Reports from the field - 10/2020 Tana River Delta

When Raabia is in the bush with the team fighting for wildlife conservation she regularly shares updates via Whatsapp. I want to share those short reports with you so that you understand her passion and my motivation behind Ulinzi Conservation Coffee to support her:

"Dear friends.

I hope this finds you all well, firstly please accept my apologies I've been out of network for over a week just got in last night.

It's been a very mentally and emotionally draining week.

News:

• We successfully collared a lion and he is doing well. We will be doing a press release so any media contacts you have would be great, we can supply footage and photos and text.

• We rescued a pregnant zebra from a very bad snare wound on the leg.

• We were unable to get a vet mobilized to treat a hyena with snare, but with guidance from vets over the phone at KWS, my team and I managed to successfully treat it and left it resting and recovering at around 930pm. The community killed it the next morning. It was clubbed to death.

• Still shaken from this incident, I called in KWS and the office of the chief to witness the scene. This was followed by a second meeting with cattle owners. I applied pressure to the landowners whom I understand contacted the office of the governor. I also lodged a complaint with the DC and issued our position of no more cattle under any circumstances in the area. Today the cows were back, and the chief mobilized two officers. The cattle owner will be summoned on Monday and asked to pay a fine, failure to which he will be taken to court by the office of the chief.

For some this may seem drastic, but for me this is justice for our hyena, who begged for help, and died in fear, fighting until its final breath against people who brutalized it simply for being a hyena.

Our vehicle is now at the tipping point, as predicted by workshop. It stopped twice on the way home and overheated, and the bearings and injector are done.

As I type this to you, my team are on high alert as two zebras were reported with arrows sticking out.

We urgently need to build capacity with more rangers, and secure operation vehicles.

I'm sorry for my silence. I'm still processing everything that has transpired in the last few days.

Losing the hyena that I treated with my own hands... has been the lowest point in my life so far. Never have I felt so defeated, so lost, so broken.

I sat in the back of the rangers car alone driving to the chiefs office and cried my heart out. It just wanted to live. Seeing the heartbreak in my teams faces, took me down even further.

There are no words...

Only overwhelming sadness.

I asked the chief to help us find the men who did this. I told him I want to look them in the eye and understand how hard their hearts could be to a helpless being who whimpered in fear pleading for help from hands that could, but men who chose to use them to bludgeon him instead.

I will never get over this."

💔