History of Blankets For Baby Rhinos

BFBR was founded in November 2016 by Elisa Best and Sue Brown. The group’s purpose initially was to knit some squares to make blankets for a rhino orphanage in Natal. The carers had noticed that the orphaned rhino, mainly victims of poaching had not only found warmth but also comfort from blankets when they first arrived at the orphanage. They also thought that asking people to knit squares would generate more awareness of the crisis affecting rhinos worldwide.

The Facebook group grew rapidly to well over 5000 worldwide and members were recruited to help run the group.

We still supply rhino orphanages with blankets but also use our crafts to raise funds (sales, raffles and auctions) to offer support to our beneficiaries by purchasing much needed equipment and animal feed. We donate blankets, beanies and scarves to the antipoaching rangers in the KNP as well as private reserves and orphanages. Members will attach messages of support which are greatly appreciated by those doing these difficult jobs.All our items are unique and handmade with love by our members.

In 2019 we received two awards on from IFAW and one from Points of Light (see News for more details). We also won the Animal Hero award in 2020 from the Mirror newspaper and have received several Leopard awards from SANparks for our longstanding support.

Although we continue to accept knitted items one of our main focuses is fundraising to help support antipoaching operations and wildlife orphanages. We have no paid staff and we are all volunteers. 

The group is currently run by Elisa Best  with help from Liz Brown, Elizabeth Conroy, Lesley McKenzie , Kris Jones, Linda Grave, Paul Sharman and Marina Turion.

We are a registered Charitable incorporated organisation in the UK.