Support Us

The Current Situation

The past few years have been some of the most challenging in our history. Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment (ELIE) and the Elephant Valley Project (EVP) have dedicated themselves to providing sanctuary for Cambodia’s elephants, supporting local communities, and protecting critical forest habitats. However, the impact of the pandemic and a slow return of tourism have left us facing an urgent financial crisis.

Why We Need Your Help 

For years, ELIE and EVP operated without external funding, relying on sustainable ecotourism to support elephant welfare, conservation efforts, and local communities. The pandemic forced extended closures, leading to drastic cuts in essential programs, including:

• Reduced food and medical care for rescued elephants, threatening their well-being and recovery.
• Cuts to staff wages, including our dedicated mahouts and vets, making it difficult for them to continue their invaluable work.
• Loss of funding for forest protection and anti-poaching initiatives, increasing the risk of illegal activities that endanger wildlife and biodiversity.
• Decreased support for indigenous Bunong communities, impacting food security, healthcare access, and sustainable livelihoods.

Even with the gradual return of tourism, revenues remain insufficient to cover our core expenses, let alone pay off outstanding debts accumulated over the last few years. Without immediate support, these critical initiatives remain at risk.

The Critical Funding Gap 

To sustain and rebuild our programs, we need $28,000 – 32,000 per month to cover operating costs. Without these funds, we risk severe reductions in services that have been instrumental in elephant welfare and community support.

While some months in 2024 saw strong tourism revenue—particularly in November and December, when visitor numbers finally matched pre-pandemic levels—other months were exceptionally low, especially during the off-season. In certain months, rather than reducing our financial burden, our debt increased further due to insufficient income.

Tourism revenue fluctuated between $15,000 and $30,000 per month, but on average, we still faced a $2,000 – $7,000 shortfall each month. To bridge this gap, we have been actively fundraising online, maintaining monthly elephant sponsorships, and receiving one-time donations. These efforts currently generate an additional $2,000 – $3,000 per month, but despite this support, we continue to fall short and require urgent assistance to sustain our operations.

Monthly Core Operating Budget: $32,000

• Elephant Care & Food: $3,920 – Ensures the elephants receive nutritious food and medical care.
• Mahout Salaries: $6,300 – Covers the wages of caretakers who dedicate their lives to elephant welfare.
• Veterinary & Elephant Care Team Salaries: $2,000 – Supports veterinary staff who monitor and treat elephants in need, including our mobile vet program which has only been responding to emergency calls.
• Ecotourism & Guesthouse Staff: $5,265 – Helps maintain visitor services, which in turn generate revenue for the sanctuary.
• Community Rice Support: $2,400 – Provides monthly rice distributions to 78 indigenous Bunong families, in compensation for the use of the community forest for the elephants.
• Forest & Wildlife Protection: Currently unfunded – A crucial initiative that needs urgent financial support to prevent deforestation and habitat destruction.
• Administrative & Operations Costs: $7,980 – Covers essential operational expenses to keep ELIE running.

How you can Help

With your support, we can continue our vital work and ensure the elephants receive the care they deserve. Here’s how you can make a difference:

• Sponsor an Elephant: Monthly sponsorships directly fund food, medicine, and care for a specific elephant.
• One-Time Donation: Any amount helps bridge the funding gap and ensures immediate needs are met.
• Corporate & Grant Support: If your organization can provide funding for one or more of the current budget lines, we can tailor a grant proposal to align with your focus areas.
• In-Kind Donations: Contributions such as veterinary supplies, food, and equipment are equally valuable.

Your contribution not only helps protect Cambodia’s remaining elephants but also safeguards forests, supports indigenous communities, and promotes ethical ecotourism.

Running a project in the remote east of Cambodia sometimes limits the access to certain resources. There are also some things that are far outside our reach from general funds raised through the EVP. Therefore we have created a wish list. Some things are small and you may be able to pack them in your suitcase if coming from overseas, (which would be an immense help). Others are a dream, but if you have the means and would like to fundraise and sponsor one of the bigger items that would make a big difference to the project and thus the elephants please contact eliecambodia.manager@gmail.com

Elephant Medicine
There are many medicine supplies and small additions that can help our elephants and also human medical kits onsite. Items that would really help us along the way are :
– We need iodine and lots of it. We use a 10L bottle for Sambo alone ever few weeks, for her foot soaks. – Purchasing a 1L bottle of Iodine in Phnom Penh and donating it to us to help to treat elephant wounds and give foot baths would be an enormous help. Or if anyone works for a medical supply company that would like to sponsor this medicine in bulk, please let us know (Annually we use about 200L).
– Vet Cream – 3 Action – Antibiotic, Anti-Inflammatory & Aesthetic – for example these medications – NeoSooth orNeoCort – you may need to ask your vet to prescribe as a take away medicine for donation overseas.
– Boxes of surgical gloves
– First Aid Supplies (Packets of Plasters, Bandages, Gauze Pads, etc.)
– Antibiotic cream, antiseptic cream, mosquito repellent, de-worming medication for cats and dogs.
– Packets of 500 mg Paracetamol and Ibuprofen (we can buy this here but International brands are better quality.)

For the EVP Site
– Hats, work clothing, rain jackets, work boots, gum boots, etc. (You can use while you are here and leave behind).
– Thick work gloves
– Electric torches (preferably rechargeable)
– Tools of all shapes, kinds, and sizes

Elephant Medical Treatment & Training Areas
We have received some funding over the years from generous donors, where we have continued to develop the centre. Things like gas cookers to heat the water, training fences and Sambos treatment area. This centre however is getting older and needs constant repairs. We would also like to build some small treatment enclosures, for sick elephants that need to spend the night or longer close to the clinic. We would like to build 2 more elephant medical treatment and positive reinforcement training areas within the forest areas. We have one close to base camp and would like 2 more in the bottom of the valley. This would make giving treatment to the elephants much easier and safer, especially the old guys and gals that might not like getting injections very much. Estimate cost for each mini training/treatment fence $1000 – $2000.

Technology
Any working technology is always much appreciated as our work in the field eats these items. Rarely do we get funding for technology, but are super low on computers in the office, so any help goes a long way!

Motorbikes
Most of the project staff have always used their own motos. We would love to give some of the key staff project motos, which are newer and more reliable for ease of work and safety.

Solar Power for the EVP
We currently do not have a consistent green electricity supply at the EVP. We do run a generator for power 3 hours per night and when needed, but we would love to fit out the whole camp with solar. This would be more environmentally friendly, enabling us to have hot showers in the cold season and also so we don’t have to listen to that big smelly generator each night. We have a quote for the full system for the main site and setup cost will be around $10,000, with a solar company in Cambodia that works with NGO’s. If you are interested in supporting all, or even part of this effort, then please drop us a line. 🙂