GVI Chiang Mai August 2017 Monthly Achievement Report: World Elephant Day

Celebrations

Objectives:

To improve standards of living and job opportunities for the people of Huay Pakoot.

To create a viable, self-sustaining eco-tourism programme for the village.

To increase and promote ethical elephant tourism

To improve sustainable natural resource management in the Huay Pakoot area

On the 12th of August GVI Chiang Mai celebrated World Elephant Day. This is a day that is recognized
globally, a day to spread awareness about elephants species as a whole.

To celebrate we planned an outing with our mahouts (elephant carers) to go to some of the nearby
villages to cut elephant grass from along the sides of the road, which grows in abundance.

This is something that the mahouts go and do on a weekly basis. Providing our elephants with a
balanced and nutritious diet, in addition to the plentiful plant species they already have access to
foraging in the forest. After spending a few hours cutting grass we stopped off and bought additional
fruit and vegetable treats for the elephants. The following morning volunteers and staff hiked out to see
the elephants and fed them the fruits, vegetables and grass that they had helped cut.

World Elephant Day is also the day when we stop and remember our beautiful baby elephant Wan Mai,
who passed away the previous year from the Elephant Herpes virus.

Next month we will be hosting a fundraiser to raise money for the GVI Trust to help with emergency
medical care for the elephants and also to support; Lulu, Sah Jah and Khum Suk to stay living in the
forests surrounding Huay Pakoot.

The fundraiser will require volunteers and staff to spend 24 hours living the way elephants in camps
would live, challenging themselves physically and mentally. To donate to our fundraiser please visit the
following link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gvi-chiang-mai

Written by Internship Coordinator Phoebe van Doorn