Dancing for the elephants
In July 2010, I will be taking part in a 48 hour long dance with the School of Movement Medicine http://schoolofmovementmedicine.com/. During the Long Dance ceremony, we will dance, sing and pray together for all our relations, recognising that our individual wellbeing is connected to the wellbeing of the planet and all its inhabitants. Through dance and ceremony, we honour this interconnectedness and the sacredness of life, and vow to play our part in protecting it.
To 'be the change we want to see in the world' and connect our individual dance and healing to concrete action in the world, all participants will raise funds for a project of their choice. After my recent visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Elephant Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Centre in Kenya (http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/), I have decided to make them ‘my project’ and dance for the elephants.
The David SheldrickTrust is dedicated to wildlife conservation, and in particular, to saving, raising and rehabilitating baby elephants that have been orphaned due to poaching or other human-related disasters.
Part of raising the elephants involves replacing the family that the orphaned elephants have lost with a human equivalent. As elephants are highly sociable, tactile and emotionally sensitive, keepers are with the babies 24 hours a day, travelling with them as a group during the day, and sleeping alongside them within their night stable at night, in physical contact at all times. A different keeper sleeps with a different elephant each night to avoid any strong attachment to just one person, which can result in death through heartbreak should that person be absent for any reason. During their first year, the babies need feeding every three hours. They are fed a special infant formula as the protein and fat content elephants require is very different from cow's milk.
All the elephant orphans raised by the Trust are gradually rehabilitated back into the wild elephant community of Tsavo National Park when grown. This transition is made at their own pace and in their own time, but usually takes between eight and ten years.
Watching these gentle creatures being bottle-fed and then playing in the mud was an amazing experience and so I would like to support the Trust's work which ensures that orphaned elephants get a second chance to experience life in the wild.
To raise money, I am offering Thai massage and one-to-one yoga sessions. So please get in touch, if you would like to book a treatment. Of course you can also just sponsor my long dance and make a donation.
Thank you very much for your support.
Petra
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