Education Helps to Save Wild Tigers

Education Helps to Save Wild Tigers – New Challenges and Opportunities

In the last four months, families all over the world have faced new challenges due to COVID19, Lockdown measures, home-schooling, etc. The list seems potentially endless. In rural India these challenges have had a devastating impact too: just imagine for one moment the challenge of home schooling without a computer, without the internet, without even books or a desk where your children or grandchildren can work – do you have that thought in your mind? How would you cope? Now imagine for a moment that you have no work, no food, no electricity, no running water and everyone is locked down together in a single room for 4 months. It is almost unimaginable isn’t it? Well it is real, that is the challenge which the majority of families living around Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve have faced since 25 March 2020, and what is worse is that the schools in India aren’t expected to reopen until November 2020 at the earliest! So why are you writing an appeal for educational resources when the children can’t even go to school, I hear you say?

Well the short answer is we can’t just sit back and do nothing. We are already into the fourth week of the monsoon rains, so families already facing some of the hardest times of their lives are now facing the added challenges of thunderstorms which frequently fell large trees, farmers in their fields being struck by lightning (at least 145 people have been killed by lightning in Northern India in the last 4 weeks alone), and the potential to be driven to despair by the continued threat of COVID19 and the extreme poverty it has caused. So we spoke to our friends at the Global Tiger Conservation Society (GTCS) and asked what could be done to help the children who effectively will lose 8 months of access to education as a minimum. GTCS has agreed to teach English to 30 children at a time, 6 days per week until the schools re-open; which is fantastic news, however, the children need some basic writing materials and English-Hindi dictionaries so they can attend the classes and learn. Tigers4Ever wants to help by providing education packs and dictionaries for at least 30 children but we need your help to raise £200 (US$260) to cover the cost of these.

How you can help:

Just £20/US$26 will provide basic writing materials and an English-Hindi dictionary for 3 children living with wild tigers so they can learn to read, write and speak English.

Whereas £100/US$130 will buy basic writing materials and an English-Hindi dictionary for 15 children (half a class) living with wild tigers so they can learn to read, write and speak English.

Donate now at: https://goto.gg/32565.

Future Scholarships

We still intend to fund scholarship places at a new school in Bandhavgarh, but these plans are on hold until we have raised sufficient funds and the uncertainty caused by the COVID19 lockdown measures has been removed. We plan to prioritise children who have been directly impacted by the death of a parent due to wild animal attacks for these scholarships in the hope of giving them future opportunities they would otherwise miss, but if we cannot raise new funds, this will be impossible too. We expect to be able to funding a scholarship for one child for a year for £72 (US$96), and hope to get up to 10 people to sponsor these children at £6 (US$8) per month to make this possible: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/education-saves-tigers/?show=recurring.

Global Tiger Day/International Tiger Day

On Global Tiger Day – 29 July 2020 - We wanted to do something different to help raise awareness about the plight of the wild tiger and the multiple threats and challenges which they face. COVID19, however, scuppered our plans to hold a week long wildlife art exhibition around the day. A few weeks ago we were approached by the Publishers BadPressInk regarding a book “Sinister Sisterhood” which is being released on Global Tiger Day and the author, Jane Badrock, is keen to donate 50% of the book profits to help big cat conservation. We were delighted to hear this, and Jane even agreed to a special edition supporting Tigers4Ever which is available from Amazon in Kindle and Paperback format using this link: https://badpress.ink/2020/07/26/tigers4ever-org-giving-wild-tigers-a-wild-future/ every copy sold will help our quest to save wild tigers, so we asked Tigers4Ever Trustee Dr. Sean Axon to use his past experience of reviewing books and publications and provide a special review of the book for our supporters. This is what Sean had to say:

“Sinister Sisterhood is a darkly-comic thriller about a group of female vigilantes seeking revenge on those who exploit wild animals or hunt them as trophies.

The lead character, Elle motivated by a chance conversation with her Aunt during a visit to India, decides to do something about “eliminating” the top 10 global trophy hunters. Under the guise of an employment agency, she assembles a crack team of female vigilantes each of whom has their own motivations and unique set of skills which they apply with great enthusiasm.

This is a fast-paced globetrotting adventure and the plot takes multiple twists and turns as we navigate the adventures and encounters of each of the Sinister Sisterhood as they pursue their adversaries. Without giving anything away, there are several macabre and laugh-out-loud moments throughout and whilst most rational people would not endorse the Sisterhood’s unique direct approach, many would empathise with their cause.

The book is distinctly tongue-in-cheek and reminded me of a cross between the Agatha Raisin Mysteries and Charlie’s Angels! That said, the book does deal with the serious underlying issue of animal exploitation and the threat posed by trophy hunters and criminal gangs to the very survival of endangered wild animals such as tigers. It also touches on people trafficking, modern slavery and the use of legitimate business as a front for criminal activities.

This would make a great gift for wild animal lovers, those who support conservation work or those who simply enjoy an easily readable thriller. I would recommend it as a great piece of escapism during these strange times.”

We hope that our supporters will enjoy the book too.

Imagine the Difference

Cast your mind back to the beginning of this report, the sense of despair and uncertainty brought about by COVID19, sensations which sadly are all too familiar right now. So wouldn’t it be truly amazing if out of this despair we were able to give at least 30 children the chance to speak English, a skill which they will need if they are to become tiger protectors in the future? You could make that happen too.

Remember: when we provide education packs for children living with wild tigers we are reducing the risk of future tiger habitat destruction AND ensuring that these children have the opportunity to become future tiger protectors.

I would like to thank you for your generosity and support on behalf of the wild tigers, which we are keeping safe; on behalf of the children who we have helped to get an education (and their families who will have food because of this help); and on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing books and writing equipment for inclusion in the education packs which we distribute. Stay Safe in these challenging times.

Links:

• Tigers4Ever Website
• Global Tiger Day Book to Help Tigers4Ever
• Sponsor a Tigers4Ever Scholarship

In our January project report, we recalled how our efforts in 2019 had taken the number of children we have provided educational opportunities to up to 2200 across 25 different villages and this was thanks to your amazing support. In as little as three months, so much has changed: around the world people are living in lockdown due to the outbreak of COVID19 (coronavirus), and India is no exception. Right now, Indian families are confined to their homes and schools have closed down, people are in a total lockdown for 21 days, but the rural schools close even before that began.

We have no idea how long this situation will last, and in that respect we are no different from anyone else, but what we do know is that in rural India, these poor rural families will be crammed into a single room or at best two rooms, there will be no furniture to sit on for many, and those who have a bed or two will take it in turns to sleep there. Add to this, no running water and no electricity for the many and you may start to see how difficult life will be for the children of these families with no school, unable to go outside to play with friends, and nothing to occupy their minds.

We normally ask for help so we can provide education packs so these children have a chance to go to school, but now these education packs may well be their only chance to learn with or without school. Now more than ever, the basic learning books which we include in the packs for the youngest children which teach them the alphabet in Hindi and English along with how to count; could be vital to ensuring that a generation of young children living with wild tigers don’t miss out on education for life. With this in mind, and with your help, we’d like to put a greater emphasis on these basic educational resources and also bilingual dictionaries for the older children. We’d like to ensure that every child we help has access to learning in both Hindi and English at this difficult time, but we’d also like to give them the basic writing materials so that if and when the schools re-open these children can go to school too.

In the next couple of months, we’d like to provide educational resources for at least 250 children living with wild tigers, but we can’t do this without your help. We want the poorest children to learn to read, write and equally importantly learn about wildlife, nature and conservation. We want these children to have a chance to grow up and become protectors of wild tigers rather than have a lifestyle which is entirely dependent on encroachment or destruction of wild tiger habitat for survival. We want to ensure that these children don’t miss out on the opportunity to get an education which would enable them to have a better future too, but sadly since our last report we haven’t received the donations to facilitate this. So when you consider that for just £20/US$26 we could provide the educational resources to school 4 young children living with wild tigers: https://goto.gg/32565.

We had also hoped to be able to fund scholarship places at a new school in Bandhavgarh, but the uncertainty caused by COVID19 and a lack of funding have meant that we must put this plan on hold, for now. This is still something which we would like to do, but without donations it is impossible. If we cannot raise new funds, then another generation of young children will miss out on education and could, as a result of this, become future tiger poachers. If you want to help us to prevent this from happening: don’t delay donate £20/US$26 today and help us to send 4 children living with wild tigers to school: https://goto.gg/32565. It would only take donations from 63 of our followers today, and we could help at least 250 of these children, which would be truly amazing!

If all our supporters could do the same, maybe we’ll be able to break down some barriers for children living with wild tigers whose parents simply can’t afford to send them to school because the cost of basic writing materials is too high. We know that you don’t want to be the generation which has to tell your children and grandchildren that wild tigers are extinct because of a lack of education in the communities which lived around them: https://goto.gg/32565.

Remember: when we provide education packs for children living with wild tigers we are reducing the risk of future tiger habitat destruction AND ensuring that these children have the opportunity to become future tiger protectors.

I would like to thank you for your generosity and support on behalf of the wild tigers, which we are keeping safe; on behalf of the children who we have helped to get an education (and their families who have food because of this help); and on behalf of the wider tiger community in Bandhavgarh, which benefits from providing books and writing equipment for inclusion in the education packs which we distribute. Stay Safe in these challenging times.

Links:

• Tigers4Ever Website
• Tigers4Ever Education Project
• Tigers4Ever online shop