US actress and conservationist Shannon Elizabeth and Simon Borchert talk to Sara-Jayne Makwala King about the work being done by the Shannon Elizabeth Foundation and its black rhino breeding programme.
For years, Shannon Elizabeth had been a teen idol of the 1990s and 2000s, best known for her roles on the big screen, in movies like American Pie, Scary Movie and Love Actually.
But 20 years ago, the US actress gave up the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to follow her passion – caring and conserving animals.
In 2001, Elizabeth became the founder of an animal rescue turned conservation organization called The Shannon Elizabeth Foundation.
In recent years, she’s been doing extraordinary work in South Africa as an animal activist and conservationist.
Her foundation recently helped launch a breeding programme involving a blind black rhino called Munu.
Elizabeth and her South African husband Simon Borchert joined Sara-Jayne Makwala in-studio to chat about their inspirational work.
In 2016, I started learning about conservation and I’d be wanting to revamp my charity to help more animals. I was on a journey of figuring out what that looked like. I started following a lot of organisations in conservation work and lot of people from South Africa were coming into my life. Eventually, I started listening to the universe and realised I need to come to South Africa. I raised some funds to help some African organizations and travelled around to learn more. And by the end of 2016, I decided I wanted to move here and be closer to the issues.
Shannon Elizabeth, animal activist and conservationist
Elizabeth and Borchert met through a mutual friend in 2015 and reconnected in 2017 through their passion for conversation.
The two joined forces and a working relationship later sparked a romance.
For us it was about how we deploy our collective skillsets to accelerate and amplify solutions. To be far more solutions-based, we need to be investment based and not donation based. We don’t just want to be another voice in the noise.
Simon Borchert, Shannon Elizabeth Foundation co-founder
This took the couple down a path of introspection to focus on awareness and education. This concept of rhinoreview.org was born, which has grown into the one of the largest rhino education websites in the world.
They realised there was a huge knowledge deficit in the public domain.
We go from a horrible image of a rhino with its face butchered to give us money and there’s very little inbetween to understand why this rhino is in this position. If you are motivated to give money, then you’re also motivated to understand where that money is going and how you can better hold people accountable for the usage of the dollars and rands donated.
Simon Borchert, Shannon Elizabeth Foundation co-founder
The dynamic duo have another passion project in the form of Munu, a blind rhino they met in the Eastern Cape while visiting.
A fellow conservationist found Munu in Addo game reserve wandering in circles and it was discovered he lost his sight.
It’s believed he was blinded in one eye by territorial fights and the other eye had overcompensated, leading to a detached retina.
Due to the scourge of rhino poaching, Munu is one of the last remaining rhinos of his sub-species.
The foundation has taken him under their wing and created a project to help save his species from extinction in South Africa.
When we went to meet him, we just fell in love with him. When Brett called him, he stood up and walked over to us. He is such a special soul. We asked how we could help and since then, we’ve joined forces and created this programme.
Shannon Elizabeth, animal activist and conservationist
We went on a search for land to house him and to create a breeding programme. We recently finished building a sanctuary and we’ve moved him there. Phase one is complete and we’re now fundraising for phase two.
Shannon Elizabeth, animal activist and conservationist
To find out more about their work, visit https://shannonelizabeth.org/.
Scroll up for the full interview.
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