I am Sam. Sam I am.

This is a story about Sam. Sam I am.

Hey! We are Maria and Chenoa from Costa Rica and Australia ( I bet you've never seen that mix before).

Thailand has a long history of Elephant abuse and we've been unfortunate enough, to see some of it ourselves. 

In Thailand there are less than 2,000 Elephants, over 50% of these are 'domesticated' and abused. The process to domesticate a wild Elephant, they are tortured as babies to completely break it's spirit, this involves being taken from its mother, starved, being shackled, beating them into submission and confining them in a hole in the ground. This process is called Phajaan or 'the crush'.

Elephants suffer from the same emotional and mental issues that humans do; in these situations, they can suffer from depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Although, the Thai Government is slowly making changes to the abuse that Elephants have and continue to suffer, that change is a slow moving beast; there are other ways to help now, immediately! 

Whilst we were exploring Koh Lanta (A tiny island in South Thailand) on scooters, we were captivated by an Elephant and her baby, being kept in a pen on the side of the road. Ple, the 20 yr old big mummma and Sam, her 1 yr old bubba boy.

On a day that was so scorching hot that we were toasty red from the sun, these two beautiful Elephants, Sam and Ple, stood in that direct sun, no shelter, a small amount of water and chained to the ground in a 6x6mtr enclosure.

We realised that we couldn't save this animal as it costs approximately $100,000US to buy one Elephant and relocate them to a sanctuary, where they can actually be an Elephant and not an abused 'pet'.

We realised that if we wanted to help Ple and Sam's situation, we needed to change our tactics. We needed to know their story. The story of Sam. Sam I am.

We went back to speak with the owner, with a whole different attitude.  

The story of the owner is unique in this situation. You see, Ple was born in the city and domesticated as a baby. She was brought to the island when she fell pregnant, as she was no longer considered "useful" anymore. The owner took care of her and unlike other elephant companies he wouldn't allow anyone to ride her anymore. She now lives in this small pen with Sam and the owner profits from tourists to feed her. The owner rents the pen, he himself and his family live in a very run down shack just next to the pen. He has a down syndrome son and struggles every month to pay the rent for the pen, buy the food for the elephants and support his own family. He is not willing to trek with the elephant though, he prefers to receive the income just from tourists to feed her so she is kept away from abuse.

He has to pays 3000 TBH  (around $100 US) for a truck of fruits every 3 to 4 days to feed the elephants. Sometimes the money they earn from the tourists is not enough to cover for the expenses and that's why he is really struggling to support the elephants and his family at the moment. It was clear that he is doing as much as he can, with the little funds and resources he has. When we asked him, how does he manage, he says he has done it with strength alone.

So, we came up with a plan... one day, we may be able to raise enough money to rescue both Ple and Sam. One day, the Thai Government may changed how Elephants are treated and make it illegal for people to abuse them. One day, tourists may actually stop riding Elephants. Until that time though, Ple and Sam continue to stand in the heat, with little water, shackled in a 6x6mtr pen. We can help them now, by helping Bob, care for them.

We don't intend on giving Bob the money. We have found expat and local builders that will help us build Ple and Sam a shelter structure, a better watering system and hopefully, if we have enough money, a larger pen. We will also provide them with better water flow and we will help Bob with his communication strategy so that the tourists that come to support him, are bettwer informed of the situation and he can provide a better quality of life to the elephants. 

We believe, since we cannot go back in time, that we must do something to provide them with a happier healthier life. 

Because we had to do our gofundme page in AU dollars, here's a quick run down on the conversions.

$2,000AU converts to $895,520CRC (Costa Rican Colón)

$2,000AU converts to $1,572US (American dollars)

$2,000 to $52,106THB (Thai Baht)

So, based on those conversions, and the money that we are praying you can help us with, we can help these Elephants have a better quality of life.. because everybody needs love ❤