Help the elephants of Cambodia & EVP post pandemic

We had originally opened a project on GlobalGiving to get us through the crisis of the covid pandemic, but as we are moving out of the critical phase of this pandemic, we are looking forward to rebuilding and recovery. For this we continue to rely on your support, while visitor numbers are still low, to support the elephants and indigenous community who rely on this forest.

Elephant Conservation Program

• Mobile Vet Team Project
• With the easing of COVID restrictions and infections, our mobile team of two have increased their visits to remote villages to conduct health checks on elephants. This includes measuring and estimating their weights, assessing any injuries and checking their eyes, ears, limbs, feet and skin quality for sores. 
• During the cold season (Dec-Feb) most of the work for our team involved working with owners to advise on sugar rich foods and help for aging elephants across the province.
• Our mobile vet unit also responded to multiple emergency cases, both in communities and also at the sanctuary.

• Captive Elephant Care & Rehabilitation @ the Elephant Valley Project
• Funding during the last half of this year primarily went to the elephants' food and the caregivers' wages. We have had quite a few guests booking in over the summer, but fundraising and donations keep the elephants going through this time, as we still have a lot of bills to back pay from the gaps created due to the pandemic.
• A lot of funding this year has gone to supporting Cambodia's most famous elephant, Sambo. She is getting older (60+ yrs), and given her years on the streets of Phnom Penh eating excess amounts of sugar and human food; Sambo has developed a tooth infection in the last 6 months. We have modified her diet to help her feed with softer food like rice, banana, sweet potato and tamarind. Funding support ensures we can give Sambo the best quality of life as she ages. 
• This period also brought about our colder months, where additional food and medications were needed for our older elephants, MaeNang, GeeNowl, NingWan and Sambo. 
• With the dry season also comes the wild elephants, your support allows us to buy supplementary food for our elephants, as we have to move them out of the way of the migrating wild elephants. This usually means we move our elephants closer to the community with less forage food at night, and they require more supplementary food.

• Natural Resource Protection Project 
• During the end of 2022 our new partner, Cloud Forest, who are starting a program with us to support the community forest program and also for community land rights issues, has been helping to support the rice in compensation for the community forest program. Additional funding is required to keep all 78 indigenous families receiving 30kg of rice per month per family who own the forest where our elephants reside. This support is crucial mainly in times of difficulty, for example, the last three years of the pandemic. Additional funding is also needed for forest rangers.

Ecotourism Program

• Elephant Valley Project 
• Over the winter months we received quite a few guests returning, with a lot of time being spent on rebuilding base camp and trails. With limited staffing resources, we are having to also employ additional local community members for their help. 
• Getting the site back up and operational also enables us to host training programs such as hosting WWF to train their local forest rangers on identifying and tracking wild elephants in their regions across Cambodia. Your continued support enables the sanctuary to do bigger and better things beyond our EVP boundaries. 
• Keeping the site going throughout this period has also allowed us to host more educational groups, such as the International School of Phnom Penh. Which means educating the future leaders of Cambodia on elephant welfare, conservation and community engagement. Thanks to all your support.

Community Support Program

• Health Care Support Project

• Due to funding shortage our major health support program is still on hold, but we are starting to support the health center in the village for basic health access for community members.

• School Support Project

• On Hold - no funds. But we were able to support our first Community School Enrolment Drive since covid, motivating children and families to get children to school again/for the first time.

• Community Development Project

• On Hold - no funds.

Links:

• Visit our website