Elephant encounters @ the Weheragalagama village-Wasgamuwa

The Global Development Awards Competition's Finalist, Ravi Corea from Sri Lanka, speaks about his project during the GDN communications workshop in Casablanca.

For many captive elephants in Sri Lanka, lifelong pain, suffering, and deprivation are all they have ever known. They deserve better. New Life Elephant Sanctuary© (NLES) is a groundbreaking elephant welfare initiative--the first sanctuary in Sri Lanka for captive elephants. http://www.slwcs.org/elephant-sanctuary NLES will provide high quality veterinary care and offer retirement and respite sanctuary to Sri Lanka’s working elephants (young and old) who have spent their lives shackled in chains, abused and exploited in Sri Lanka’s rapidly growing tourism industry. In many ways, this is the definitive moment to establish a new model and new standards for the care and management of captive elephants in Sri Lanka’s rapidly growing, post-civil war economy. New Life Elephant Sanctuary will provide an alternative to elephant-back riding, parades, circus performances and other spectacles that are inherently harmful to elephants and their keepers. New Life Elephant Sanctuary will help to bring about a new human-elephant ethic, integrating captive elephant welfare and wild elephant conservation and education. We invite you to join us in creating the New Life Elephant Sanctuary! http://www.slwcs.org/elephant-sanctuary We need your generous support today to undertake essential phase one, pre-development work in Sri Lanka, which will ensure the future success of NLES. Your donation will enable us to: *Secure land for NLES (note: we are currenty negotiating the terms of acquisition for a large parcel of beautiful land in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka) *Provide free elephant wellness checks and basic veterinary care services (wound, abscess and injury care, pedicures/foot care, etc.) through "Project eleVETS" (http://www.slwcs.org/project-elevets) *Prepare detailed NLES construction plans *Identify prospective NLES elephant residents and secure agreements with owners DONATE NOW to provide a BETTER LIFE, A NEW LIFE for Captive Elephants of Sri Lanka: http://www.slwcs.org/elephant-sanctuary Yes, freedom IS coming with the help of kind people from all around the globe. Join us today! Thank you. ***About this Video*** A "Do Good Films" Production Video filmed in Sri Lanka and produced and edited by Lacy Wittman Story written by Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund Additional footage provided by Kylie Butler Additional photos provided by Ravi Corea and Elemotion Audio mix by Jordan Moser Music Provided by: -Wellington Lora -"Pianos and Whale Call" & "Sun to Sun" -Publisher: The Cueniverse This video is the property of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society.

SLWCS Volunteer and Intern Program Bring your passion...and your sense of adventure! We offer individuals and families from all around the globe a rare opportunity to work alongside our scientists, conservationists, educators, community partners, and local villagers deep within the heart of beautiful Sri Lanka. Together, we are carrying out essential conservation work while building international support for our mission. SLWCS has been operating its Volunteering and Intern Program since 2002; it generates much-needed revenues to support our critical conservation and research work. Learn more at http://www.slwcs.org/ A Do Good Films Production Created by: Lacy Wittman Supporting the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society Music: Abbas Premjee, Publisher: The Cueniverse

A preliminary interview conducted for a documentary that begins production in the fall of 2009.

THE WORLD'S FIRST EleFRIENDLY BUS HAS ARRIVED! Every day, children risk their lives walking to and from school in the Wasgamuwa National Park region. And every day, elephants are the target of angry villagers who shoot at them to scare, hurt and sometimes kill them. That's because elephants and humans share the same forests, fields, roads and corridors. Tragically, human-elephant conflicts result in the deaths of more than 80 people and 200 elephants each year in Sri Lanka. With reliable transportation along rural roadways that pass through the region's ancient elephant corridor, area residents will be able to travel safely to and from school, work and home. It will keep people safe and elephants alive. LEARN MORE: http://www.slwcs.org/#!elefriendly-bus/c17ti VIDEO CREDITS: Created by Lacy Wittman https://www.facebook.com/lacyandtheelephants/ Original music by Mache Karol https://www.facebook.com/maciej.barwinski.50?fref=ts Additional footage provided by: Kylie Butler and Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund

Cultivating peace and prosperity one tree at a time For Sri Lankans living in the rural countryside, close encounters with elephants during their day-to-day activities are commonplace. Crop raiding by elephants and the harsh retaliatory measures subsequently taken by people whose livelihoods depend on their farm products feeds a vicious cycle of violence and death. Project Orange Elephant (POE) is helping to ease the tension. For more than a decade SLWCS has been working with local communities to create alternative forms of agriculture and provide new cash crops, including oranges and limes (elephants do not like citrus fruits so it is a perfect buffer crop). By growing a barrier of citrus trees around their rice and vegetable crops, rural Sri Lankan farmers are creating an effective elephant deterrent and providing new, sustainable income while keeping their families and wild elephants safe. POE received a Most Innovative Development Project Award from the Global Development Network in June 2015.