In 1993, Soraida Salwala opened the world’s first Asian Elephant Hospital to treat elephants that are ill or injured as a result of work, abuse or neglect. Elephants have always had a special place in Soraida’s heart, but she found her calling at eight-years old when she saw an elephant get put down after being hit by a truck because there was no place to take him. This experience stuck with her and she has made it her life’s mission to save every elephant in Thailand through her work at the Friends of the Asian Elephant in Lampang, Thailand. To date, she and her staff have treated over 2,000 elephants for everything from eye infections to knife wounds, gunshot wounds, broken bones and landmine accidents.

In this blog, you can learn about the current events and situations effecting the Thai Asian Elephants, the patients at FAE’s Elephant Hospital and how you can get involved.

To learn more about Soraida and the Friends of the Asian Elephant, please visit:
http://en.elephant-soraida.com/
http://animom.tripod.com/fae.html

You can also become a fan of the Friends of the Asian Elephant on Facebook.

Soraida hugs a patient at the Asian Elephant Hospital

In 2007, I had the opportunity to travel to northern Thailand with the director of the Chiang Mai Project, Sherie Guilliat.  I had a feeling that the trip would be a pivotal event in my career as a documentary filmmaker, but I had no idea how inspired I would be to spread the word about the plight of the Thai Asian Elephants upon my return.  I owe that to my interview with Soraida Salwala and the footage of her patients at FAE’s Asian Elephant Hospital.  After one viewing of the film’s trailer, I hope you can see why this film has become a labor of love!

My goal for the “The Eyes of Thailand” is to advance Asian Elephant conservation by motivating the international community to pass protection laws in Thailand that align with FAE’s mission to save every elephant in Thailand from abuse, injury, and exportation.  Asian Elephants are already classified as endangered, but if laws protecting them are not created (and enforced) immediately, the entire species will become extinct within the next 50 years!  This will have devastating effects on the environment, as well as the social and cultural structure of the country.  Consequently, D.V.A. Productions has partnered with Soraida Salwala to provide a weekly blog about FAE’s progress (which you can read in “Notes from Soraida”) and Creative Narrations, a non-profit multimedia community building consulting agency, to develop supplemental curriculum for grades 3-12 in U.S. and Thai schools—because little activists become big activists!

We have the plan and the passion to make this vision come to fruition, now we ask you to help supply the means.  Please make a tax-deductible donation to “The Eyes of Thailand” today through the film’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society: http://www.sffs.org/donate/donate-now.aspx?pid=47.  Every little bit helps bring us one step closer to completing the film and educating the world about the plight of the Asian Elephants.  Thank you.

Please continue to follow our progress on this blog, Facebook, IndieGoGo and Twitter (@eyesofthailand).

Krup Kum Ka,

Windy Borman

Director Windy Borman filming at FAE in 2007.