The special meaning behind Meghan Markle's jewelry in her latest Instagram post

Ellie Conley
Updated

Africa is a special place for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. It's where they went on their first few dates and reportedly where they plan to take a trip with Archie Harrison this fall. On World Elephant Day on Aug. 12, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shared new photos on Instagram from a 2017 trip to Botswana, where they spent time aiding local elephant conservation. But of course, within the slideshow, fans were quick to notice the duchess's meaningful jewelry.

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🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘 Today is #WorldElephantDay and we are pleased to announce that since we followed our friends at @ElephantswithoutBorders (EWB) on Instagram in July, when we were celebrating the environment, you and our friend @TheEllenFund (@TheEllenShow) have spread the word and EWB have been able to help protect 25 elephants by fitting them with satellite navigation collars! These collars allow the team at EWB to track the elephants, as well as to learn their essential migratory patterns to keep their corridors safe and open so future generations of elephants can roam freely. In honour of this amazing support, EWB have named their most recently collared Elephant...ELLEN! We can’t wait to see where she will go! 🐘 Two years ago on World Elephant Day, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined Dr Chase to help in this conservation effort. Below, a few words from Mike and his partner Kelly at EWB: • ‘Today is a day to honor and celebrate the majestic elephant and to make a strong stand for conserving and protecting one of the world’s most beloved animals. elephants are intelligent, sentient beings capable of emotions from joy to grief. They are ‘environmental engineers,’ a key-stone umbrella species, and the fight to save them is in effect, a fight to save entire ecosystems and all wildlife. Today elephants are facing many challenges; habitat loss and competition for resources creates conflict with humans, climate change and fires destroy much needed resources and poaching for the demand of ivory makes elephants bigger targets than ever. African elephants are especially prone to human-wildlife conflict because of their large home ranges. Finding, preserving and creating elephant corridors is therefore of great importance in helping to maintain habitats suitable for movement and minimising human-elephant conflict. Corridors are a mitigation technique to better the livelihoods of local communities and the elephants themselves, by providing environment and ample space for wildlife to navigate from one habitat patch to another, without affecting the livelihoods of communities.’ • EWB - Dr Mike Chase, Ms Kelly Landen . 📸 by DOS © SussexRoyal Additional photos: EWB

A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Aug 12, 2019 at 6:00am PDT

While highlighting the conservation work of Elephants Without Borders through a series of photos, one of Meghan's hands gracefully holding an elephant's trunk stands out. In it, she's wearing a favorite Kismet by Milka ring. The thin 14-karat yellow gold band features a hamsa with an eye in the middle and is decorated with a small, round sapphire. The hamsa, also known as the Hand of Fatima in Islam and Hand of Miriam in Judaism, is said to bring the wearer protection, love and happiness.

In addition to the ring, Meghan is also wearing an elephant hair bracelet on her opposite arm. According to Hello, the bracelets are traditionally made with real elephant hair, but today are more often made with wire and beads. Meghan's appears to be made of silver wire, but either way, the bracelet is believed to bring good luck, health and prosperity.

Elephants Without Borders is a nonprofit organization working out of Botswana, where the world's largest population of elephants currently resides. As some countries in Africa have seen a decline in the elephant population, others have seen a great increase—both of which can raise problems for the environment. Therefore, EWB works to secure habitats and migratory corridors for elephants to live by monitoring their movements and other forms of research.

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The royal couple shares a passion for Africa's wildlife and often works to raise awareness and funds for conservation efforts. More recently, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended the European premiere of "The Lion King," which was held in support of Prince Harry's conservation work through The Royal Foundation.

According to the duke's official royal profile, "The Duke has taken a deep personal interest in frontline conservation projects that work to protect Africa's natural heritage and support both wildlife and local communities. On leaving the Army in 2015, he spent three months working on number of such projects in Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa and Botswana."

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