Bring The Elephant Home

Vacancy: Trees for Elephants campaigner

Bring the Elephant Home is looking for a Thai freelance campaigner who shares our passion for creating a positive change for the environment and elephants.

Campaigner Trees for Elephants

Organization: Foundation Bring the Elephant Home
Date vacancy: 10/03/2008
Starting date job: a.s.a.p.
Hours: Freelance, for approx 2 days a week
Period: until the end of 2008

Introduction Bring the Elephant Home
The Bring the Elephant Home foundation campaigns to help Thai elephants. We promote animal friendly eco-tourism, we protect and create a natural environment for elephants, we grow food for elephants, we support community development in traditional elephant villages and try to contribute to solving human-elephant conflicts. In our project we are always cooperating closely with Thai organizations (for examples, see below) and experts.

Bring the Elephant Home liberated two street elephants, and in a demonstrative tour brought them from Bangkok to the Elephant Nature Park, an elephant sanctuary in Northern Thailand. During this tour we organised elephant lessons at schools, elephant art competitions and brainstormed with local governments about street elephants. Since this project Bring the Elephant Home continues its campaigns to help Thai elephants.

One of our projects is a book called Unchained, about the tour mentioned above. This book will be published in Thailand around July by Silkworm. The documentary about Bring the Elephant Home, ´Return to the Wild´, is currently being broadcasted worldwide by Animal Planet, including Thailand.

At the moment, Bring the Elephant Home would like to involve Thai people who share the same concerns and vision to work together towards a chance for Thai elephants to survive.

The board of Bring the Elephant Home is based in the Netherlands, the director (the only staff member) is based in Thailand. We are currently looking for a freelance project coordinator for Trees for Elephants to form a team with the director in Thailand.

Our campaign Trees for Elephants
The forest is the natural home for Thai elephants. All of the problems of elephants are related the gigantic deforestation that has been going on since the 1950s. As natural habitat and food is disappearing, so is the elephant. In the few areas where wild elephants still have a chance to survive, conflicts between human and elephants are getting worse every year. This is why Bring the Elephant Home started the campaign Trees for Elephants. Within a year we aim to plant 100,000 trees in areas where the elephants are most threatened. Aims of the Trees for Elephants project in Thailand:
1. To protect and extent elephant habitat;
2. To reduce conflicts between elephants and humans;
3. To involve Thai public in nature conservation and animal protection;
4. To grow food for elephants;
5. To develop alternatives for street begging elephants;
6. Reforestation, with many environmental benefits.

Campaigner Trees for Elephants
Do you have a talent for creating positive change? If so, you might be the person we are looking for to join us as a Trees for Elephants campaigner.

As well as understanding the challenges facing Thailand’s forests, elephants and people that depend on them, you have to be able to focus on results and know how to make things happen. As a campaigner you will closely work together with our director. The director will be responsible for the project.

This position will involve a diverse, challenging and exciting range of activities, including:
a. Write / translate for our website, newsletter, leaflets and press releases in Thai.
b. Developing media strategies and liaising with media representatives.
c. To help develop partnership with other organizations, schools and governments.
(at the moment we are working together with the Thai organizations Elephant Nature Park, Wild Elephant Research Fund and the Population and Development Association).
d. Maximize community support for and involvement in our projects.
e. Coordinate activities at different locations (for example school projects, tree planting camps, building tree nurseries, elephant art competitions).
f. Follow policy developments, current situation and the (Thai) news about elephants & conservation issues.

We are looking for a Thai campaigner who is dynamic, inspiring and creative and has a passion for our goals. You must be able to work independently and function as part of a team. Fluency in Thai and English as well as excellent communication and strategy skills are essential. You must be willing to accept flexible working hours, including availability after normal business hours for meetings and events. People with backgrounds in areas such as communications, animal rights and NGO’s are especially encouraged to apply.

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