Meet Ersain, growing up he and his family, and indeed his entire village, didn’t think twice about eating saiga meat from animals illegally shot and killed by poachers.

A few years ago the Saiga Conservation Alliance launched Saiga Day celebrations and Steppe Wildlife clubs in Ersain’s school, teaching children about the challenges saigas face. The plight facing saigas caught his imagination and later that year his father approached us, saying that Ersain was so moved by the perilous situation of saigas, and wanted to help so much, that he had persuaded his entire family to stop eating saiga meat.

Since then Ersain and his family have been regular participants in all our saiga conservation activities, with Ersain winning a prestigious local award for his moving saiga short story

Together we can inspire other young people to follow in Ersain’s footsteps and be champions for saiga conservation:

An anonymous donor has generously offered to match the first $7,500 US in donations that we receive before December 31st