By Liane Fulford | Base Manager
Dear Supporters,
This quarter we have tackled our most challenging fundraiser yet, seen fluctuating weather with some very wet hikes followed by very hot hikes, participated in a village celebration, and spent time with our elephants in new and beautiful parts of the forest.
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in, or donated to, our July fundraiser; Walk the path of the Huay Pakoot elephants. This involved 2 full days of walking from our village Huay Pakoot to the nearest town of Mae Chaem; 57km in total. Before transportation, elephants were used to transport supplies between Mae Chaem and the village - after walking the distance, we had a great deal of appreciation for these huge animals - it was not an easy feat! Over 20 staff, interns and volunteers took on this challenge, not only raising nearly $2000 for our elephants Khum Suk, Sadja and Lulu, but also having a great deal of fun. Speakers, good music, good company and breathtaking views made the blisters and aching feet more bearable. We spent the first night in a campsite before a gruelling second day of walking to meet our destination; being rewarded with a swimming pool and some Thai food upon arrival into Mae Chaem.
Our interns in Chiang Mai have been busy learning all about leadership so they can start planning their own Trust fundraisers here, as well as taking an active role in collecting data on our elephants. We have recently compiled all our elephant data into readable graphs and are very pleased to see that the elephants are displaying natural behaviours, which is mostly feeding and food prep, as well as a small amount of time spent walking. All of our elephants have previously been in camps and it has taken some of them a while to get used to life in the forest, so it’s very positive to see that they are now at home in the forest. Funds from the GVI Trust enable us to keep these elephants in the wild where they are able to roam freely and eat a varied diet.
Volunteers regularly check the elephants’ health, and recent analysis of this data has shown that all of our elephants are either consistently healthy or their health is improving over time. Despite Khum Suk’s old age of 68, she still has the same health score as Lulu, our youngest elephant!
We are excited about our upcoming plans for the last few months of the year; we are working on an online store, where we can sell trinkets from our hub like volunteer-designed T-shirts and traditional Karen bracelets. We are also working on recruiting ambassadors to promote our new ‘Adopt an Elephant’ campaign - each elephant costs $600 per month to keep in the forest, so we really need all the help we can get! Feel free to get in touch with the Chiang Mai team if you are interested in joining our Fundraiser Army!
The rainy season finally seems to be coming to a close and the village is relaxing after the official End of Planting celebration. Now we just wait for the harvest! The celebration in August involved visiting many different houses in the village and eating a lot of food. We try to be involved as much as possible in village life; the elephants have been a part of the Karen culture for many years, so immersing ourselves in the culture here helps us to understand the elephants too!
We still have our two Community Liaisons working for us; Dee and Don. They are both from the village and started out as scholars with GVI - funded through the Trust. They are invaluable in maintaining our good relationship with the villagers and mahouts. The last month Dee has successfully participated in the GVI staff trainings including First Aid, so he can begin to take a more active role in our project. Don’s English and confidence has also improved noticeably over the last few months and he enjoys teaching the volunteers the language Pakinyaw as well as helping out in English classes at the school. Hopefully one day he will also be able to pass the GVI trainings; this is in line with our objectives to give the villagers more job opportunities and to have a sustainable project which the village can take ownership of.
Look out for our new online store and for more fundraising events in the coming months. We hope to continue supporting our three elephants Sadja, Lulu and Khum Suk, as well as continuing to create opportunities for the villagers here to take an active role in our project. Thanks to everyone who has supported the Trust this quarter and for keeping up-to-date with all the happenings at our Chiang Mai hub.
Thank you so much for your continued support!
All our best,
GVI Chiang Mai
By Liane Fulford | Base Manager
By Anna Bjerring | Base Manager
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser