Journey to Freedom is the next step in improving the lives of the Karen people and the elephants they keep. Its aim is to replace the income the Karen can earn by renting their elephants. Instead, elephants are cared for at home and left to live in their natural jungle habitat. To provide a livelihood to the people, Journey to Freedom allows visitors to come and spent time with the elephants in their natural homes.
The goal of the program is to show that elephants can be a source of income without their being exploited and to provide economic support for humane and culturally sensitive choices. What’s more, the Karen can live closely to their traditional way of life without avoiding quality-of-life improvements. The Journey to Freedom has helped to develop roads, water systems, and even recently installed the first refrigerator in a Karen village.