Hello from Thailand!

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Some of you may know that we are in Thailand at the moment. Well, this is no ordinary holiday. We have joined a charitable expedition organised by Mahouts Elephant Foundation, a registered charity run by Barney's cousin, dedicated to elephant welfare. The expedition will return two Elephants from a tourist work camp, back to a natural life in a jungle community. Over eight days, starting tomorrow,  we will walk the elephants over 100 miles through mountainous jungle to their new home.

While we have funded the cost of the expedition out of our own pockets, we need to raise funds while we are on our journey for the ongoing support of these elephants and their mahouts.

Without your support we could not make this happen and we are transforming the lives of these elephants. As this project grows, the plan is that this will eventually support up to 80 elephants and up to 7 villages in the valley. We will be preserving the villager's almost unique way of life and their unique elephant knowledge as well as the forest and wildlife, as without this more and more forest is likely to be turned into farmland. 

Please support Us if you can.

For the past year, Felix and Sarah (Barney's cousin's and Mahouts Foundation founders) have been working very closely with and getting to know a Karen hill tribe community here in Thailand.

The village community own over 60 elephants and most are working in the trekking camps around Chiang Mai. The village have been working with other organisations in recent years to bring their elephants home to the vast and beautiful forests surrounding the village. The villagers don't have the funds to support the elephants and their mahouts back at home so they have no choice but to leave their homes and families and head towards working in the camps.

During many discussions with the community they have expressed their concern about the effects on their elephants not living in the forest. They understand how the forest needs the elephants and of course the elephants need to be free from a life of work to forage and socialise in their natural habitat.

We are starting to work with the community and helping them to return two elephants back to the forest, we will be supporting both mahout and elephant on a monthly basis. Thong Kam is 27 years old and her daughter Bai Fern is almost 4 and will be joined by another young male who already lives in the forest. He was born in the village and has never worked in a camp. He has a lovely gentle nature and his owners want him to remain in the forest forever.

We will be walking Thong Kam and Bai Fern, a mother and daughter pair, along with an 18 year old bull, and a mature female, home on a trek and adventure that will take us through the forest for 8 days. We will be camping out in hammocks and tents and also staying in remote villages along the route.

The village community have worked hard to become a registered home stay and MAHOUTS Elephant Foundation will be offering people the chance to book in as their guests, learning about an ancient and fascinating culture and having the opportunity to trek out into the forest to see the elephants living in as natural environment as possible.

Working with a community like this takes patience and compromise on both sides. We will face challenges along the way but both parties have an overwhelming desire to return as many elephants back to the forest as possible whilst supporting the mahouts and villagers through the home stay and creating an alternative sustainable tourism project.

Mahouts Elephant Foundation have named this project Walking Elephants HOME - Helping Out Mahouts and Elephants.

We are part of a team of people joining in and helping to raise funds to support the elephants and mahouts to secure their futures and ensure they do not return back to a life in the camps.

Please read their most recent BLOG post about the project for more info;

http://www.mahouts.co.uk/elephant-founda…/our-news/blogart21

This project has the support of Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary - BLESwho have met all three elephants, visited the village and we have all had very productive meetings with the village elders. Through working TOGETHER, we are changing the face of elephant tourism and improving the lives of many elephants as well as their mahouts.

There will be regular updates posted to the mahouts foundation blog, as and when we can, live from the forest, so you can be with us every step of the way as we walk the hundreds of kilometres, through the rolling hills of Thailand's most beautiful forests

Thank you so much for any support you can give. This just giving page links directly to the mahouts account, and registers your and our support for this important project.

Barney and Teresa