By Nic Allen | Development Associate
Dear Reteti GlobalGiving Community,
Thank you for everything your support makes possible, for the orphans finding their feet and the landscapes they will one day call home.
The first months of 2026 have been full of growth. Reteti is now home to 46 elephants, alongside giraffes, gerenuks, zebras, and other wildlife in our care.
Ten of our elephants, now five to seven years old, have reached a milestone moment, entering the weaning stage of their journey. They are spending less time with their keepers and more time feeding and exploring on their own, even picking up and holding their own milk bottles at feeding time. The photo below captures them doing exactly that, a clear sign of their growing readiness for the wild.
This quarter, we welcomed five new orphaned calves. Among them is little Samburu, rescued near the Samburu National Reserve on Valentine's Day after losing her mother. She arrived weak and alone, and has since blossomed into a healthy young elephant, now inseparable from her friends in the nursery.
A more unexpected homecoming is unfolding in the wild. Reteti's very first rewilded orphans, released between 2019 and 2020, are making their way back towards the Mathews Range and Namunyak, drawn home across a landscape that decades of Samburu-led conservation have made richer and safer. Our tracking shows Warges leading the way west, with Shaba, Reteti's original matriarch, close behind. The 2024 Release Herd, now well over 670 days wild, is thriving too.
Ground has also broken on a second Reteti site near Mount Ololokwe, the future home to the next release cohort, as the sanctuary marks its 10th anniversary this year.
Beyond the sanctuary, the Milk to Market Program paid 1,250 Samburu women over $80k USD in the first quarter of the year for the milk that feeds our orphans, while our health and education teams reached hundreds more, from antenatal care and child nutrition to the nearly 200 children now learning in our nomadic schools.
Thank you for standing with us, and for helping these elephants and their community grow towards a wilder future.
With gratitude,
The Sarara Foundation & Reteti Elephant Sanctuary Team
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