Born Free

Category: Born Free Kenya | Date: Aug 22 2008 | By: bornfree

There are over 1500 elephants in the Amboseli National Park, and some of these animals often roam outside the park in areas around the Olmoti school.  Sometimes even inside the school compound at night!  So you wouldn’t think the children who come to school here would get all that fascinated when they see an elephant!  Well, that’s what I thought until I turned up in June with this sculpture. 

The children couldn’t keep their hands off it.
 
We took this life size elephant calf sculpture to Olmoti to allow the children to participate in an international art exhibition.  The sculpture was to be painted by the children with the help of an artist, Jason Corder, to promote elephant conservation.  So we spent a weekend watching as the children transformed the brilliant white sculpture into a piece of Maasai art and named it “Meiluami”– in Maa, this means ‘the one who is always alert’. 

 
The sculpture is now back in England, on exhibition in Norwich City and we understand that together with a herd of over 53 others, they will be auctioned next month to raise money for some of our projects. 
 
Such a fun a idea and what a way to raise money for elephant conservation! To read more about this project and to see the 53 elephants sculptures on exhibition in Norwich, you can click on http://www.goelephants.co.uk/gallery.aspx. 

There is also more about Meiluami’s journey at http://www.bornfree.org.uk/about-us/born-free-kenya/community-projects/go-elephants/the-go-elephants-journey/.

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Tags: Born Free, elephants, Go Elephants, Kenya, Norwich