Moments of Gratitude | HERD Thank You Blog 2025

As we near the end of 2025, our HERD Team would like to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude to all our amazing donors, supporters, and followers this year.

Your kindness, generosity, and support have made it possible to take care of the Jabulani Herd, protect their environment, and reach out to our local communities. Whether you have donated, shared our posts, or just supported us, thanks for believing in our vision and mission.

Every cent counts and every act of kindness matters. Thank you for helping us on this journey and being part of our HERD Family.

ESSENTIAL ELEPHANT CARE

We want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to THE AMARULA TRUST for their incredible ongoing partnership and generous support! Your donation towards Elephant Feed, Veterinary Services, Medical Supplies, Equipment, as well as vehicle repairs and maintenance makes an enormous difference in our daily work. We are deeply grateful for your unwavering commitment to HERD and to conservation. Your kindness and continued support truly mean the world to us and to our herd!

During the Winter months and dry season, our elephants continued to enjoy oranges and other citrus fruit, thanks to the incredible generosity of SOLEIL SITRUS. We are so grateful to the team at Soleil Sitrus for reaching out to us and donating additional feed to help nourish our Jabulani herd during this time. We appreciate your ongoing support.

ESSENTIAL MEDICAL SUPPLIES

A BIG thank you to SAFARMEX for generously donating 480 tubes of Le Mesitran, a honey-based wound-healing product that we use to treat our elephants’ injuries. Although the donation was received in December 2024, it has been an incredible help throughout this year, greatly supporting our daily wound care treatments. We sincerely appreciate your contribution to the health and well-being of our elephants.

Thank you to Silverlab Healthcare for donating 2 x 2,5L Colloidal Silver and 2 x 500ml Healing Gel for our elephants to use for wound treatment when needed. We appreciate your ongoing support.

PROCUREMENT PARTNERSHIP

Thank you to KYRON LABORATORIES for always assisting us when we need to order essential medical supplies and for the generous discount offered to HERD, to ensure that we can offer the best for our elephants’ care.

Thank you to JIM GREEN for the generous discount on our carers’ AR08 shoes! Your support allows us to provide our team with the toughest, most reliable boots to take on the rugged terrain beneath their feet. Our carers walk 15 to 20 kilometers every day within the Big 5 African wilderness, and having the right footwear is essential to tackle every challenging step.

Thank you to Maryke Vosloo for all your support in illustrating the series of Wisdoms over the last few years and helping us to publish this excellent Wisdom book this year. Elephant Wisdoms is available for purchase in our online shop. More information here, click here.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

We want to say a BIG THANK YOU to KIM BLOOMFIELD for her ongoing support in the Xilaveko Day Care Centre project this year. Kim’s contribution and support had a significant positive impact on the school and the children’s lives.

Please click here to view our recent blog for more information on this project.

A BIG Thank You to FREIGHT CARE LOGISTICS for their ongoing partnership during 2025, and for making sure once again that the Nkosi Bars are delivered to the school children every month. Freight Care Logistics donated towards the courier cost monthly from Johannesburg to Hoedspruit for all the Nkosi Bar boxes.

Please click here to view our recent blog for more information on this project.

A Big Thank You to MSD ANIMAL HEALTH for donating 100 Doses of NOBIVAC Rabies Vaccines towards our community development program. In collaboration with the veterinary students from Vet Books for Africa, our team are planning a rabies campaign in the Acornhoek area from February/March 2026.

ESSENTIAL WATER SECURITY

A heartfelt thank you to Christopher Hugo for his generous donation towards a new borehole and solar submersible pump for the Egyptian Goose Dam on our reserve.

The borehole plays a vital role in supplying water to the dam, ensuring that our elephants and surrounding wildlife have access to the water they depend on every day. Your support and contribution will have a lasting positive impact on both the reserve and the well-being of our elephants. We are truly grateful for your generosity.

SPECIAL GIFTS

Thank you to Fernanda Roberto de Oliveira, Amarillis de Oliveira Lima, Hugo Roberto de Oliveira, and Nelia Roberto Ferreira for bringing souvenirs (Bags, T-shirts, and Rolo Cake) all the way from Brazil for our carers, reserve team, and JabuLadies during their visit to our Elephant Experience in April 2025. We appreciate your kindness and support.

Thank you to Nita Smith and Marsha Danielz for your ongoing support in our Little Mhambi project and for making and donating 66 x special Little Mhambi’s for us so far this year. We appreciate your ongoing support. HERD sells the Little Mhambis in our online shop, and the funds received are then used to support the herd’s daily care.

We also want to thank you Joy Hutchinson, Shirley Lawrence and Pat Coleman for donating 10 x Knitted Blankets for elephant calves and our community projects. We appreciate your kindness and support.

Thank you to Gail Reed for donating knitting blankets and knitted elephants to HERD to sell for funds and for our community projects. We appreciate your kindness and support.

Thank you to Jackie Title (Suzie) for donating towards a DJ Osmo Mobile 6 (Gimbal) for Adine and carers to use when out in the bush taking video’s with the elephants. We appreciate your support.

AWARENESS & EVENTS

We also want to extend a Big Thank you to BRAND IQ for advertising our HERD billboard, “We can learn so much from ELEPHANTS” on Digital Billboards when space is available.

We appreciate your support and helping us to create awareness of HERD and elephant conservation.

We had a very successful Trails for Trunks 2025 event in August. THANK YOU to all the sponsors and followers for your ongoing support to make this yearly event such a success, in celebration of World Elephant Day.

A heartfelt thank you once again to: Jim Green Footwear | Buttanut | PVM Nutritional Sciences | LUXEA | NOMU | African Extracts | The IV Bar | JustProtein20 | Symbols on Silk | Arrie Nel Pharmacy Irene | Happy Culture

For more information, click here to view the Trails for Trunks blog.

DONATIONS & ADOPTIONS

A HUGE THANK YOU to each person, follower, and organisation that donated to HERD Trust and adopted an elephant between 16 November 2024 – 30 September 2025. This also includes donations to our Ele-Essential Wishlist, online shop and campaigns. We rely on incredible people like you to keep us going. Every cent counts and no contribution is too small. The donations and adoptions we receive contribute to the day-to-day care of the elephant and operational costs at HERD.

The list below contains donors alphabetically who reached a donation level of above $500 USD for the year during this time and were not included in our previous Thank you Blogs for this year.

Individual Donors

Corporate Donors, Foundations & Trusts

• Animal Survival International
• Benevity Donors
• Izindlovu Fund
• James T Nystrom Foundation
• King Price Insurance
• Miami Zoo
• My School Donors
• National Christian Foundation – Indiana
• National Philanthropic Trust
• The Amarula Trust
• The Mammoth Ride
• Tour Axis Africa Pty Ltd

Note: If your name appears on this blog and you would like for us to remove or change it, please get in touch with us at admin@herd.org.za or fundraising@herd.org.za

ISRAEL SHAMBIRA FAMILY FUND

On behalf of HERD & Israel Shambira’s family, we also want to thank everyone again who donated in memory of Israel. Words cannot describe how grateful we are for your support toward his family. THANK YOU!

ONGOING ELLE-CHAMPIONS

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS to all our partners, donors, adoptive parents, followers, friends, and supporters for your amazing, continuous support! Words cannot describe how much we appreciate each and every one of you!

Your support, contributions and care are making a significant impact daily and we appreciate that you are part of our HERD family!