and went on to study literature at La Sorbonne in Paris. After working for more then 15 years in digital special effects for feature films, I decided to go freelance as a filmmaker for environmental conservation. From 2004 to 2014, I made films dedicated to the protection of the tropical rainforest and to animal welfare.(www.patrickrouxel.com)
In 2011, a chance encounter with an orphan sun bear cub in Indonesia changed the course of my life. As told in my film “Life is One”, I chose to rehabilitate this cub to the wild, followed by another two cubs, and in the process I discovered what it is to be a sun bear. The 3 years I spent in the forest with the cubs opened my eyes to the joy the bears experience at being free in their habitat, and in retrospect, to the suffering they endure when confined behind bars. This triggered my commitment to improve the welfare of captive sun bears in Indonesia.
Christine Chiquet –Treasurer
I live in France where I graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique as an engineer and after 20 years of a professional career in corporates, I became a psychotherapist. I now work with people in pain to help them find a well being.
It is very important to me to do whatever we can to protect life in all its manifestations: humans, animals, trees, the environment, and oceans. This is why I am vegetarian, why I try to minimize my environmental footprint and why I am active in different non profit organizations that focus on these issues.
Having seen through Patrick’s films the dreadful conditions in which sun bears are held captive, it seems essential to me to raise awareness about the plight of these bears and to improve their living conditions whenever this is possible. I am very proud and honoured to be able to participate alongside Patrick to this cause through Sun Bear Outreach.
Caroline Rouxel Vidal – Secretary General
Born in 1964, I am half Swedish, half French and grew up in Malaysia and Singapore. I graduated with a BS in Boston USA and worked for 10 years in Japan and France in Industry. I am now a potter in the south of France. Ceramics started off as a hobby and it soon turned into a passion. So one day I decided to turn this passion into a career. I have been working for 15 years in the creation of functional ware. As a lover of nature and animals, I am happy to be an active member of my brother’s non profit: Sun Bear Outreach.
Living in France, my husband and I educate our child with the notion that he is part of a planet where every life form has a place and deserves respect and preservation. In this world of consumerism, we try to our best to teach him how to value things as precious objects made from materials given to us by nature.
Aware of the destructive impact of man on our precious planet, I am happy to contribute to its preservation by helping out in my brother’s non profit: Sun Bear Outreach.