A “HOT” check-up!

We’re currently checking up on the families (of farmers and elephants) that live a little too close for comfort in central Sri Lanka, visiting each of the farms that were recipients of our 500 elephant-deterring/income-elevating citrus trees we planted last year as well as the Honey Bee boxes we installed.

Amma and Maama are two of our very favorite farmers—their trees were in fantastic condition (no easy feat when you have to haul by hand bucket after bucket of water), and as usual, they welcomed us into their humble home after walking the blazing hot fields together, and filled our bellies with bananas, papayas, and sweet hot tea, even when they have so littleAlthough Human-Elephant Conflict is a very real problem in a small, crowded country, and there are no easy answers in how to keep families (both human and elephant) safe, farmers like Amma and Maama are working extra hard with almost no comforts to turn a history of conflict into a future of coexistence.