Save lives, educate children, empower women

I'm Alan Wallack and my wife and I recently returned from Uganda. The cultural experience fully complemented the breathtaking African safari. We were guided by Owinji Milton who also serves as a community leader in Pandiga, a village in Buliisa district. He explained that as beloved as elephants are they can be inadvertently destructive and deadly while rampaging through the crops of local villagers. Owinji decribed the recent death of his wife's cousin, trampled to death while attempting to protect her child. This is one of a number of tragic but avoidable deaths. Proceeds from crops such as bananas, corn and sweet potatoes are used by villagers to pay school fees for their children, a huge consideration for proud people trying to better their lives in a developing country.

Pleas to the government for intervention are met with thoughts, prayers and promises but no tangible action. Sounds familiar. The answer is simple and humane to the elephants. It's the purpose of this fund raiser and inexpensive. A fence. Rather than wait for government assistance that never came, Owinji took matters into his own hands and legally fenced in his personal crops. It demonstrated and proved the simple effectiveness of the plan. Elephants have great memories and once they learn their path is blocked they take a detour to abundant food elsewhere and over time the herd gets the idea. Elephants find other paths to food, crops and lives are saved and children gain access to education. Win, win, win.

Owinji wants to help his village erect perimeter fencing and I want to help him. This fundraiser is my idea and not solicited by him. He merely stated the situation on the ground. Elephants are magnifecent creatures and it's a way to enable peaceful coexistence between them and the people in the village.

The funds will be used for this project and my wife and I pledge to match up to $2,000.00 personally. Every little bit helps. Please share this within your network. The Wameku Cingwa Women Association, an orginization that supports the betterment, empowerment and welfare of local women will also benifit as they will be involved in the implementation.

Thank you,

Alan and Annmarie Wallack