Madiba's Story

With the approach of Christmas 2003, the Trust dispersed a small pamphlet to promote our online Fostering Programme, saying, “What do you dream of having for Christmas?” The answer was, of course, “A Baby Elephant”. However this was not at the top of our particular list of priorities (which would have been the milk to feed our growing elephant family). At the time we already had 8 in our Nairobi Nursery and another 31 growing up down in Tsavo – a BIG family, by any standards. However, for us, “the dream” came true in an unusual way – the arrival by air of a tiny Southern African orphan named “Ollie”, despite immense pressure from many quarters in that part of the world from those who think that only humans are worthy of compassion, and all other living creatures are a mere commercial commodity for sale to the highest bidder. Fortunately, not all people in Southern Africa think that way; hence the saving of “Olly”. Said the famous Naturalist Albert Schweitzer, “until mankind can extend his compassion to the animals, he will never find peace”. We, in Kenya, are proud to be the one country in Africa whose wildlife policy incorporates the vital ingredient of compassion and animal welfare, something that is demonstrated on a daily basis by the hundreds of Kenyans who flock to our Nairobi Nursery to watch and wonder as the infant elephant babies take their noon mud bath.With the permission of Wildcare, we changed his name to reflect his Southern African origins and he became known as “Madiba”, the name by which famous Nelson Mandela was affectionately known in his homeland.