By Kerri McCrea

1st May marks the date of our official beginning, 5 years ago and what an incredible 5 years it has been. Our journey started on 1st May 2016, when we first walked our elephants home to live their life in the forest. This journey took 3 days and 2 nights, up and down the mountains of Northern Thailand, and what a way to prepare us for the roller coaster what would be the next few years ahead of us.

This last year has been the most unpredictable yet, as we had to suddenly shut down our programs in March 2020 due to the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. Even then, we never would have guessed how long this pandemic would span out for, we were constantly reassuring ourselves that we would be able to open in the next few weeks or months. It’s been over a year now and we have still not been able to open our doors for fear of spreading the virus to our area and community.

On top of this, we also witnessed the return of over 60 elephants to our area, as well as the closure of nearby projects who could no longer support their elephants without running their programs. These elephants are all originally from our area, and their owners choose to bring them home so that they could take care of them the best they could, whilst having no income to support themselves. We have since been fundraising to not only continue our work, provide for our elephants and mahouts, but also support these 60+ elephants as much as possible through this crisis period, and ensure they have enough food to sustain them.

All of this has not been no easy feat, as we are understaffed and overworked. But our love for the elephants and local communities, as well as the support from the public and sponsors, has given us the strength to keep pushing forward. As always, our elephants have been living their lives in the forest, oblivious to the world events around them, just as it should be.

If anyone would like to make a donation on our behalf for our anniversary, there are many ways to do so. Here are the ways to help:

Buy an item from our Etsy Store ? https://www.etsy.com/shop/KindredSpiritEles
Sponsor an elephant ? https://kselephantsanctuary.com/our-elephants/
Donate to our fundraiser ? https://www.simplygiving.com/appeal/kses-covid-crisis-fund
Donate via PayPal ? https://www.paypal.me/KSElephantSanctuary

Thank you to everyone who helps us help them ❤