Elephants

A Second Chance for Kabu

Kabu at Elephant Nature Park

A second chance for Kabu
It's been a year since her rescue, and you will not believe the difference a little love can make. 

With a weeks worth of preparations and 2 days spent searching the jungle we were able to rescue Kabu the elephant. It was a 24 hour round trip to bring Kabu from Tak province in West Thailand to Elephant Nature Park, Chiang Mai. Now Kabu has a fresh start where she will no longer be abused. We and volunteers are very proud of this rescued elephant and honored to provide her with a new life.


Last year, Lek Chailert and her team from the Elephant Nature Park rescued Kabu from her life of logging in the hills of Thailand.

When Kabu was small, she broke her left front leg in an accident. Because of the heavy work required of an elephant, the leg was never allowed to heal properly. Despite her injury, she was still forced to work, haul logs, and carry people.

Now that Kabu is free to roam and play at the Elephant Nature Park, she is thriving! You can see the difference in her spirit in the video and images below.

You have given Kabu this second chance through your generous support. Just imagine how we can impact the lives of other animals in need. Even the smallest changes can make a big difference.

Kabu before her rescue

Kabu before her rescue

Kabu before her rescue

Kabu before her rescue

Kabu before her rescue

Kabu before her rescue

Kabu
Enjoying her new life at the Elephant Nature Park

Kabu at Elephant Nature Park
Kabu at Elephant Nature Park
Kabu at Elephant Nature Park

Photography & Videography by Elephant Nature Park

Elephant Nature Park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation center in Northern Thailand where you can volunteer and visit to help. We have been involved in dozens of rescues which have created our thriving elephant herd. The park provides a natural environment for elephants, dogs, cats, buffaloes and many other animals under our care.

WorldWomenWork Adventures: Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda

Our Trip to Kenya and Rwanda

Safari in Kenya, Trek in Rwanda, Camp in Luxury

Our WorldWomenWork explorers took to the plains and jungles of Africa this February in search of adventure. What they found, besides the captivating landscape, spectacular people, and the majestic wildlife, was an unforgettable experience engrossed in the raw abundance of nature. Enjoy these memories with us! 

Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our Trip To Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda
Our trip to Kenya and Rwanda

WorldWomenWork Adventure Trips are organized every year, as an educational as well as fundraising initiative. A portion of the trip fees go directly to the projects that we support. Read more about these projects on in our News and Projects pages. If you would like to be the first to know about our next trips, sign up for our mailing list. Thank you!

Elephants, Humans, and Water: The Connection of Life

Water is crucial in this beautiful but arid land. One day we watched elephants digging and drinking from deep holes in the completely dry Ewaso River bed. The babies played like children in the holes, making a mess of their parent’s careful work. The holes are in turn used by many other animals during these dry times. Later I walked up the river to a spot where herds of cattle, donkeys, and goats are brought to drink from holes surrounded by walls of thorn branches to keep out the elephants and other wildlife. Women in beautiful necklaces and men call their animals to come and drink, singing to them as they go. The river bed is the life blood for these people and their animals as much as it is for the elephants. Everyone can’t wait for the rains to come.

While the world seems to verge on chaos, to spend time with these magnificent creatures never fails to help restore my faith in the future. I always come home filled with admiration for the people on the ground who struggle to preserve their unique place in the world and am inspired to do more to help. I know that next year everyone making the journey to Africa will share these profound feelings.

Exciting Updates for 2015-2016

  • New website

  • New project: Community Outreach for Elephants

  • New project: WorldWomenWorks Disposable & Reusable Sanitary Pad Project

  • WWW shows in San Francisco, Sun Valley, New York & Santa Fe

  • 2016 Trip: Elephants & Gorillas Kenya/Rwanda already full!

Losing the Elephants Update

I want to update you on Losing the Elephants as a lot has happened!
It has has been a wrenching experience, one moment total agony, disbelief, the next joy.

I spent 2 weeks with the Swell Pictures crew in November filming the second part, the rescue of an elephant at the Surin Elephant Roundup with Lek. The people of Surin were traditionally excellent at capturing elephants in Cambodia and then training them as working animals. Today it’s entertainment to make a living, reenactment of past century battles with drugged elephants, rides and selling. We arrived in Surin after an 18hour drive. I felt a sense of foreboding. In the chaos of the elephant breakfast and rides an elephant lost it after being teased with food and attacked the woman who was hospitalized with a coma – don’t know the outcome. From there we went to the Army grounds where many elephants are being kept to look at one Lek hoped to buy, but she had died. We find another lady about 30 who has a broken leg from a logging accident in Burma, almost blind in one eye and then 5 years of begging on the streets of Bangkok. This is one of the most desperate scenes I have ever seen. Mahouts and families are living under tarpaulins surrounded by cooking fires, trash and filth. Poverty with elephants the only means of economic survival are brutally chained, some repeatedly throwing themselves on the ground in desperation. Stab wounds, malnutrition the norm, but we have found “Mae Bua Loi”- Floating Lotus – and the negotiations begin. The price $13,000 is agreed upon. She is going back to her village for a farewell ceremony.

We arrive at dusk the next evening. Lek joins the men sitting on the ground, the centerpiece a pig’s head on a platter with money and plenty of liquor for the goodbye ceremony and many spirits. We have had to rent a truck which is outfitted with tree trunks wrapped with blankets felled in the dark to keep her stable on the 20 hour trip back to the sanctuary. We leave about 8. Lek and I are sitting at her feet where fresh fruits – watermelon, mango, banana, jack fruit – are piled for her to munch on the 20 hour journey ahead. She towers over us, her eyes filled with fear, but she is calm. The next afternoon again sitting in the shadow of this magnificent creature we arrive at the Park. Everyone is waiting for us as we drive toward the river. She is unchained for the first time in how long and walks slowly with her new mahout to the river and then into the distance as the sun sets. Tears of joy abound!

The next morning the most incredible thing happens. Bua Loi is walking and munching on grass when out of the trees comes an elephant. They came together slowly with trunks outreached – much touching and feeling. They had lived together in the same village in Burma and had begged in Bangkok. They had not seen each other for 2 years!

As some of you know ‘Losing the Elephants’ premiered to a packed house at the 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It has gone on to be an official selection at a number of other prestigious festivals including Telluride Mountain Film and its traveling festival which will bring it to audiences worldwide. National Geographic Television chose it to be a part their series ‘Wild Chronicles’ and as a result, a condensed version of the film has been seen by PBS audiences nationwide.

The expected delivery of the re edited film in its full broadcast hour is this summer which will allow ample time to get the film out to the 2009 film festivals including the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. In addition the film will be presented to broadcast outlets, including National Geographic Television and the Discovery Channel. Thank you all so much for being a part of this incredible project.