November 2016: GVI Chiang Mai

Monthly Achievement Report: 48 hour sleep out fundraiser!

Objectives
To increase and promote ethical elephant tourism
To create a viable self-sustaining eco-tourism programme for the village
Improve standards of living and job opportunities for the people of Huay Pakoot
Improve sustainable natural resource management in the Huay Pakoot area

GVI volunteers and staff completed their annual GVI Trust challenge where they spent 48hrs
sleeping out in the forest, living with the bare minimum and putting their survival skills to
the test. All of the volunteers were assigned teams, each trying to fundraise as much as possible to help raise money for our three elephants, Khum Suk, Sah Jah and Lulu, who are
solely supported through the GVI Trust.
Fundraising to keep these elephants in the forest is a fundamental part of this project, as
through these donations, we are able to bring back more elephants to live in their natural
environment. As well as supporting three elephants to live a natural life in the forest, the
GVI Trust also helps to pay for emergency transport for the elephants, as well as additional
elephant food and also mahout training.
Prior to the sleep out volunteers undertook multiple survival skill workshops, learning how
to light fires, to purify water, to create shelters and trap fish in the river. Whilst out on the
sleep out, volunteers were broken up into three teams to correlate with the three elephants
they were challenging themselves to raise money for; Khum Suk, Sah Jah and Lulu. Each
challenge provided the winning team with food rations and team points.
The volunteers, staff and mahouts slept in the forest for two nights, in extremely cold conditions. Spending most of the two nights tending to their fires, to keep warm. Everyone pulled
together throughout the challenge and kept each others spirits high.
The sleep out was shared on social media before, during and after the event, in an attempt
to raise funds and awareness of our cause. We raised a total of 1,660.95 GBP which was
33% of our target. A big thank you to all those that donated and of course to the volunteers,
who took on the two day challenge.
Please visit our fundraising page at:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/GVI-Chiang-Mai-Nov16SleepOut

Written by Internship Coordinator, Phoebe van Doorn