Aonang Elephant Fund

16/07/2020

At 8am this morning I met with our delivery guy at Aonang elephant park to ensure the elephants get their pineapple leaves! Another successful delivery completed!
Charlotte 💕🐘

14/07/2020

Hello, I hope everyone’s having a lovely day! So I’m still in Aonang attending the last few deliveries we have scheduled. Today there’s been two trucks delivered, the 1st at 8.30am (truck 39) to Phunaka and the second at 11.30am (truck 40) to Nosey Parkers.

Pictured is myself with our delivery guy, who’s worked with us since the fund started. We once went with him to the pineapple farm between deliveries. We helped reload the truck and saw where he gets the never ending supplies of pineapple leafs. Its fair to stay we didn’t last too long when it came to the manual labour and refilling the truck! Mature pineapple plants typically reach between 3 and 6 feet in height and width so it’s not surprising that these plants are extremely heavy.

Despite the language barrier, this guy has helped us so much, he’s the logistics behind our fund, and without him our deliveries in Aonang wouldn’t have been possible. He’s been incredible, often delivering trucks as early as 6am.

So here’s a big Thankyou to our delivery guy!

Charlotte! 🐘🙌🏼💕

12/07/2020

As Thailand prepares to reopen borders, and travel within the country resumes, we have had serious decisions to consider. We arrived in Thailand as tourists with good intentions, and we’ve contributed as much as possible towards the animal welfare crisis during covid. It’s with great regret that soon we’ll be closing down the fund. Tourists visas are due to expire by July 31st and so our time here is drawing to a close.

The remaining fund balance will most likely be donated to the sanctuary’s we support as well as the elephant hospital. After long deliberations we feel the ethics and legitimacy of these organisations are those shared with our own elephant fund.

It’s been an honour to befriend so many elephants in such circumstances. Not only do we feel lucky to have gained gigantic mammoth friends, we also feel privileged in being able to produce a resolution to one of the many distressing issues covid has brought worldwide.

The two of us have grown so close over the months spent living together through lockdown. Although it’s time to go separate ways, for sure we will frequently see one another back in London. Our efforts here will soon turn to memories, however, our friendship will certainly remain in the present.

Finally, we would like to send our deepest condolences to everyone worldwide who have fallen victim to coronavirus. We hope that now the world is on the road to recovery.

As for Thailand, we wish for the best and hope that soon the country will be able to bounce back from the devastating effect that loss of tourism has had on the country. It has been our home four months now and the country will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Charlotte, Alyssa and Jaylen 💕🐘

09/07/2020

We would like to thank our great friend Bryony in Koh Samui for making delivery number 38 happen yesterday! This truck went to our friends at . We love this project and it has been a pleasure taking a bit of pressure off of their food costs during these difficult times. More to come on this project soon. 💓💓💓

Lots of love,

Alyssa and Charlotte

08/07/2020

Today Jaylen and myself visited Thailand’s only southern elephant hospital. This government funded organisation cares for sick and disabled in patients (14), and out patients, free of charge. Relying heavily on donations to cover medical costs we wanted to offer some support. Today we’ve donated 6700 baht (170.58) towards the cost of elephant food and medicine. It’s alway a bitter sweet experience when visiting hospitals be it animals or humans. Of course we didn’t arrive empty handed, despite illness, the elephants were in good spirits and pleased to receive some banana treats. We wish all the elephants a speedy recovery.

Its possible to visit the hospital and learn about the treatments and patients. There’s a list of medical supplies on their Facebook, which can be bought from Tesco, Makro and various other outlets.

Charlotte 💕🐘

26/06/2020

💓💓💓💓

26/06/2020

Yesterday we had 15 bags of protein pellets delivered to Ao Nang Elephant Park, ,
Nosey Parkers and Sanctuary. ...
One bag costs about £16.50 and although roots, grasses, fruit, and bark are the main sources of nutrition to our herbivore friends, protein supplements are also an excellent addition to a domestic elephants diet. ..🐘
The pellets can be crushed and mixed with water, smashed bananas and rice to make delicious protein balls that the elephants love (see our previous video of Jaylen helping to make protein balls at .. 🍍We are continuing to source new options to offer the elephants a wholesome diet now that police barricades are down and a more diverse selection of food suppliers can easily enter Krabi once again!.🙌
Thanks so much to for making this delivery possible by being on the ground in Ao Nang to meet the suppliers and make payment from our fund. We feel so lucky to have friends like you! Check out and her amazing work with the street dogs of Ao Nang as well! 🥰🙏💓💓💓.
Loads of love from Alyssa and Charlotte

22/06/2020

Friday was a busy day for deliveries, with two trucks (delivery 32 and 33) arriving at in Koh Samui, met by Charlotte and I, and one truck going out to our friends at and Nosey Parkers in Ao Nang, met by .lorraine and Art Seayo (delivery 34) . We could not do this without our friends and donors. Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏 @ Samui Elephant Haven

17/06/2020

After spending all this time around elephants we can definitely attest to this! Did you ever notice how they make zero noise when they walk? They also have the cutest animal feet 🥰😍.
... Now, we also update from our time here on Koh Samui. We have been contacting and visiting elephant parks and sanctuaries in Koh Samui (where Charlotte and I are currently visiting), and have now added 31 elephants to our list! We will be helping feed 20 elephants at , 5 elephants at , and 6 elephants at .jungletrip . We have sourced a supplier who brings 3500 kg trucks of pineapple leaves from the mainland. Due to being on an island, these trucks are more expensive to source. We have gone through all of our options for suppliers and the best value still costs £125 per truck. However, thanks to all the recent donations we are able to afford this for now!...
With the ongoing global situation, tourism activity in Thailand has stopped. Soon there may be more domestic tourism, and we believe the next phase of relaxing lockdown measures will include allowing opening of these elephant parks and sanctuaries (we hope...as government announcements are often last minute and unpredictable). This announcement should be in July, we hope 🤞 ...
However, the main bread and butter of the Thai tourism industry has always been hugely weighted in international tourism, which may not return for a while yet. We will keep doing our best to take some pressure off these struggling parks by maintaining our regular elephant food deliveries for as long as possible..
If you wish to help, click the link in the bio & donate or share our posts on your social media/tell your friends! 🙏
❤️🐘.
Much love,
Alyssa and Charlotte

16/06/2020

Another day, another truck delivery! 🐘🙌🏼 As always thanks to our friends who are doing an incredible job over in Aonang.

15/06/2020

Delivery number 30 went to Nosey Parkers in Ao Nang this morning! We wouldn’t have been able to continue feeding these elephants for so long if it wasn’t for everyone’s continued support and concern for the welfare of the domesticated elephants in Thailand. We truly appreciate how people from around the world have sympathised with the critical situation in Thailand, especially considering all that is happening in the world. .
We also would not be able to do this without our incredible friends who live in Ao Nang and are able to show up for the elephants while we cannot be there ourselves. Thank you .lorraine for making this happen this morning! We love you! 💓 💕 .
Lots of love,
Alyssa and Charlotte.






























@ Nosey Parker's Elephant Camp

12/06/2020

Now for our update from Koh Samui!.
We have reached out to all of the elephant parks here on this island. Yesterday we spoke with , who informed us that they have 20 (😱) elephants that they are looking after. Some they own, and some have been sent to them from trekking companies who cannot afford to look after the elephants during shutdown..
It costs 12000 baht for two trucks of pineapple leaves shipped from the mainland. These trucks can only feed 20 elephants for two days! During normal tourist times, they order one truck every day. However, now with no tourism, they only have enough funds to order 4 trucks per week. This is only 57% of the food that would normally be ordered for the elephants..
Therefore, we are going to organise orders for them to make sure the elephants can come back to their normal diet..
We visited the elephants this morning and it was an absolute joy. They have a 6 month old baby boy named Haven who is a naughty elephant 😂. He loves to run around like a crazy person, and reminds us a little bit of Charlotte’s boy 😆.
Tomorrow is Haven’s 6mth birthday, so wish him happy birthday! What an absolute cutie he is 🥰😍🥳.
Lots of love,

Alyssa and Charlotte.

12/06/2020

We are missing the Ao Nang elephants dearly! We feel so lucky to have such caring friends watching over them 🥰💓🙏.lorraine.

12/06/2020

Delivery 29 went to this morning. 💓.
Charlotte and I are now in Koh Samui visiting the elephant parks on the island. Food to islands is 3-4x more expensive than land orders, therefore, although the parks are receiving funds from , for some parks with many elephants, this can only cover the cost of appx. 57% of their usual food orders. After learning this, we have decided to offer our help to subsidise their deliveries to make sure the elephants get a full feed..
Since we are not physically in Ao Nang at the moment, our amazing friends .lorraine , , , and are on the ground making sure our deliveries don’t miss a beat! .
More updates in our next post about the elephants we have met on Koh Samui. Stay tuned!.
Love,
Alyssa and Charlotte

02/06/2020

Yesterday saw our 28th delivery of pineapple leaves. This went to . Truck 26 + 27 went to Khao Wongkot last week. To date we have spent £1400 out of our fund to keep 27 elephants in Ao Nang and Krabi fed for 6 weeks during the lockdown here in Thailand where parks have been closed and tourism has come to a complete halt. .
The situation in Thailand is worrying, as this country depends so heavily on tourism. It not only costs a lot of money to feed these elephants, but park owners also have to pay each mahout around 9000 baht a month to care for them. That doesn’t include rent for land and other expenses. .
If parks cannot afford their upkeep, they will start shipping these elephants away to perform other activities that can bring some cash flow to the owners. Unfortunately these activities are not desirable. Often the elephants will be shipped off for work in logging, which is much worse for the elephants’ health and wellbeing than regular elephant tourism activities. .
As Thailand has announced that in July everything will reopen, we hope that these parks will find enough tourist income to keep the elephants on site rather than resorting to shipping them away for manual labour..
As for us, we have ensured all of the elephants we have been helping now have enough money and food to have full bellies for the rest of June. We will continue to keep a close eye on the situation and find the best ways to use our funds to help those parks most in need of our support during these difficult times.
If you know of any elephants that need our help, please send our details to the owners and parks.
Thank you so much for your care and compassion for the elephants of Thailand. It has been truly heartwarming to see the loving responses from around the world.
Lots of love from Charlotte and I 💓💓💓💓💓

20/05/2020

Back at it! This morning, we returned to for our 22nd truck delivery to date.

With the assistance from Save Elephant Foundation - มูลนิธิอนุรักษ์ช้างและสิ่งแวดล้อม Charlotte and I were able to take a week off from deliveries this past week, and now our batteries are recharged and we are more motivated than ever to find parks in Krabi province that need our support. If you hear of any elephants in Krabi province who might be struggling, please send them our way!

We are trying to keep a close eye on parks struggling the most during this time to make sure our funds go to those who need food the most. Thailand has extended their ban on incoming travel until end of June and it is not clear when domestic tourists will return to the area. Parks such as Khao Wongkot Safari in Krabi, who have 10 elephants to feed and 10 mahouts to pay to look after the elephants, are really having trouble right now.

We delivered two more trucks to Khao Wongkot yesterday (delivery 20 and 21), and have sent another two for Friday. We assured them we will do our best to keep feeding their elephants for as long as they need our help. Now that lockdown and police checkpoints have relaxed, we look forward to visiting Khao Wongkot this Friday to see them receive some of our pineapple truck deliveries. 💓
...

16/05/2020

Everyday routine is to bring the elephants for a bath at the river where they can cool down after eating and get cleaned up by the people who's taking care of them.

They also have their mud bath, where they build a natural defense on their skin to keep them clean and also to protect their skin from being burnt by the harsh sun.

It's a spa treatment where they also get to make bonds with their caretakers ❤️🐘

We have created this fundraising to bring food to the elephants in Thailand during the Covid19 situation, businesses are slowly opening again, but these guys can still use our help.

Please click the linkand help us bringing food to these beautiful animals 🐘

https://www.gofundme.com/f/feed-the-ao-nang-elephants-in-thailand

16/05/2020

You can immediately see how well an elephant is treated by checking for purple marks on its head and body. Each of these represents a small wound or bruise inflicted by the mahout, using the sharp hook they carry (usually the back, blunt end). These are then treated with anti-bacterial spray containing gentian violet – which leaves the purple marks.

If you see people being cruel to animals, you can report it to the local police by calling 191 or report it to the Tourist Police by calling their hotline at 1155. The criminal code clearly states: Article 381, “Those who commit cruelty to animals shall be sentenced to one month in prison or a fine of 1,000 baht or both.” Article 382, “Those who force an animal to work beyond its capacity or cause injury to an animal shall be sentenced to one month in prison or a fine of 1,000 baht or both.”

Sawan Sangbunlung, secretary-general of the Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

16/05/2020

Sad but true.😔A fondness for rings and bracelets embedded with elephant hairs is fuelling a worrying fashion fad in a country notorious for its illicit wildlife trade, from rhino horns to pangolin scales, tiger teeth and bear bile.
The trend is putting a strain on elephants whose hairs are plucked or tails cut off, leaving the animals without the crucial appendage used to swat flies and keep their backsides clean.

"The tail is very much a part of body hygiene, so by plucking the hairs out... or cutting the entire lower tail off, you're putting a handicap on your elephant," Dionne Slagter, Animal Welfare Manager at Animals Asia.

10/05/2020

Hello! We have good news today!

We got in touch with Save Elephant Foundation - มูลนิธิอนุรักษ์ช้างและสิ่งแวดล้อม last week regarding the 27 elephants we are feeding. After a great phone meeting, they agreed to offer some assistance! They are able to provide feed for 22 of the elephants (12 are now officially registered and remaining 10 are in the process).

Save Elephant Foundation - มูลนิธิอนุรักษ์ช้างและสิ่งแวดล้อม have funds to feed them for 3 wks each month for the next 3 months. This means we will only have to subsidise their feed for one week each month, allowing our fund to stretch farther and keep these elephants fully fed for longer! As it is clear there is no sign of tourism returning in the near future, we are very happy about this!

We currently have enough left in our fund to subsidise 11 more deliveries, but donations will hopefully keep coming in to make sure we can keep this going.

Thank you again to everyone who has donated money, food and/or shared our posts!

Lots of love from Charlotte and I! 💓💓💓💓

06/05/2020

Delivery 14 & 15 went to Khao Wongkot yesterday, and we completed two others this morning. Truck 16 at 6:30am went to Ao Nang Elephant Park and Truck 17 was delivered to Phunaka at 10am (baby Sam recognises us now as the girl who always bring bananas 😂).

There is one favourite pleasure to these early mornings, and that’s being able to enjoy these beautiful sunrises! 😍

Charlotte and I wanna thank everyone for their care and support! We get a lot of questions about our work, so we have decided to do a Q&A soon on our stories. Stay tuned. 🐘🌴

04/05/2020

03/05/2020

This morning, Nosey Parkers Elephant Camp received their first delivery of pineapple leaves from us. This marks the 12th delivery we have completed in just two weeks! This would not be possible without the support we have received from our kind donors! 🙏💓😍 .

Now we hope you enjoy this video from this morning as the mahout gives lady Sombun a bath in this lovely river. 💦🌱🌿🍃

Click the link on the bio and help us today to feed these beautiful animals ❤️🐘..

02/05/2020

These guys reached out to us to find out more about what we have been doing here with the elephants. What a lovely video, thank you so much for creating and sharing! 💓

Full Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQW5eABrUk

Charlotte and Alyssa created this campaign to help the elephants in Ao Nang during the Covid-19 pandemic. As all incoming flights were suspended the flow of ...

01/05/2020

30/04/2020

Today at 6am we had the pleasure of meeting lady Sompen who’s 40 years old and baby boy Wonam who’s only 4. These two elephants reside at The Scene: An Elephant Care who have received their first truck from us this morning. It’s fair to say Wonam was certainly eager to start on the feast!

The Scene was once an elephant trekking company, however, in recent years they have had ongoing involvement with the Ao Nang Elephant Sanctuary who have helped them make the transition into more ethical services by adopting a more humane approach to elephant experiences such as bathing, massaging and feeding rather than riding the elephants. This is what we like to see!

Our second delivery of the day was at 10am back with our friends at The Ao Nang Elephant Sanctuary. By this point I was personally looking forward to the incredible breakfast they have been so kind to offer on previous visits! Considering we had an early start a coffee would have been incredible, and fail did they not! Guava, watermelon and sour mango was today’s breakfast options aswell as cake and coffee! THANK YOU🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 Anyway, enough about the human food...🐷🐷

Today at the sanctuary we were joined by a couple named Jerry and Andrew who contacted us a few days back in relation to interviewing me and Alyssa on the work we have been doing over these past few weeks. The footage will be available to watch on their YouTube channel. Once it is online we will share the link! Of course, the main stars of the interview were Kamsan, P**n Ngern and Malai!

Our day didn’t stop there! We then headed over to Nosey Parker’s to check in with them. We made contact with these guys a while back but at that point they stated that they had enough to feed the elephants until the end of April. Coming to the end of the month, we wanted to see how they are doing. They are now requiring our help, so we are stepping in and offering our support. Nosey Parker’s have 3 elephants names Kyaota, Sombun and Maluai (no idea of actual spelling, sorry! 😆), so we will be adding the three ladies to our delivery list!

Now here are some numbers we would like to share with you:

We are currently supporting 6 parks/27 elephants

SPENT SO FAR: £550 delivering 11 trucks of pineapple leaves
MONEY LEFT: £650

The money we have left may last just under 2 weeks! Please please please donate if you can. We appreciate it’s not cheap to feed these gigantic mammals, but as humans it’s our responsibility to ensure these majestic creatures don’t suffer as a result of Covid-19! The trucks are £50 each, any amount of money you can afford will be greatly received 😍🥰 As always, if you can’t afford to donate, please consider sharing our posts! 🙏💓

30/04/2020

Yesterday was a spa day for the elephants at Phunaka! This is Prayer, mother to Baby Sam. They enjoy these cooling baths, especially in this Thai heat. 🚿 💦

Our 8th pineapple truck delivery today went to Ao Nang Elephant Park at 6am, and our 9th truck went to Phunaka at 10am. We also treated the elephants to bunches of bananas. 🍌😋

So far we have raised just under £1200 with this fund. Thanks so much to everyone who has donated and/or shared! We made two more deliveries this morning, bringing our total spend to £550 so far (update coming later today!)

Donations are still slowly coming in, so hopefully we will be able to continue feeding these elephants as long as they need the assistance! ❤ ❤

29/04/2020

I just want to firstly apologise for the constant elephant posting 🐘🤷🏻‍♀️🙌🏼and also to pre warn you that yet again this is one of those posts!! 😂

So we have been scratching our heads trying to think of ideas 🤔and ways to involve people!

We have decided to arrange a fundraising donation day in Ao Nang!

We will be asking people to drop off watermelons, bananas, and pineapples 🍍🍌These are tasty expensive💰treats that the elephants get when they normally see visitors!

Currently we only provide essential feed so we thought this would be a great opportunity to spoil the elephants, cash donations would also be appreciated on the day too!!

Alyssa and I will be more than happy to chat and answer any questions people have. We want you guys to be involved by making it possible to play a physical part in the contributions we make! We would politely insist you wear a mask and respect social distancing by only donating in no more than groups of two people at a time or solo.

We will be situated to the left of the Makrow gates on Monday the 4th from 12 noon until 6pm.

Please consider purchasing the fruit from small local vendors to help the community though this difficult period.

Thankyou so much and we look forward to meeting you guys! 🙌🏼💕🐘

27/04/2020

Could you do these few things for me to raise our profile?

Promote our fund on your work email signature.

Send an email to your colleagues with a brief description of our efforts and include our link!

Pretty please with a cherry on top🥰🙌🏼🐘🇹🇭

26/04/2020

26/04/2020

Once again it’s been a busy morning. At 9am Alyssa and I met the delivery guy with the 3rd food truck we’ve supplied to the Aonang Elephant Sanctuary. While there we made some Vitamin balls for the three girls, this involved mashing steamed rice, bananas and protein pellets together with some water.

As always the staff at the sanctuary were happy to greet us with coffee, fruits, cake, ice cream and today we were given an elephant teddy each as an extra special thank you.

As we sat and tucked into the refreshments we had the opportunity to ask some questions and gather some information to share with everyone who follows our posts.

We are now also in contact with The Scene who have two elephants, and also Khao Wongkot Safari which is home to 10 elephants and are desperately in need of food. We are going to help but now we are supporting 5 establishments (24 elephants), so we need more funding urgently. If you are in a position to offer a donation however small it really would make a huge difference. It costs around £5.50 to feed 1 elephant for a day. If not, even sharing this is hugely appreciated!

Link to our Go Fund Me:
https://bit.ly/2UZaWlg

Please also like and share our page with any friends who may be interested in this cause! 🥰

Also, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for the latest stories, photos and updates! 💓🐘


This is our order schedule for this week:

TUES: 2 trucks to Khao Wongkot Safari

WED: 1 truck to Ao Nang elephant park
1 truck to Phunaka Krabi

THURS: 1 truck to Ao nang Elephant Sanctuary
1 truck to The Scene

An almost total absence of visitors means that many caretakers are struggling… Charlotte Edwards needs your support for Feed the Ao Nang elephants in Thailand

26/04/2020

We sometimes receive questions about the trekking companies that we are also supporting with food during Covid-19. Watch the video to hear our friend Laptican from Ao Nang Elephant Sanctuary explain why supporting the trekking companies at this time of crisis is also very important. 💓

26/04/2020

Today we made our 5th pineapple truck delivery, which went to this morning at 9am. It is an absolute joy and a pleasure to spend time with these guys, and today we were overwhelmed by their generosity when they presented us each with one of these gorgeous gifts! 😍

We love it here because they are a sanctuary that offers relaxing experiences between the elephants and visitors, and we love to support forward-thinking ethical tourism models for the elephants! 🐘