The Elephant Thoughts vision was conceived in 2002 by Jeremy Rhodes, after one of his many visits to the remote Himalayan village of Mirik, India. His desire to aid the village in acquiring adequate education for its children and at the same time provide cultural immersion opportunities for Westerners lead Jeremy and his father, Jim Rhodes, to band together with a group of local and international educators to form the organization. In 2005, the addition of Lisa Farano, a skilled and experienced fundraiser, as President of the organization, quickly paid off and in one short year the organization considerably expanded its reach and programming to include hosting Children Festivals, bringing groups of Canadian educators overseas to teach foreign teachers, and increasing its ability to provide assistance to more Third World schools. Since that time its active membership has quickly expanded to include hundreds of teachers, school principals, and professional educators from both Canada and abroad.
The mandate of the organization since inception was very straight forward. Do whatever it can globally to make sure every child is receiving not just an education but an exceptional, effective, “inspired” education. As a very important part of that education the organization creates opportunities for children of all different cultures, races, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds to get together, learn from each other, break down stereotypes and celebrate their unique cultures.
Shortly after its inception, Elephant Thoughts began delivering science programming in a significant number of Canadian schools with a large focus placed on schools in rural areas. Through the Atoms to Asteroids Science Program schools and event organizers are able to access some of the most high tech, effective science programming available. The goal of the program is to promote not just science and technology to students with an added emphasis placed on exciting young girls about science, but to ensure rural or less fortunate kids are getting the same educational opportunities as urban or wealthier students. Any proceeds from these programs are used to support the organizations charitable mandate as well as sponsoring local less fortunate children to take part in education programs like summer camps and after school programs.
The second Canadian project launch was the Canadian Aboriginal Youth Science Initiative (CAYSI), a program bringing state of the art educational programming to some of the most remote regions of Canada. This program has been exclusively designed for First Nations communities across the country with special emphasis placed on Native teaching techniques, customs and values. Since the very beginning, CAYSI workshops have been in high demand on reserves across Canada and by ET’s second year in operation had already visited more than 15% of First Nation Reserves in Canada, a number which is continuing to grow by the year. With its continued success Elephant Thoughts is introducing exchange program opportunities for Native youth to take part in educational programs in other communities and in our Third World partner schools. ET is also committed to donating a significant amount of exceptional programming to Native children living in urban centers.
Never losing sight of one of its main objectives of providing proper education to children in third world environments, Elephant Thoughts is currently working closely with many schools in the remote Himalayan community of Mirik, India. In 2006, Elephant Thoughts is slated to complete its first ET funded and operated school in the Mirik area. The town was also selected as the site of our first International Friendship Centre in 2004 after Elephant Thoughts was gifted with a parcel of land from Jeremy’s local adopted family – the Syangdens. This was no small gift, as this land was the equivalent of half of the family holdings. Our close friendship with that special family and the generous spirit of the people of Mirik have provided a wonderful base for the first of our international development projects.
Our hope for the future is to expand our program across many more countries and small villages. We would like to contribute to improvements in children’s education as well as other socio-economic, and health related issues in the areas we work in. Our goal is to provide equal opportunities for all despite barriers of geography and economy.
