Elephant Havens – Part IV

Elephant Havens was established with the primary goal of rescuing baby elephant orphans, raising them and ultimately releasing them back into the wild as young adults. The charity hopes to become a leading voice in wildlife conservation awareness and wildlife protection. However the little elephants also insist that the charity engages with their human neighbors as part of the mission.

Community Outreach

Elephant Havens has hired all local Botswana staff from the Delta area and immediate community. As of today EH employs 24 people, impacting them and their families.

EH has successfully drilled three water wells for the local community to provide the first ever fresh drinking water to the area.

The Foundation has initiated outreach to those most in need and are feeding those folks who the team can identify as most critically affected by the covid shutdown.

Several recent initiatives have been to complete or repair new bridges over flooded channels that lead to the community.

EH has acquired a new Toyota bus, and makes four trips each morning and four trips each afternoon to the local school. The local children can now avoid the dangerous miles-long trek to school through corridors used by elephants moving between the water and the mopane woodlands.

The bus has proven to be such a success that the local school now overflows with students. EH is providing tents as classrooms to shelter the overflow and provide the opportunity for more children than ever to engage in learning.

EH is providing school uniforms and shoes for 150 students, with the uniforms to be sown by local tailors.

EH supports local women by training them in the craft of paper-making using elephant dung. These ladies are making quite a successful business out of their beautiful paper products that are sold on the property.

EH has built toilet facilities for the local community center.

EH has established relationships with local leaders and classrooms of students. Several classrooms of students have visited the orphanage and had their first positive interaction with elephants.

EH has recently provide 100 milk goats to ten local farmers to raise and sell goat milk. This product is very beneficial to the young elephants. Each farmer will tend to their goats, provide milk to EH until the value reaches the original cost of the goats. At that point the farmers will own the goats and will sell the milk to EH.

Partnership

1. EH is approved as one of 12 wildlife partners with the Dallas Zoo.
2. Dallas Zoo interns chose EH as their conservation project and raised $20,000 for the Foundation.
3. EH’s Botswana vet, Dr. Comfort Nkgowe, visited Dallas and Houston zoos to tech and learn.
4. The Dallas Zoo has provided some of the equipment as well as specifications for the establishment of a proper “bush” veterinary lab. They also sent two of their employees to help set up the lab and train the local team in Botswana how to do simple lab tests.