Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

NORWICH – NAIROBI- NORWICH

A lifesize baby elephant sculpture flew from Heathrow airport on 17th April 2008 with Virginia McKenna OBE, in a ground breaking school arts project for Kenya.

The special elephant cargo journeyed from Norwich City Centre to London Heathrow Airport before being carefully loaded onto the Kenya Airways KQ 101 night flight to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

On arrival in Nairobi, Virginia, and the exquisite elephant sculpture, will be met by newly appointed Minister for Forestry and wildlife in Kenya, Hon. Noah Wekesa and showcased at a press conference, highlighting the need to protect Kenya’s wild elephant population.

From here, the elephant calf will journey in a Land Rover convoy to Ol Moti School, neighbouring the World Famous Amboseli National Park, home to over 1500 wild elephants, where it will be received by the children and teachers of Ol Moti, in a colourful and traditional Maasai welcome ceremony. 

A local artist will assist the Ol Moti School children to create the artwork and the chosen design will be painted on to the elephant before being brought back to the UK to be exhibited on the streets of Norwich as part of the Go Elephants event. It will then be sold at a charity auction in Norwich in September, to help raise funds for The Born Free Foundation’s elephant conservation programmes.

The elephant calf sculpture, which is made out of fibreglass, stands at an impressive 120cm, 75cm wide and weighs approximately 50kg.

Virginia McKenna said ,’The elephant is a fascinating animal that is a constant presence in many of these children’s lives, so this opportunity, sponsored by Land Rover and Kenya Airways, is a wonderful way to ignite their artistic talents. This amazing project will enable the children to paint and have fun, whilst working on a theme about human and animal conflict, which, for them, is often a reality’.

The ‘Go Elephants’ project is a partnership between The Forum Trust and Wild in Art, will be a highlight event this summer in Norwich and will culminate in a 10 weeks public art exhibition in Norwich City Centre, where the unique elephant sculptures designed by local artists, over 50 in total, will amass. The Ol Moti designed elephant will be amongst those exhibited.