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 4000 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. 

In 2019 we received two awards on from IFAW and one from Points of Light (see News for more details)

We hope to be able to continue to expand and help those organisations helping our wildlife worldwide. We have no paid staff and we are all volunteers. We will occasionally help to cover transport costs but we try and use any funds to help wildlife directly and ask that our members to cover costs of their own materials to create crafts. All our items are unique and handmade with love by our members.

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

We are a registered Charitable incorporated organisation in the UK.