What is Asian Elephant Wellness Project Doing Now?
Asian Elephant Wellness Project was established to help form collaboration between organizations and facilities that work with Asian Elephants. Our projects fall into four distinct areas, these are; education, fundraising, assistance programmes and our growth and expansion plans.
Our projects are ever expanding and we work across countries, and across continents. We focus our efforts on supporting Asian elephants in range countries, and are on call to support Asian elephants living in captive care throughout the world.
The Story of Sita Kali & Jaymati Kali.
Sita Kali is Asian Elephant Wellness Project’s first rescue elephant. Sita Kali lives in Nepal and has become firm friends with Jaymati Kali, our second rescue elephant whose care we manage in partnership with Direct Aid Nepal and Sapana Village.
Sita Kali & Jaymati Kali require around the clock care and we need your support to ensure we can keep caring for our elephants and their keepers.
Education.
Helping people learn what they can do to help improve the lives of Asian elephants today, ensuring a bright future for Asian elephants tomorrow and beyond…
Asian Elephant Wellness Project provides education on how to protect and take care of Asian elephants through the dissemination of actionable information shared through useable resources.
Through presenting educational information in the most digestible way to each community we work with, together with our qualified team of elephant keepers, scientists, caregivers, and advocates we bring about positive change.
Our board members, staff, partner organisations and volunteers work together worldwide to distribute and implement the project’s education efforts.
We deliver this information by offering online and in-person lectures and presentations at schools, libraries and other public venues, alongside in-field training courses. These presentations focus on the causes, current conditions, current efforts and solutions to helping conserve Asian elephants by improving their lives in captivity worldwide.
We are also conscious to focus on the varying geographical, economic, and social landscapes that influence the problems facing Asian elephants across range countries.
All the while directing our focus to progress and improvement, little by little.
As an organisation we chronicle our efforts and activities in full via our website and through social media. The capacity for bringing local elephant communities together in a global network online is presently under-utilised; our education programme will remedy this. Periodically we publish blogs and essays written by elephant veterinarians, researchers, traditional elephant keepers and conservationists to help stimulate and diversify the current dialogue.
Through our comprehensive education programmes we are providing public across continents with the means to support Asian elephant conservation a truly actionable way.
Fundraising.
Asian Elephant Wellness Project proactively seeks opportunities for community outreach in order to fulfil our mission of raising awareness and funds for projects helping asian elephants. Through engaging our global community in inclusive fundraising efforts we create financial stability and longevity for our projects. We have chosen to diversify our funding streams so as to be as sustainable and self-reliant as possible. Our projects are funded through the sponsorship of our elephants, targeted crowdfunding and generous monthly donations. We also awarded from private individuals, foundations and grants.
As an organisation we value transparency. 95% funds raised go directly into our assistance and educational programs and 5% is reserved for the organization’s maintenance fees.
For context, elephant sponsorship is one of the most impactful ways the public can financially support our work.
An elephant eats 100-200 kg of food a day. For example, it currently costs $15,000-20000 a year to take care of an elephant in Nepal. This covers the cost of food, medicines and salary for the mahouts/caretakers for the elephants.
250 people contributing $5/month is needed to support a rescued or retired elephant.
Assistance Programmes.
Helping people learn what they can do to help improve the lives of Asian elephants today, ensuring a bright future for Asian elephants tomorrow and beyond…
The Asian Elephant Wellness Project assistance programmes aid in providing financial and operational support to organizations, students, researchers, veterinarians who we have partnered with.
We are open to partnering with all those who are exploring the questions and issues important to the conservation and welfare of Asian elephants. We collaborate and work in cooperation with zoos and elephant sanctuaries in the USA, South America and Europe to share knowledge of new technology and traditional remedies unilaterally.
Asian Elephant Wellness Project has already helped with donation of a mobile ultrasound machine and X-ray machine from Oregon Zoo to the Nepal Trust for Nature Conservation.
Our assistance programmes are varied and far reaching. In each range country that we operate in and with each different community and partner organisation we work alongside our assistance offerings look different.
We support elephant veterinarians within Asia with equipment, medicines training and travel, exchange programs and with writing and publishing research and case studies.
Part of our long term vision is to create an online database and forum for elephant caretakers from around the world to communicate and share ideas, knowledge, to facilitate education and collaboration. A place for elephant veterinarians to share their experiences and treatments with each other online.
Our intention is to host health camps for working elephants offering diagnostics, testing, X-rays, thermal imaging, medications and wound care in collaboration with the Katy Adamson Fund, starting in Nepal.
It is our fervent commitment to document the use of traditional, natural medicines used throughout Asia that are part of the indigenous traditions of elephant keeping that dates back centuries. There are traditional herbal treatments unique to each country, even each province and even village. We are endeavouring to investigate and document this knowledge before we lose it.
Our first assistance programme is focused on the rescue of 50-year-old elephant Sita Kali. Learn more about Sita’s story here.
