Since elephants can’t read, why did we build a library in rural Cambodia? How does that help elephants?
When you want to help wild elephants, helping the children that reside in wild-elephant habitat can help shift a past of conflict toward a future of conservation and coexistence. We built our first library in a small school that had absolutely no books, bringing options and choices to the children and their teachers.
Watch the happy beginnings here!
The Heart in Putrom 2 Primary School
Putrom 2, a small village in some of the last remaining wild elephants of Cambodia, was severely lacking even basic supplies. The children there will one day either deplete or conserve Cambodia’s remaining elephant habitat and, thanks to your support, we are able to help one while helping the other!
While supplying ELIE and EVP’s snare removal project with a GPS and camera equipment, we befriended the local ethnic minority population of the Bunong, longtime “elephant people” near the border of Vietnam. We built the very first Lending Library in the entire commune in 2018, and continue to provide the children and their teachers with books, art supplies, and annual satchels filled with necessities. Opening Day happened thanks to you!
Now, more than 175 children from kindergarten through 6th grade have access to over 1,000 books, and a safe, clean space to learn to read. The teachers have supplies they need, and every week students check out books so they can even read at home–a first in this rural village.
Watch even more good news here!
When children have books to read, they can begin dreaming of new stories to be written.
We work with rural school boards and community leaders to expand educational offerings in areas with escalating Human Elephant Conflict. When you want to change the future for elephants, you need to change the future for the people that live among them.
WITH YOUR HELP, WE CAN DO IT AGAIN!
Next up? The village over the hill has a tiny school with no water, no electricity, no usable toilet, and not one storybook. 39 impoverished children with a committed school director who implored us to help his children have access to the world of books. When you work to save wild elephants, expanding education for those who live among them is a different sort of rescue, and one which empowers and inspires change from the inside out. Thank you for helping!
