Help Zali, the Elephants' Friend

Hi. Its Zali I’m from Malaysia. Some know me via jungle & elephant trips I lead as a guide since 1992. Ive asked my good friend David from Bristol to help set up this fundraising campaign.

The greatest treasure a man, husband and father has is always his family, wife and son. My own treasure is in Micklefield, Leeds – 10,567 kms away – and the last time I hugged and cried on the shoulders of my wife and 12 years old son was in October 23rd 2019, waving goodbye and exchanging kisses while assuring them that I will visit them every year as I have done since we got married in 2006. I returned home to Malaysia to continue my work as a jungle guide and an elephant mentoring guide while continuing my unpaid volunteer work with elephant conservation since 1990 – everyone said I had the best jobs in the world. My wife has a serious semi crippling form of Ankylosing Spondylitis and hence have problems in long journeys on vehicles and because of this she is unable to move here.

Google TripAdvisor Kuala Gandah Zali and you will know more about me

It is embarrassing to ask for help – I have always been successful in raising funds and equipment for elephant conservation which is my second love of life – yet I’m unable to help my own family financially due to the death of tourism since the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic swept into the country. As a result of this, I am forced to end my 30 years’ elephant conservation volunteering due to my financial situation. My wife has long forced to stopped working as a dog walker while her mother is forced to leave her job as a carer with Henshaw Specialist College in Harrogate due to her kidney disease stage 3.

Due to the pandemic Covid-19, tourism is dead and buried in Malaysia since March last year taking away money that I used to earn as a jungle guide & elephant mentoring guide to mainly foreign tourists and sending around £300 regularly to my wife. Unfortunately, Malaysia is still struggling with the pandemic too.

I have since been unable to send money regularly to my family to help them with the bills, food, housing loan school expenses where our 14 years old son attends school at Garforth Academy. He is bright young boy, loves rugby, animals yet has never been to Malaysia where he will have the best jungle guide and an elephant specialist too!

The last 14 weeks I have been involved in 5 wild elephant rescues, a crocodile relocation and currently assisting with monitoring the safety of a family of 5 tigers in a jungle in between any odd low paying jobs that i can find such as fishing, trapping eels, tapping rubber, collecting fruits, lawn mowing and delivery jobs. While these jobs does not bring much, they help destress my mind from the financial pressure that is bothering me.

I’m in need of GBP 4500 of which some will be mainly used for my family’s financial commitments to settle, our son’s school preparations and a small amount to help me pull through until end of this year while restricting myself to only one good meal per week and fasting 4 times a week. I hope the current inter state travel ban in Malaysia will be lifted soon so that I can go back to my jungle guiding duties if I am able to get local and expat tourists.

My wife will be going for a surgery soon at the Cancer Department of York Hospital to remove a large mass from her abdomen and we are all praying hard that the operation will be a success and that tests on the removed tumour will not have any signs of cancerous growth although her CA125 antigen tests have returned positive while a recent CT scan also revealed a small lump on her chest although the cancer specialist is confident that it is not connected to the other big mass. She also had mammogram and ultrasound scan as well as a biopsy of which the results will be reached next week.

 

It’s a most stressing time for everyone in the family and more so since I am stuck here in Malaysia feeling helpless and useless to help my wife over in Micklefield.

PLEASE PASS THIS AROUND to everyone in your contact, Fb, IG or Twitter as I have no idea what else I can do…This is just a stop gap move that I hope will last until this year before things get better economically in Malaysia.

God Bless you…wherever you are.

We will meet one day or in afterlife and I will hug you to say thank you so very much.