Dear Friends, Family and Elephant Supporters,
I’m going back to Thailand.
On September 11, 2010, another elephant stepped on a landmine along the Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border, thus becoming the fourth elephant landmine survivor to be treated at FAE’s Elephant Hospital in Thailand. This latest victim (Boonmee) joins three others: Mae ka pae, who stepped on a landmine in August, Motala and Baby Mosha.
Thanks to generous donations, I traveled to Thailand in August 2009 to film Motala and Mosha receive their prosthetic limbs for my documentary The Eyes of Thailand. I optimistically thought I could end the film with the happy ending of the elephants taking their first steps on their new prostheses. Instead I need to return to film two new survivors and try to unravel why elephant landmine accidents have increased in the past 2 months.
My current plan is to travel to Thailand October 28 – November 7 with four other Elephant Hospital volunteers who specialize in TTouch, an effective form of animal bodywork that relieves pain and assists with animals’ recovery from illness or injury. We’re hoping it helps landmine survivors, too.
I’ll wrap up the trip by attending the International Campaign to Ban Landmines conference in Laos, November 8-12. This will enable me to get the global perspective on landmine removal, as well as interview Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan and Nobel Prize-winner Jody Williams, key voices for landmine and cluster bomb removal.
To date we’ve raised US $530 of the US $3,000 needed to accomplish this 16-day documentary trip. Last summer we raised $3,000 in one weekend to get me back to Thailand to film Mosha and Motala getting their prostheses, so I’m confident we can raise that much before October 14th, but I need your help. This time there are two ways you can help:
- Donate through the film’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. All donations are tax-deductible and you can donate using a debit or credit card through a secure link via The Eyes of Thailand web site: http://eyesofthailand.com
- Transfer stock to the film via the SF Film Society. It’s also tax-deductible.
I need to purchase my ticket (at the very latest) by October 14, 2010, so please contact me if you have any question or would like more details about the above options. Additionally, if you have any leads to family foundations or corporate sponsorships, please email me directly as listed below.
In recognition of your support, I am offering the following VIP perks to donors:
- $25 = Personal thank you note from yours truly, plus a signed promotional postcard—it’ll be a collector’s item one day!
- $100 = All of the above, plus thanked in the film’s credits.
- $500 = All of the above, plus “Special Thanks” in the film’s credits and a signed DVD of the finished film.
- $1,000 = All of the above, plus listed in the Partners section of The Eyes of Thailand web site.
- $5,000+ = All of the above, plus a private screening for you and friends, plus a Q&A with me about the film.
I will be blogging and posting updates on Facebook and Twitter from Thailand and Laos, so please follow my progress. You can access all the updates via The Eyes of Thailand’s web site: http://eyesofthailand.com
Thank you for continuing to support my quest to tell the world about the plight of the Asian Elephants and the ongoing threat of landmines. I could not do it without you!
With immense gratitude,
Windy Borman
Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand
Eyes of Thailand, LLC | P.O. Box 420395 | San Francisco, CA 94142
P.S. Donations of any size help and all donations are tax-deductible when made through the San Francisco Film Society. You can donate by either clicking the “Please Donate” link on the The Eyes of Thailand web site or by mailing a check to the address above. Please make the checks payable to the “San Francisco Film Society” and include “The Eyes of Thailand” in the Memo Line. Thank you so much! Krup kum ka!
