I’m always in two minds when visiting the elephants in a park – sad but educational.

However, when I took the kids to the Bali Safari Park recently, I was happy to hear the Balinese park rangers show respect to the elephants by repetitively speaking to the crowd about the dilemma of the animals losing their habitat.

Seeing these gentle souls brought tears to my eyes and served to motivate me even more to help make a difference.

I have no doubt others in the crowd were positively effected too.

Recently, Paul Hodder, the founder of the Australian Whale Conservation Society, during his whale talk to our team, spoke of the importance of people needing to love something in order to be motivated to take action to save it.

Many years ago I came across wild elephants when I lived in India.

I was deep in the jungle alone and on foot.

Experiencing the elephants in the wild was an incredible, magical experience.

The call of the elephant, the smell, the grunts and the sounds of the footsteps breaking the branches took my breath away.

A big adrenaline rush. I felt so incredibly alive in their presence.

Here they were my superior – so powerful and dignified.

I was at their mercy – not the other way round.

They were my Kings and Queens.

It breaks my heart to think of them being wiped out for human greed.

Looking at the eye of the elephant in Bali was like looking at the eye of a whale – so ancient and so gentle.

Yet I projected a deep sadness in the eye of the elephant as though she held the secrets of times of freedom from long long ago.

Feeling so touched by seeing the elephants I was all geared up to personally contribute to help the elephants and wondered how to do so.

That very night on returning to our hotel I checked my emails and noted that I had received an email from IFAW.

Coincidentally the email was actually a cry for help for the elephants.

Amazing synchronicity!

x Lisa

Please act today to help us teach the next generation about animal protection and to help end the illegal ivory trade.