Tag Archives: thailand

Home Project: Save Our Rainforests

1 Mar

Tropical rainforests have been called the “jewels of the Earth” and the “world’s largest pharmacy“.   Over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there.  Rainforests are also responsible for 28% of the world’s oxygen turnover.

I chose to highlight rainforest conservation first as part of our  Home Project Campaign.  I probably don’t have to go over the many reasons why we need to rescue and resuscitate the world’s rainforests. Rainforests represent a store of living and breathing renewable natural resources that have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind.  But humankind is also putting pressure on delicate ecosystems and they are suffering. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen at a cost to our very life forces.

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Urgent: The Elephant Nature Park Needs Our Help

16 Feb

When I heard about the recent raids by the Thai government on both The Elephant Nature Park and Wildlife Friends Foundation, I was quite upset.  I hate imagining such beautiful and calm places, so full of joy, being disrupted by government officials for the entire day:

“On Wednesday 8 February approximately 100 government people descended on The Elephant Nature Park. They claimed they had an anonymous phone call alleging that the park was hiding some 70 wild elephants.  They disrupted the park from early morning till evening, some 13 hours.  They found nothing but fully documented elephants living in sanctuary.  Some were old, some sick, some wounded but all were properly documented and well cared for.  It’s public knowledge that there are 35 elephants at ENP.  ENP’s attorney was on hand and presented the proper documentation.”

From the Article at Asian Elephant Stories Blog

A few days later the same raid went down at Wildlife Friends Foundation and they even found a reason to ARREST the president of WFFT!  These sanctuaries are two of the only places in Thailand that elephants are actually rescued at, the only places where they can live in peace without fear of abuse and cared for with love.  They also speak out against animal cruelty and tell us what is REALLY going on in Thailand with domesticated elephants.  If you want to know more about the situation for elephants in Thailand, read our earlier blog post here.  I also recommend reading the article from Asian Elephant Stories as they delve deeper into why this is happening.

What I want to do is put out the necessary info so action can be taken immediately.

This is what we can do right now:

Sign the Petition.  It is currently at about 8,000 signatures and their goal is 10,00, let’s make it 50,000 signatures.

The recent raids were orchestrated by National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP) This is a list of their contact emails: http://www.dnp.go.th/wpcdnpe.htm

More emails of Department of National Parks and sample letter you can copy and paste:  http://www.facebook.com/notes/maud-janssen/mail-and-adresses-to-deparment-of-national-parks/361857043837992

Post on the US Embassy Bangkok and US Consulate Chiang Mai FB Pages:

http://www.facebook.com/usembassybkk?sk=wall

http://www.facebook.com/chiangmai.usconsulate

More helpful links:

Elephant Nature Park and ENP Facebook

Wildlife Friends of Thailand and WFFT Facebook

Post on their walls and show your support.  Also, post the petition link anywhere you can: FB, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinstrest, blog about it and/or mail it to friends and family.  Here is the petition link one more time:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/urgent-plea-for-rescued-thai-wildlife/

The more emails we send, the clearer the message will be to Thai officials that potential tourists don’t want to visit places of animal cruelty and we support what places like ENP and WFFT are doing.  Of course, we can also go there and help in person.  Our willingness to physically be there and volunteer speaks volumes.  And of course, if you need help or don’t know where to start planning a trip to Thailand, email us: info@loveinfinitely.org and we will help down to the last detail.

In the meantime, let’s get these emails out and show our support for elephants.

♥∞

~B

  Follow Love Infinitely on Twitter: @LoveInfinitelyP

What you can do to help: Orphanages

8 Dec

This is a tough one.  How do we really help orphaned children here and around the world?  Spending time with these beautiful babies, it makes no sense to me at all how they don’t each have loving families.  I wish I could just take them all home!  But since I can’t and we have to start somewhere, there was one particular area I would like to focus on and help.  Nutrition.

The food they receive every day is pretty basic.  Clear soup, rice and sometimes fried veggies.  For snack I only ever saw them have cookies with frosting on them and sugary sweets.  One of my little boys, had his baby teeth already rotted away.  I’m not sure how in a country that is so bountiful in delicious fruits, they didn’t have any for the babies here.  Or FRESH veggies for that matter.  Obviously, I wasn’t with them all day, every day for every meal but what I (and the other volunteers) saw was clear, these growing children need a more nutritious diet.

So what do we do?  Though I left a donation for the children’s home, I want to set aside a special account just to get fruits and veggies into the bellies of these kids.  Set a certain percentage of all Love Infinitely Project donations to go into this special fund.  Perhaps set this up as a yearly donation.  Then we can follow up in person.  I’ve heard this is the case in many other orphanages throughout Thailand and other countries as well.  I’d love to visit and send you all out to see what can be done about this at orphanages around the world.

If we can’t adopt every child, the least we can do is make sure they grow up to be healthy and strong.

Like I said, we have to start somewhere.

♥∞

~B

  Follow B on Twitter in India: @iamsunshine78

Volunteer Week 2: Viengping Children’s Home

8 Dec

Coming off my amazing adventure at the Elephant Nature Park, I went straight into working at the Viengping Children’s Home, an orphanage just North of Chiang Mai.  In order to volunteer here, you must fill out an application and have it approved by the director.  My first day was Monday morning 11/21.  It took me a bit to figure out the bus system, but eventually figured it out and was there just past 9am.  I met with the director in her office to talk about my background with children.  Or in my case, teenagers.  But she assigned me to the “Sawasdee” Room which is where the 1-2 yr olds were.  Babies.  Once the children are 5 years old, they go to public school during the day.  So, babies it was for me!

Of course, they’re the cutest little babies you ever did see!  There were about 10 in the 1-2 year old group and 10 in the 2-3 year old group.  From the time volunteers arrive at 9am until 10:30am they have play time.  Followed by lunch, nap (volunteer lunch) and more play and activities after that.  The type of play and activity depends on the number of volunteers, staff and what day it is.  It was a little confusing at first because only the director spoke English, but by Day 2 I was getting the rhythm of the place.

On average there were only about 3 volunteers, a mix of locals and some foreigners.  One man from the US has been volunteering there for about 3 months.  I got a lot more information from him as it was difficult for me to communicate with the staff.  We each took 1 or 2 children at a time to go play.  We’d go on walks, play on the playground, ride the big wheels or go into the mini gymnasium.  One day, we all went on a big walk to the grass area behind the Home for Boys.  Volunteers aren’t allowed to take pictures but I snuck a few in with my phone that day.  All the babies were curious as to what it was.

Every day the babies would greet me at the gate to their playroom with their arms stretched up.  Every day they had to pry them off of me to go to lunch.  (Babies don’t like lunch because they know playtime is over. )  The babies were such a fun treat to be with every day because they wonder and marvel at everything.  All is new to them.  Also, they are just barely learning to speak so it is fun to teach them new words.  Their environment is so bright and colorful with educational games at every turn.  Though they don’t have individual toys, they do have a toy area with tricycles and big wheels.

There is one more group of 1-3 year olds, the babies with HIV/AIDS.  Volunteers aren’t allowed to go with them and neither are the other children.  As babies, they are kept in their own building and their staff takes them out to play separately.  Once these children are old enough, they will be incorporated into the rest of the group, but as babies, they are just too fragile.  Then there is the newborns.  The tiny babies!  Only staff is allowed to go into the nursery.  I would catch the nurses taking the littlest ones out for strolls.  Just adorable! 

I didn’t realize just how much the entire experience had touched me until it was time to say goodbye.  My last day, there were more volunteers than the rest of the week, probably about 8-10.  After we got the kids in and I’d squeezed them all one last time, I spoke with a few of the new volunteers about my experience at Viengping.  I became a bit emotional talking about each of the babies.  Wishing I had more time.  I still think about my little ones every day. Especially what they must have thought the day I didn’t show up for playtime.  It was so much harder leaving them than I ever imagined.  I then walked to the office to talk to the director and she held both my hands as I, through tears, thanked her for letting me volunteer.  Then I cried leaving the grounds and on the bus back into the city.

If I could have changed one thing about my trip, I would have extended my stay in Thailand.  I don’t feel like my work with the children of Viengping is done.  There is so much more I would have liked to have accomplished.  Which means, I’ll probably be headed back there again.  Hopefully with a team.

♥∞

~B

  Follow B on Twitter in India: @iamsunshine78

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