Garments for Good: J.Crew x the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Every year, more than 30,000 elephants in Africa are poached, leaving at-risk infants without mothers. It’s the reality behind the work of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust—an organization based in Kenya that rescues and rehabilitates elephants. We’re showing our support with this one-of-a-kind tee designed by our friend, illustrator Hugo Guinness, and donating 100% of the proceeds backs to the trust. Here, we sat down with Director at U.S. Friends of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Jackie Cittone Magid to learn more.

How did DSWT get its start?
Dr. Daphne Sheldrick founded the organization in 1977 in memory of her late husband, David, who was the founding warden of Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park. She has dedicated her life to raising awareness around elephant poaching and conservation. [An aside: The queen of England appointed her a dame in 2006.]

Can you tell us more about the rescue process?
The orphans can be as young as weeks or even days old when they come to us. Sometimes they’ll have wandered into a village, desperate for companionship, and we’ll send a team to pick them up. We have rescue planes that fly all throughout Kenya too. Once the rescues are in the nursery, we have caretakers looking after them 24 hours a day until they’re strong enough to mingle with the other elephants.

Tell us about DSWT’s “graduation day.” How does this work?
Once an elephant is healthy and ready to go back into the wild—which can take up to 10 years—we begin letting them roam with the herds of ex-orphans that have moved on from the nursery. The ex-orphans take them in immediately—it’s like a ceremony. We have no idea how they know, but they do.

You can help foster an elephant through the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s fostering program, or click here to donate.

To learn more about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and its work, watch the CBS 60 Minutes segment here.

To shop our kids’ David Shedrick Wildlife Trust Elephant tee, click here.