Help the elephants of Cambodia & EVP post pandemic

As we look to enter a new year, we are eternally grateful for the support of our community.  The end of 2023, and the start of 2024, brought many hardships to our team, especially as we sought to recover from the financial impacts of the Covid Pandemic.  However, just like our rescued elephants, our team is resilient! We continue to strive to do our best to care for the elephants, the forest, and the community.  We could not do this work without your support, and we look forward to continuing to share our efforts as we move into a new year!

Holiday Raffle and Giving Tuesday!

Donate Today and win a chance to visit us here in the jungle as part of our Holiday Raffle!

Every donation from now until the 24 Dec goes into the draw. Get your donations in now and the winner will be drawn on Christmas day!

You can also donate on behalf of a loved one or as a present for someone this festive season and give them the chance to win this fabulous prize. We can issue gift certificates, which make great presents!

Donations of $20-50 – receive 1 entry
Donations of $50-$100 – receive 2 entries
For every $100 that you donate above this you get an additional entry into the draw!

Note, if you are donating on behalf of someone else for a present, please let us know in the message field when you donate.

HOLD THAT DATE! Bonus Day on #GivingTuesday

Donate on Tue 3rd December and make your donation go further!

GlobalGiving has $1 million USD in funding available as a bonus incentive fund this year for #GivingTuesday. There’s never been a better time to give. All donations logged during the 24hrs on 3rd December on our page on GlobalGiving will count towards ELIE & EVP’s share of incentive fund. The more you give, the larger share ELIE & the EVP will receive!

The Raffle will then be open all the way up until Christmas eve, Dec 24th.

Update August through November 2024 

We had originally opened a project on GlobalGiving to get us through the crisis of the Covid pandemic.  Though many people have moved past the pandemic, we are still feeling the financial effects and are looking forward to rebuilding and recovery. For this, we continue to rely on your support. Unfortunately, tourism in Cambodia has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Your support allows us to continue our efforts for the elephants, as well as the indigenous Bunong community who rely on the forest they share alongside the elephants.

Elephant Conservation Program

• Mobile Vet Team Project
• Due to funding restrictions, and the priority care needs of the resident EVP elephants, our mobile vet team has been staying close to site. We continue to be available for emergencies if anyone in the province should require a need for their elephant. Thankfully, due to the relationships that the mobile vet team have built up over the years, we are confident that local elephant owners feel comfortable to contact us if their elephant is sick or has an injury. In the meantime, our on-site vet assistant continues to support the daily, ongoing care of our seven resident elephants.
• This quarter the team has been working closely with the government as they are starting to officially register the elephants of Cambodia with microchips and official government registration. This will help to combat illegal sales and trans-border trafficking. ELIE is supporting the government with our connections and relationships with the captive elephant owners, and have already microchipped the 4 rescue elephants at EVP to start with.
  
  

• Captive Elephant Care & Rehabilitation @ the Elephant Valley Project
• We are happy to report that Pearl continues to be doing well from her leg injury.  Though the team continue to provide a daily treatment regime to her leg, as well as to the abscess that developed due to prolonged antibiotic injections, Pearl tolerates the treatments well, and we see daily improvements. Though the recovery continues to be a slow, and ongoing recovery, we are thankful that her recovery is moving in a positive direction.    
• In June we did a call out for helping to fund Ruby’s eye medications, when we noticed the condition of her eye began to deteriorate from cataract to now a condition called glaucoma. Unfortunately, we cannot reverse the glaucoma, but with medication we can help to relieve the pressure, and the pain. We are happy to report that she is still moving around through the forest, as confidently as ever. 
• In September, we decided that both Ruby and Pearl were in stable enough health that we could attempt to reunite these girls, after being apart for many years. Ruby has been alone since the death of Sambo last year. Pearl has been separated from her herd mates since her injury, and alone since the death of Diamond. At the first introduction, Pearl was quite interested in Ruby, smelling in her direction. However, Ruby did not share the same interest and backed out of the area quickly! After a few days of staying in the same area, it was Ruby that began to show interest in Pearl, and Pearl became the one that turned in the opposite direction of Ruby! Fearing that Pearl might put too much stress on her recovering leg if she were to move too quickly away from Ruby, the mahouts have stepped in to make sure the interactions stay positive, and that each elephant has the space they need to feel comfortable as these two ladies re-establish their friendship.   
• Over the summer months, when the team noticed that Ning Wan was digesting even less of her food then normal, a change was made to her diet. Now, with increased supplements of soft food, cutting the rinds off watermelons and other fruits, and adding probiotics, we have noticed Ning Wan’s energy returning.  We are happy to report this old grandma is as feisty as ever! She is even spending some of her days with Ruby and Pearl, though she seems more interested in finding tasty forest fruits rather than socializing. 
• In October, Gee Chreng’s family asked for Gee Chreng to join Doe and Darling in Heaven Valley for a few months, so she may have a chance to eat the fresh bamboo leaves that are more abundant than in the Northern valleys.  At first there was a lot of excitement between Doe, Darling, and Gee Chreng, with lots of vocalizations and trunk touching. However, the novelty soon wore off, and now Darling is unsure if she wants to share her friendship with Doe, pushing Gee Chreng away. It seems it's not a fit.
• In October, Hen’s mahouts noticed a small cut on Hen’s face. After inspection, the mahouts determined that a thorn must have lodged itself in his skin, as it was slowly becoming more and more swollen. After treating the swelling with a hot water compress, we were finally able to bring the swelling down, and expel the build up of pus that had been causing an abscess. The relationship that Hen and his mahouts have is evident in situations like this. Hen remained very calm, as his team fed him lots of pumpkins and bananas so they could provide his treatment, and provide him some relief.
  
  

• Natural Resource Protection Project
• The team took advantage of the last months of the rainy season, September and October, to plant a large number of endangered tree species in the community land that surrounds the EVP.  We want to thank all of our staff, day guests, overnight guests, week long volunteers, and community members that took part in our reforestation efforts!   

Ecotourism Program - Elephant Valley Project
By supporting the elephants and their forest home, we can also support education to visitors, volunteers and school groups to the EVP.

• Ele Education Days
• Over three weeks in August and September the team completed four very fun, educational, and successful Elephant Education Days! A total of 96 grade 5 and grade 6 students and 6 teachers, all from the 3 local primary schools of Putrom village participated. The days consisted of hiking out in the forest to observe our resident elephants Doe, Darling, and Ruby. Students learned their histories, general elephant facts, and interacted with the mahouts to learn about daily care for the elephants. While immersed in the forest, the students also looked for other plants and wildlife along the way. Afternoon lessons at our basecamp education center consisted of discussions about protecting the forest for elephants and wildlife, and an interactive nature scavenger hunt! We are incredibly thankful to our partner, Share the Wonder, for providing the funds for this Elephant Education Day program to inspire a continued appreciation for elephants and nature conservation.
• Hosting Groups
• While we are extremely lucky to welcome some awesome guests and tourists to EVP, we were really lucky to have two very amazing groups stay with us. In August we were host to an awesome group of young Girl Guides from the UK. The group was positive, engaged, hardworking, loved learning about the elephants, and was committed to helping out during volunteer projects.  This was the group’s first overseas trip, and we would love to see this group return!  In October, we once again hosted students from The School for Field Studies.  This was another excellent group of young people, engaged in learning, and continuing forward with the knowledge learned to work towards human and wildlife conservation solutions!

Community Support Program

• Land Compensation – Rice Distribution
• Each month the EVP compensates the community for the elephants to use their forest. We make these payments in rice. Rice is a staple for families, and monthly rice donations help to ensure that families have enough food during times of unexpected food shortages. It’s only with the community’s support that we can also work to protect elephants and their forests. Your donation to EVP not only helps us to care for the retirement of our resident elephants, but you also help to support 78 families that get direct benefits and incentives to protect their community forest for these elephants to live in. Thank you for your support!
• Health Care Support Project
• These past few months have been busy, utilizing the vehicles for multiple hospital runs. Unfortunately, there were some suspected dengue cases amongst several members of the community. While the illnesses were severe, we are happy that everyone is now recovering. We also welcomed several new community members to the village with several expecting mothers utilizing the EVP/ELIE vehicles to access medical service in town upon the end of their pregnancies. This vital service to the community benefits the entire community, whether they work for the project or not. While emergency medical situations can be time consuming and exhausting to our staff, it is so rewarding when we remember that it could save a life, or when we get to meet a new baby!
• School Support Project
• On Hold - no funds. 
• Community Development Project
• On Hold - no funds 

Links:

• http://www.elephantvalleyproject.org