The Afshari family.  Standing: sons Elya and Iden; sitting: parents Mahyar and Alison

As 2025 came to an end, the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project received heartening news from the Afshari family who live in the United Kingdom.  Rather than giving each other Christmas presents each year, they instead support charities.  For Christmas 2025 this has resulted in the MFM Project receiving a five-hectare sponsorship towards ridding the island of its albatross-killing mice, as Alison Afshari explains to MFM News.

“For the past 10 years, since our children became adults, we all agreed that the ‘loving and giving spirit of Christmas’ was best served by everyone giving the money they would spend on presents for each other to a charity of their choice in the recipient’s name.  I first read about the Mouse-Free Marion Project in an article in The Guardian on 31 March 2025 where its bold initiative and the struggle of wildlife on the island was so well described by Nick Dall’s article.  I immediately told my husband that I had found the charity for our 2025 Christmas presents!”

Beryl Perry, Alison Afshari’s mother

“I have sponsored a hectare on Marion Island each for my mother Beryl Perry, my son Iden Afshari and my husband Mahyar Afshari, who live in Dorset, UK, as do I, and my son Elyar Afshari who lives in Birmingham, UK, as well as a hectare for my brother and sister-in-law Neil and Wenche, who live in Norway.  So, we have sponsored five hectares in total.”

Alison continues “As a family, we have always been lovers of nature.  For all of us, the natural world has been a balm and a place where we can breathe freely.  I think that is why the news of the struggle on Marion struck such a chord, or discord where the harmony has been shattered.  We are very small players in the world of conservation but do what little we can.  We are constantly in awe of people like yourselves who are dedicated to protecting and promoting the natural world.  My husband and I are members of the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and I am a supporter of organisations wishing to stop the effects of climate change on our planet.  As a secondary school teacher of 30+ years, I have attempted to spread knowledge about the importance of biodiversity and a love of the natural world around us to every student I have had the privilege to meet.”

Iden and Elya Afshari with their one-hectare Certificates of Appreciation on Christmas Day 2025

The MFM Project is most grateful to Alison Afshari and all the members of her family for their welcome sponsorships.  It is clear that seeing the end of Marion Island’s introduced House Mice has become more than just a domestic issue for South Africa.  The project continues to gain interest and donations from individuals around the world, as numerous articles to MFM News attest, making it a truly international endeavour, and one worthy of your own support, wherever you live.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 21 January 2026

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The Species Infographic for the Southern Giant Petrel by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) is one of eight produced for Marion Island-breeding birds known or thought to be at risk to mice. Find them all here

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean.  The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate.  For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.