Lead charity organization Save the Elephants has benefited from Sh 5.8 million that was raised during the second annual charity trading event at Nairobi Securities exchange.
The money was raised on October 14 in an event which attracted media celebrities who made calls to potential dealers, competing with one another on who would sell the most.
In under an hour from the time the actual trading started, twitter was abuzz with the trending hashtag #NSECharityTradingDay.
A total of Sh5.8 million (57,212 USD) was raised from the day’s sale as well as from corporate sponsorship.
Save the Elephants said in a statement: “The collective consciousness of Kenyans regarding elephant conservation was truly inspiring,”
Wallace Kantai, NTV business editor, shared the story of a school trip on which he touched an elephant saying that the experience ‘was deeply impressing’.
Janet Mbugua, Citizen TV news anchor, also declared her love of wildlife and said that she wanted to go to Samburu for her honeymoon, rather than fly to far-off lands as her husband expected.
Caroline Mutoko, a former radio presenter and now a Kiss TV show host as well as a celebrity MC, mentioned that it was time for Kenyans to own and protect the fauna and flora that is in the country.
Just when the selling frenzy stopped, Save The Elephants CEO Iain Douglas-Hamilton ended the trading session by ringing a hand-held bell.
“Kenya is such an incredible country that is rich in wildlife, where people come from thousands of miles and together pay lots of millions of dollars to come to see our animals. Its important that children from Kenya be able to enjoy the same marvelous sites,” he said.
Douglas then expounded on the project in Tsavo, of which the funds raised on this day would be channeled to.
He said that Kenya’s largest population of elephants is in Tsavo, where about 14,000 live.
“The new high speed railway from the Coast cuts through the elephant range, and a new 6-lane highway is planned. We started a project with the Kenya Wildlife Service to track the animals to allow us to understand how to maintain the connectivity between Tsavo East and Tsavo West. With careful planning, based on scientific knowledge, there’s going to be a future for Kenya’s largest elephant population,” Douglas said before closing the session by inviting those present to visit Samburu.
“You have a chance to participate by coming to see these animals. Come up to Samburu where we have our center of operations. We do cutting edge, dynamic scientific work with Kenyans and international scholars,” he said.
Save the Elephants (STE) works to secure a future for elephants in a rapidly changing world.
To battle the current surge in ivory poaching, the STE/WCN Elephant Crisis Fund is identifying and supporting the most effective global partners to stop poaching, thwart traffickers and end demand for ivory.
Leaders in elephant science, STE also provides cutting-edge scientific insights into elephant behavior, intelligence, and long-distance movement and applies them to the long-term challenges of elephant conservation.