THE DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE
TRUST
FOSTERING PROGRAM
| US$ 50 is the minimum fostering fee |
 |
"Please help us help an orphaned elephant
by fostering one of the orphans
directly through our website
as a gift of life"
Daphne Sheldrick
| see the
list of orphans available for fostering |
what you receive as a foster parent |
detailed orphan profiles |
A tiny newborn elephant is orphaned, often its
mother and family gunned down to serve the Ivory trade, its life
support gone; any survivors fleeing in terror; its fate now
suffering and death in hopeless and lonely isolation it cannot
understand. For an elephant, the family is all important; its very
existence dependent upon its mother's milk for the first two years
of life and a life that should span three score years and ten,
equivalent to that of man. In a perfect world that elephant life
would be filled with fun and joy through the companionship of
friends and a close-knit and loving family, whose love is pure and
unconditional all the days of its life.
In one country in Africa, Kenya, an Elephant
Nursery situated in Nairobi under the auspices of The David
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, overseen by Dr. Daphne Sheldrick, whose
elephant experience spans a lifetime, and with the cooperation of
the Kenya Wildlife Service, for the first time ever now offers
hope for any orphaned elephant fortunate enough to be found alive.
It took Daphne Sheldrick 28 years of trial and error during the
years that her husband was Warden of Kenya's largest and most
important elephant Sanctuary, Tsavo East National Park, to perfect
the milk formula and complex husbandry necessary to rear the
orphaned infant African elephants. Today, with financial help of
many caring folk world-wide, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is
proud to have saved what amounts to a herd; over 60
orphaned infant calves that would otherwise have perished. More
importantly, every one of these orphans can look forward to a
quality of life in wild terms, living free in Tsavo East National
Park encompassed by their new extended orphaned family and friends
amongst the wild herds in a National Park that offers elephants
the S P A C E they need - the 8,000 square miles of pristine
wilderness that is TSAVO.
For more information in understanding our work, please see
Understanding
the Orphan's Project.
None of this would have been possible without help
of many people worldwide, for the rearing an infant elephant is an
expensive and long-term commitment during the time it is
dependent upon milk and a team of trained carers who represent the
lost elephant family and are there for the little elephant until
such time as it is comfortable amongst the wild herds and chooses
to become independent. The time involved depends entirely upon the
personality of each individual and also upon how well the elephant
can recall its elephant family, but all the orphans reared by The
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust are "elephants" again and
integrated into the wild community by the age of ten, though
always in their large elephant hearts will be a corner for the
specific humans who were their family in infancy.
The Baby Elephant Foster
Parent Programme,
Via email, your gift will include:
We
have made our fostering program digital, thereby keeping admin
costs down. Postage around the world is a cumbersome
administrative expense that we are now able to avoid through the
Internet. Any queries about the fostering program can be directed
to
rc-h@africaonline.co.ke
 |
Choose an elephant orphan whose story
touches
your heart and whose name appeals to you. |
| NAMING THE ORPHANS |
|
 The Trust likes to name its orphaned elephants in a
way that can identify them with their origin. The orphans come from
all corners of Kenya and from many different elephant populations, so
they are usually given place or ethnic tribal names. |
Or, Select an Orphan from the full list below:
For more information on each orphan please see the
detailed orphan profiles section.
