STEF is helping to fund a much-needed veterinary clinic near Khok Kloi in Southern Thailand by supporting our sister charity, known as STEF Thailand, which is registered as a charity in Thailand and whose Chairman is Jakrapob Thaotad, known to all as Jake. Here is a video clip of Jake explaining his plans for the new site
Jake’s passion for the Asian elephant is well known and he gave up a promising career as a medical scientist in London to return to Thailand to work with elephants, to promote their care and welfare, using Education as a principle tool to achieve his objectives. Of course Jake wants the international community to know and share in his love for the elephant and to be aware of its status as an endangered species, but, equally, he is very aware of the importance of the elephant in Thailand’s culture and is determined that the knowledge of his family, which has worked with elephants for over 150 years, does not die out and is shared with future generations of Thai children and students.
One of the plans for the new site under development at Ban Ton Sae is to build an Education Centre which we hope will become a focus for teaching and research. We need to know so much more, not only about the wild elephant but also the domesticated elephant – it is estimated that there are between 3000 and 4000 wild elephants in Thailand and a similar number of domesticated elephants too.
We hope you will wish to assist Jake and his colleagues by donating to STEF and helping in this vital work to improve the health and welfare of the elephants in Southern Thailand but also to assist in education, training and research to benefit these wonderful animals in the long term. You can donate here or help by shopping on-line, or by sponsoring a tree at the new site. Thank you.
So while the contractors were on site feverishly completing the main roads around the site, we asked them also to include accompanying drains. These too must be properly laid with concrete on a compacted base. In this part of Southern Thailand where there is a long rainy season, drainage is so important. Of course it does not rain all the time but when it does it can be very heavy and roads can be washed away!
With the rains due to start in the next couple of weeks we are so pleased that our builders have pulled out all stops and we are confident they will complete the roadway and tracks at the site right on schedule. One very important aspect was drainage – and this was a serious part of the cost of the work – as the rain can be so heavy 
there would have been a real danger of parts of the newly laid concrete being washed away. Also, the layers of concrete could only be laid on carefully prepared with crushed stone and sand to achieve the desired load-bearing capacity and absorb loads that will include trucks carrying one or two elephants, as well as lorries full of builders’ materials for the 
next stages of development.
please let us know by 
With the rainy season fast approaching, our workforce are flat out getting the tracks laid so we can continue building in the rain. There is quite a slope up to the Veterinary Centre so lorries and trucks could not get to the building site without a strong road. This means solid foundations, 
reinforced concrete and excellent drainage – you can imagine what the rains in Thailand are like in the wet season!
Planning permission came through last month and we are progressing as fast as funds will allow. We need more money to complete the much-needed clinic so if you can help us to fund raise please let us know. Just click on the 
When the monks advised it was an auspicious day, we arranged a special blessing at the new site of our elephant Veterinary Centre near Ban Ton Sae. We invited a deeply respected and venerable monk, Phra Sirindhorn, to visit and offer prayers that the constructions works now underway would be completed successfully.
Such an age-old ceremony leads to a spiritual boost for the construction team and provides great confidence in their workmanship. The date for the ceremony, the location of the central pillar and the items to be used in the ceremony are all 
carefully chosen and reflect centuries of tradition. We include sacred woods, gold leaf, gold, silver and bronze coins and a holy thread, all with very special meanings. The offerings were buried alongside flowers and sealed in concrete, as tradition dictates.
With the rainy season arriving in only a few weeks’ time STEF Thailand has had to move fast to finalise planning permission and to get to work on the road on the new site. This is not a small job! About 270 metres of track, 4 m wide, will be laid from the entrance to the site, along the bottom of the valley and up the hill to the Veterinary Centre.
there has to be efficient and very effective drainage so the road is not washed away. In addition, the track surface has to be reinforced and strong enough to take trucks carrying 5-ton elephants.
and our expert advisers, STEF Thailand has this week instructed the contractor to start work. Here you can see Jake deep in discussions just a few days’ ago before the work got underway. Time is against us, however, because if the road is not completed 
before the rains come, building works on the Centre itself will have to be delayed until after the rainy season ends in October.
regular News updates of progress.
Our President, Sir Richard Armstrong paid a visit to Ban Ton Sae last week and spent two days reviewing progress with STEF trustee 
plantation of rubber trees, removing palm oil trees, dredging the ponds, planting new eco-friendly, sustainable trees and shrubs, grasses and aquatic plants including the sacred lotus.
We are currently actively fundraising for the funds needed to complete the work.
The location at Ban Ton Sae is quite beautiful and now the ponds are being cleared, the grasses are growing well and the trees have established themselves we can begin to see what the haven will look like and
how peaceful it will be for old, unwanted, lame or needy elephants.
We have just finalised the design for the new STEF Veterinary Centre at Ban Ton Sae. We have kept the design
very simple – it is a covered barn, but needs a reinforced concrete floor to take the weight of one or more elephants and we have used the technical advice of the designer of the Government’s Elephant Hospital. Based on this advice, our own architect has produced these excellent concept design pictures so you can get an idea of our plans for 2019.
the barn and include stocks, barriers and a recessed vertical step (called a haha) for off-loading and loading elephant patients (you can see it to the right of the main picture). We will then complete the simple office and lab which can be used by local veterinarians and our own veterinary 
technicians.
to serve hundreds of domesticated elephants in this part of Southern Thailand. We will care here for elephants that are sick or unable to work through age, illness or are otherwise needy. It is a Community Support Project.
The advancement and encouragement of the ethical treatment, welfare, and veterinary care of the Asian elephant in Thailand will only occur through education. One of STEF’s principle aims since it was set up has been to promote education both to the people of Thailand and internationally. With these objectives in mind, the Trustees set up an initiative called 
based elephant centres in Phang Nga Province.
education and pre-vocational training in hospitality and agriculture. Its mission is to provide life skills to help children in need to become open-minded, confident, caring and happy human beings. The STEF offer was accepted with alacrity, and we were delighted to arrange the day at no cost to Yaowawit. Local transporters offered to help with special rates for the transport, and the Park, which was closed to other visitors for the day, generously provided food and staff giving the students a very full and constructive programme.
Twenty students aged 7-12 were able to meet the elephants, learn about them and participate in a wonderful range of educational activities. The students learned about the history, management, welfare and healthcare of the Asian elephant and its essential role in Thai culture. They saw how to make elephant food balls, which can be used as supplements, and were able to meet and feed some of the 
magnificent elephants at the Park. The value of elephant-human interaction is critically important and it was wonderful to see the children responding to the feel, smell and touch of these magnificent animals. An arts and crafts session was included, with prizes for the most creative and distinctive elephant art.
The Trustees of STEF have approved a proposal to prioritise the building of an Elephant Veterinary Centre at Ban Ton Sae in 2019. 
There is an urgent health and welfare need in this part of Southern Thailand where there is no alternative veterinary facility to serve some 600 domesticated elephants, and the nearest elephant hospital is over four hours’ drive away. STEF plans to create a safe, well-managed veterinary centre for elephants that need veterinary care, or are no longer able to work through age or illness, 
or that have become a burden to their owners.
You can see us here measuring out the land.
We will also lay a suitable access track, include an isolation unit and build a small office, storeroom and laboratory.
