BREATHE
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Conservation + Rescue
Adopt an orphan. Visit an eco-friendly safari. Support a Gorilla preservation project.
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Founded in 1977 by Dr Daphne Sheldrick in honour of her husband David Sheldrick, the famous naturalist and founding Warden of Tsavo East National Park.
DSWT is a pioneering conservationist organization for animal welfare and habitat protection in East Africa. At the heart of DSWT is its Orphan's Project, for both elephants and rhinos. Their goal is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release.
Read about Kristin Davis' experience with rescuing an orphan baby elephant in Kenya.
For as little as 50 USD, you can foster an orphan elephant or rhino.
Elephants and rhinos are orphaned when the adults are killed for their tusks and horns. Elephants rely on their mothers' milk for the first two years of their lives. Some elephants are orphaned as young as a few weeks.
At the orphanage, these babies rely on human feedings (up to once every 3 hours).
When the elephants are more independent, they are moved to the Tsavo East National Park. There, they live in holding centres and mingle with the wild herd. Full integration can take up to 10 years.
As of 2012, 140 elephants have successfully been hand-reared by the Trust.
The fate of the Black Rhino appears not so rosy as its status was recently updated to "extinct". Black Rhinos still (thankfully) exist in this world. DSWT was one of the first organizations to alert the world of the unrelenting poaching of the rhinoceros for their horns.
Besides fostering an orphan (for yourself or as a gift), you can always donate directly.
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WELL+GOOD