In northern Kenya, the Reteti sanctuary, founded in 2016, is the first elephant sanctuary in Africa owned by an Indigenous community, the Samburu. Women play a central role there.
In 2016, Dorothy Lowakutuk became one of the first female elephant keepers in Africa. Around 1,250 local “milk mothers” supply more than 20,000 litres of goat’s milk a month to feed the orphaned calves. Last year, around $342,000 was paid directly to Samburu women.
Reteti employs 110 people from local communities, and 60% of tourism revenue goes to community projects. Last year, the sanctuary returned 13 young elephants to the wild. In the region, elephant numbers have risen from a few hundred 30 years ago to more than 6,000.
