Baby Elephant Staff GoFundMe Appeal 🐘

It's time to admit we need your help. We ask for your direct help as a last resort. We have exhausted all other options.

A social venture uses profits to reach a social mission. As you know from staying with us, Baby Elephant Boutique Hotel's social mission is to provide a skills-based work environment and ladder out of poverty for promising Siem Reap hospitality and tourism industry stars. All whilst making connections with you - our valued guests. But you have stayed with us. You know our story, because you are a part of our story.

What might not be apparent to you is the vital role that Baby Elephant plays outside our gate, within the broader community, from our neighbors up and down Street 53 for whom we provide electricity and rubbish collection, to our tuk tuk drivers whose earnings from us enable them to send their kids to school, to the many local mom-and-pop purveyors who rely on us for their business.

In good times we do all this seamlessly.

But the good times are gone. It has now been 6 months since WHO declared a global emergency. Despite the odds, and where many others have failed, Baby Elephant has survived, supporting our team and community through a combination of creativity, adaptability, and sheer tenacity. We are committed to pulling through, most of all, so that we will be here for you come the end of the pandemic. Of course, our survival so far could not have been possible without your emotional support and promise to visit when all of this is over.

And yet now, we find ourselves in a place we never imagined. Months ago, when we weighed up every possible worst-case scenario, we still didn’t expect this, that we’d find ourselves in August, with no tourists, and no means of income to keep us going amidst this global crisis.

So, we are appealing, urgently, most urgently, to you to help us. So that we can weather the pandemic with our staff and community, and be here for you, on the other side of all of this.

We love you, our global herd. And usually, support through normal means is more than enough for us to achieve our mission. But we're in a position that we must fight for our team, like Mr Hom, our gardener:

“With no jobs, it’s really important to keep this one. This way I have enough money to support my family and to pay for my normal expenses.”

Donate Now

In short, we need money. And we have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise some.

The money raised will supplement the income we expect to generate through new services and products, and innovations to our business operations. But there is a widening loss that Coronavirus has forced and will continue to force upon us, and we feel it's now impossible to survive these times without asking for your support.

We ask that you give whatever you can, however much or however little. We understand this crisis is a global catastrophe and affects us all. And we wouldn’t ever expect you to donate if you simply can’t. But if you find that you can’t, you can help us by sharing this on your networks and by joining our Baby Elephant Facebook group.

But please, give if you can. And send us a hello: we would be so grateful. We are here, want to remain here, and we thank you for inspiring us to keep going.

“If Baby Elephant closes, I will have no job. I need this income to support my family, and I would not be able to pay my bank loan. This would make my life extremely difficult. I really want Baby Elephant to stay open forever,” said housekeeper Thon.

The fundraiser is in AUD but here is what a contribution from you would provide (in USD):

$25 - 1 daily meal for 1 staff member for 1 month
$30 - streetlights for community for 1 month
$50 - collecting rubbish for our community
$100 - university or school classes for 1 student for 1 month
$150 - monthly national health insurance for all staff
$250 - monthly housing for 4 staff members
$500 - supports (laundry, fruit & veggie shop, bakery, tuk tuks, tailors, printers) who depend on us
$780 - 1 year of university study for 1 student
$900 - 1 daily meal for 30 staff members for 1 month

We usually cover these expenses through room bookings and other income as a social enterprise, but for now, temporarily, we need help.

Around the hotel we have a saying. We never, ever, give up!
You can say it with us: Min Bos Bong Chea Dach Khat - មិនបោះបង់ជាដាច់ខាត់

Click Through To The GoFundMe Here

Other ways to help us

If you’re in Siem Reap, there are other ways you can help us, too:

Share our campaign: Use the hashtag #helpyourherd, and share the gift voucher website. Or join our herd Facebook group to stay in touch about what's happening in Cambodia
Stay with us: we’re still open, with social distancing and extra hygiene measures in place, and we’re offering hugely discounted room rates.
Eat and drink: enjoy a delicious range of local and international food and drink in our restaurant and bar, including our daily 5-7pm happy hour (from 12pm on Sundays).
Order delivery: you can now tuck in to everything on our extensive food menu from home – delivery across Siem Reap is available on Taste Siem Reap and TukOut.
Be pampered: at Sugar Spa (now at Baby Elephant), we’re still offering a limited number of services in line with government directives on social distancing.
Leave us a review: TripAdvisor, Google, and Facebook recommendations all help!

For more ways to help us keep Baby Elephant doing good in the long term, keep an eye on our website, Facebook and Instagram – and look out for more updates from us by e-mail.

Thank you for your support

Our herd of supporters like you has always been central to the Baby Elephant dream. Today we’re counting on you more than ever to help us keep that dream alive, so we can continue helping people and communities that together we’ve already done so much to lift out of poverty. If you’re able to contribute, in whatever way you can, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

With love,

Baby Elephant team in Siem Reap 🐘