INTO THE WILD FUNDRAISER

Serendipity Wildlife Foundation, a non-profit wildlife foundation based in the United States and presently operating in Sri Lanka and Kenya will be holding a fundraising event – ‘INTO THE WILD’ on October 26th at the Shangri-la Hotel in Colombo.

The event will comprise dinner and entertainment provided by award winning singer Natasha Rathnayake, Sri Lanka’s first female acapella group - The First Ladies, and guest entertainers. There will also be a silent auction of the ten top photographs taken in Sri Lanka and Kenya.

‘Into the Wild’ will raise money to maintain the very first fingerprint database exclusively for wildlife crime, which will go into operation by the end of the year. Sri Lanka will be the very first contributors to this project, which will eventually comprise more contributing agencies, that will benefit from the intelligence gathering for wildlife crimes. Earlier this year, Instructors from the US specialising in crime scene investigation from the foundation’s CSI wildlife unit trained select wildlife personnel from the Sri Lanka Department of Wildlife Conservancy in fingerprint collection, DNA collection, managing a wildlife crime scene, building and vehicle searches, preservation of evidence, and ballistics.

The instructors will return in November this year to conduct Phase II training to DWC personnel, which will comprise of more advanced training in evidence recovery and crime scene management, where field personnel will receive certification in fingerprinting and DNA collection.

Tickets for ‘Into the Wild’ are priced at Rs 10,000 and can be purchased at Pages & Coffee, No 78A Stratford Avenue Colombo 6 and at Botanik, 7 Hospital Street Colombo.