Antoinette van de Water
By: founder Antoinette van de Water
“The idea of Bring the Elephant Home arose when I was doing volunteer work in the Elephant Nature Park year 2002. In this sanctuary for retired elephants from the life of begging, performance and other treacherous deeds, I fell in love with a just rescued baby elephant Ging Mai that had lost his mother. The founder of the Elephant Nature Park, Sangduen ‘Lek’ Chailert, gave Ging Mai all the love and nurturing he needed to survive like a surrogate mother. On a journey to Bangkok, I encountered another baby elephant in much need; begging for food on Khao San Road. The baby had such a look of terror in his eyes that I would never forget! It broke my heart but I wasn’t able to bring this begging baby elephant home to the Elephant Nature Park. These encounters with the baby elephants and the experience at The Elephant Nature Park; left such an impression on me that I came back two years later to volunteer once again, this time I wanted to do much more. At first I was a bit shy and apprehensive, but I approached the people at the Elephant Nature Park to discuss my dream and goal; what if I could save two street begging elephants and make an educational tour through Thailand with the organization to educate people about the plight of elephants? I received a lot of practical advice, concerns, support and a budget! With lots of ideas, inspiration and determination to make this happen, I returned home to the Netherlands to make this dream of mine come true. After I returned home, I registered The Bring the Elephant Home Foundation and set the wheels in motion for the fundraising activities.
In November 2005 I found Dok Ngeon (8 years old) at the elephant festival in Surin. Dok Ngeon looked so stressed: screaming, shaking and rocking her head. Dok Ngeon was in training to learn new tricks, like playing a mouth harmonica. It is clear to see how animal unfriendly this training is, there were a lot of scars and fresh wounds which showed this. Then and there I knew: I needed to help Dok Ngeon. Sri Nuan (47 years old) was also a begging elephant. Her mahout told me that Sri Nuan broke her chain one night and run away. On a rice field someone shot her with a slingshot and hit her in the eye. Her baby Nhung Nhing was sold to a show when she was only 8 months old. Traumatized by the lost of the baby, blinded on one side, she is still begging on the streets. I thought Sri Nuan would be happy to take care of Dok Ngeon a bit and Dok Ngeon could really need an aunty. Luckily we could buy both elephants.
Sri Nuan, Dok Ngeon and the elephant rescue team started a demonstrative tour from Bangkok to the Elephant Nature Park in Mae Tang, 60 km north of Chiang Mai. During this tour they organized elephant lessons at schools, elephant art competitions and brainstormed with local governments about street elephants.
Today Sri Nuan and Dok Ngeon are enjoying a happy life at the Elephant Nature Park, where they can spend the rest of their life as free elephants. Sri Nuan has become a protecting auntie for baby Pupia, and stays near him all the time. Sri Nuan seems to be very happy with the little one near her, after she lost her own baby. Apart from that she cares so much for Dok Ngeon with whom she has become friends during their journey to the Elephant Nature Park. After arrival Dok Ngeon was scared of all the elephants and people. But Sri Nuan protected Dok Ngeon, made sure she felt save and made sure she was part of the newly formed family. For Dok Ngeon it almost took half a year before she could really enjoy being a juvenile elephant. The first time I saw her playing in the mud bath with the baby elephants my heart was smiling. One job done! Since Dok Ngeon is living in the Elephant Nature Park her behaviour changed many times: First she started to act like a baby elephant, she just couldn’t get enough of rolling in the mud with the other babies. You could tell she was very proud to act like a bigger protective sister. Half a year later she started to behave like a teenager, hanging out more with the boys of her age: Hope and Jungleboy. All the time she tried to spend as much time as she could with the mother elephants in the Park. Like she wanted to learn everything about how to become a great mother. After a while she got bored with the young boys and started to flirt with the bulls. In the afternoon she would just leave her family to go for a romantic walk with one of our males. That happened two years ago now. These two years she tried to be aunty of different babies in the Park, some babies even tried to drink milk with her. On the 12th of July this year her dream came true: she gave birth to her own boy: Chang Yim. Dok Ngeon is in the center of a big elephant family and surely enjoying every moment of it! To witness the happiness of Dok Ngeon, and the natural elephant life she is living now, gives me so much strenght to continue our work to help more elephants.
The tour has been covered by lot’s of national and international media (see media pages), including the Roscar Award winning documentary about the project called ´Return to the Wild´, broadcasted worldwide by Animal Planet, including Thailand. And the book called The Great Elephant Escape, has been published in Thailand in March 2009 by Silkworm Publisher.
People became aware about the plight of street elephants, and more people visit animal friendly parks such as the Elephant Nature Park. But we still have a lot of work to be done!
After this project, we had to start new fundraising campaigns to keep supporting the elephants. For Dok Ngeon and Sri Nuan we launched an adoption program. To extent their habitat and to feed them, we bought a banana plantation and a piece of land attached to the Elephant Nature Park. I tried to convince Dutch tour companies to include the Elephant Nature Park in their program instead of just a ride on the back of an elephant. Two of them did so far. To show that elephant friendly tourism is possible, to show our donors what our work is about and to support elephant projects in Thailand, we start to organize our own Chang-tours: a three weeks tour to learn everything about elephants and to experience the beauty of this country. During the Chang-tour participants visit the Elephant Nature Park, Elephant Conservation Center, Elephant Dung Paper Project, Boon Lott Elephant Sanctuary in Sukhothai, stay at the house of a mahout in the Isaan, hike in Khao Yai and learn about the wild elephants, bath elephants at Elephant World in Kanchanaburi, visit elephant temples, elephant graveyard and lots more. The elephant experience of your life and all the profit goes to… elephants!
The more I learned about elephants, the more I became aware that deforestation is the cause of many problems elephants are facing. To help elephants in Thailand, we needed to do something about that. Over the last two years, we planted over 150.000 trees for elephants in four areas were elephants are in need of room and food.
We started planting trees for wild elephants on the edge of Khao Yai National Park and inside Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary. By planting trees in Salakpra the biodiversity improves. The rangers of the forest, villagers from nearby, students from the area, everyone helps. Trees draw insects, birds, and wildlife. Elephants spread the seeds, and this naturally brings in more species of trees. In this way, the environment for the wild elephants is improving step by step.
The last few years I have been trying to get an understanding of the needs of the street begging elephant owners: what is needed to stop them from taking their elephants to the cities? What is the alternative route? In two traditional elephant villages we have started a community development project to improve the situation of people, elephants, and the environment. We aim to create more food and a natural environment for the elephants in the village and generate income for traditional elephant families, in order to have an alternative for begging, so that in the future the elephants can stay at home.
Together with many local people and both Thai and international volunteers we planted trees on and around the elephant island in Buriram. The elephants Sri Prae and Nok Noi are owned by the whole village as a community and the elephants have their own bank accounts, managed by the elephant committees. Income from the home stay project, donations from tourists, profit of the village bank, sales of elephant merchandising, will be deposited into the elephant’s bank account. This way the whole village participates in creating enough funds to take care of the elephants. The tourists and volunteers who experienced a homestay all agreed that this was the best part of their stay in Thailand. The elephant island is a true pioneering project. This demands patience and perseverance, but also the willingness just start and keep going. If this concept works this can really provide alternatives for many street begging elephants and their families! By planting trees, a natural environment and food for the elephants are created. And the project is a positive example of sustainable and animal friendly tourism. On the elephant island you can see that people and elephants can live in peace together.
The Trees for Elephants project won The World of Difference award of Vodafone and the Terre des Femmes award of Yves Rocher in the Netherlands.
I cannot imagine a future without elephants living in Thailand. And yet, elephants are disappearing. In my opinion, all elephants should be living in the wild. If this is not possible, they should be able to live in an environment as natural as possible, where they can live as normal as possible. Therefore, we focus on projects that can make this possible: elephant parks and reserves. I am aware that using elephants to make money is necessary for the survival of elephants. Bring the Elephant Home supports projects that work with elephants in a natural way, without hampering or going against the animal’s natural behavior. Therefore, we plead for and support animal friendly, natural, and sustainable elephant projects. We want to help owners and mahouts find a different way to earn a living with their elephants. Where the elephants have a chance to roam, find their own food, live together with other elephants and breed in a natural way.
With Bring the Elephant Home I focus on showing the beauty of Thai elephants and try to create positive change and work together with local people. We promote Thailand as a tourist destination and bring many visitors to share our passion for Thai elephants with us and the local people. It is my strong belief together we can successfully make a difference for Thai elephants!
Kind regards, Antoinette van de Water”
Please help us to achieve our goals! Help BtEH.
Click here for the pictures of Bring the Elephant Home!
