Join the March!

I’m ecstatic! Earlier this year I started this blog and FB page as a way to share my passion about elephants with others. Now my facebook page has over 1K LIKES (most of whom I don’t even know, people from all around the world who passionately care for the future of elephants)! As it continues to grow, I am excited for the next step: to do more than just share information and sign petitions to government officials (although those are extremely important actions items!)

I am proud to announce that Elephantopia will be co-leading a march in Houston this October 4 to raise awareness about the poaching crisis!

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Foundation is heading up an official peaceful march on World Animal Day, October 4, 2013. There will be marches going on around the world on this day to make the public aware of what is going on — that to date, there are at the very most, 600,000 African Elephants left in the wild and with ivory fetching over USD $1,000 on the black market (and with lenient penalties, low risk of being caught, and high payoff incentives!), the Africa Elephant faces extinction by 2025 if things continue at their current rate. That’s just a little over ten years away.

Houston will be marching in solidarity with the official march cities on October 4, 2013. As I start the intense work of preparing for this march, I love these words of wisdom shared from Jim Nyamu (a Kenyan who recently walked  a 50 day trek covering 1,700km around Kenya to raise awareness for elephants):

Earlier on, I used to look myself as a person without resources to do this. I used to think I need a car until I realised I had my two legs and mouth to use; and these are my two greatest tools that I am going to use.

And as so eloquently stated by David Braun of National Geographic NewsWatch, the importance of individuals like YOU and ME sharing information on facebook, signing petitions, and raising awareness through peaceful marches and demonstrations can not be underestimated:

In the end, this war will be won through changing hearts and minds—or in other words, public diplomacy.