Sometimes funding takes a detour and finds yet another great destination!
Last year we agreed to fund participation at a symposium on elephants for the program coordinator at the Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust. Agreements were reached, funds were transferred….and then the symposium was cancelled. Initially, it was expected that the meeting would be rescheduled. But as the months passed with no further announcements, what to do with the funds?
The Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust teaches awareness programs in poor rural schools. The programs are carried out in areas where there are conflicts between humans and wild elephants, where both humans and elephants die and where there is much crop and property damage.
The school programs are very useful as they show the children the reasons for the need to conserve elephants and how this can be done. These programs introduce the children to all aspects of the elephant including its physiology, biology, reproduction, home ranges, family life, etc. The programs give examples of how they can implement effective elephant conservation strategies.
Naturally, helping to fund these outreach classes seemed a most logical use of the funds already received, but unable to be used toward their initial purpose. From education one, which would have been a good use of our resources, the pictures show our funds are able to reach a much larger audience and a young audience….the next generation into whose hands the future of the Asian elephant will then be placed.
We appreciate our donors support that allows us to help make such education happen and if you think this is a good use of funding, please consider a donation at this time. Thank you.