Sri Lankan School Book Donation Program

For several years Asian Elephant Support has helped fund the Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust’s educational program reaching hundreds of schools each year. This one day program gives Sri Lankan middle school students a well delivered program covering the history of the Sri Lankan people with Asian elephants, the biology of the Asian elephant, and calming the natural fears of elephants that sometimes raid crops or destroy homes searching for food. Better ways of living peacefully in elephant country and the importance of this majestic, if powerful, species to the Sri Lankan culture are all discussed. 

This year, with school on hold or on line in Sri Lanka from COVID-19, the Trust has turned its efforts to fund raising for their School Book Donation Program. This program delivers school books, sufficient for one year, and a school bag, to children of families whose parent has been killed by a wild elephant. The moment a parent is killed, the family faces severe economic problems and most times the children cannot go to school. This program is in its 12th year. 341 children have benefited from this project so far. At present their list has 85 children who receive the benefits of this project. Four of the children who have been supported over the years have entered universities and two have already graduated. This is a very creditable achievement.
 
The total cost per child, per year, for books and school bag is $35. If you would like to help a child with a year’s schooling, funds can be wired via Western Union with the following information:
Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust
Sampath Bank Plc, No. 316, Kotte Road, Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka
Account. No .112260973706
Swift code: BSAMLKLX 
Bank Code: 7278
Branch Code: 122

Sri Lankan Children Connect with Orphaned Elephants

July 2020 - AES would like to take you to Sri Lanka, where for over 4 years, we have worked closely with Dr. B. Vijitha Perera supporting the care of orphaned elephants at Elephant Transit Home (“At Athuru Sevana”) in Udawalawe National Park. Elephant Transit Home’s goal is to rehabilitate orphaned elephants and release them back into the wild at the age when they can care for themselves. In a country with approximately 6,000 wild elephants, Elephant Transit Home has taken in hundreds calves in the last 25 years. This is a challenging task, as these young elephants often come with serious nutritional deficiencies, disease and a host of other issues.

Previously, our funding for ETH has gone to monitoring the youngsters while in human care and then upon release. But our most recent partnership is centered on community partnership, specifically with school children.

Orphaned for a variety of reasons, as we see in almost every elephant range territory, Human Elephant Conflict is a major factor for these calves. In an effort to gain community support, Dr. Perera has written and distributed two books, which Asian Elephant Support is proud to have sponsored. One of which, A Cry for Milk - written in Sinhala and translated to English - talks about the reasons why calves are separated from their mothers, the extraordinary care given when these elephants come to Elephant Transit Home and the success stories this group has seen after the release of juveniles back into the wild and the joy of them finding new herds and having babies of their own.

(Left) Dr Vijitha Perera with ETH staff

(Right) Government officials receiving the books

Sharing these stories with school children, cultivating a sense of concern for orphaned calves and understanding for lengths taken to save these babies, was the purpose behind A Cry for Milk. Sixty pages of information and photos from Elephant Transit Home’s amazing work, fills this book. Asian Elephant Support is so thankful for the opportunity to fund the effort to develop greater bonds between the next generation, both human and elephant. We hope you, our supporters, enjoy some of the photos from this wonderful book!