CCI alumnus Gilbert Sabinga Lekalau studied GIS (Geographic Information Systems) at Houston Community College (HCC). When Sabinga returned to Kenya, he used his new skills in GIS, entrepreneurship, and networking to track elephants, start his own safari company, and give back to his home community.

Sabinga’s story is part of the CCI Global Impact series—a collection of videos that showcase the impact of Community College Initiative (CCI) Program alumni projects and contributions in their home communities. To create this series, a small team of filmmakers from StoryCenter traveled around the world to film the stories and projects of CCI alumni. To view the series, visit: https://bit.ly/2DArWUU

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DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Allison Myers, StoryCenter

“You’re not a clever boy,” Sabinga says at the end of our video pre-interview, months before we meet in person. Repeating words his father said to him after he consistently lost the family goats.

I can’t believe the irony.

His job as a 6-year-old Samburu boy in Northern Kenya was to keep track of the herd, protecting the animals from the dangers around them.

I’m pretty sure the irony is lost on Sabinga—at least until I laugh out loud.

Everything we talk about circles back here.

He was ashamed for being terrible at taking care of animals. Consequently, he became the first person in his family to set foot in a school. He went to class barefoot, wearing a bed sheet tied around his neck because he didn’t have anything else.

At first he didn't want to go, then realized he loved school and learning.
After 8 years, he’d have to find a way to continue his education.
He heard that the Catholic Church funded some youth to go to school, so he was clever enough to set foot in a church for the first time, offering to help the priests. He made a case for a partial sponsorship to continue school.

But when Sabinga learned he had to cover the rest of the money, he knew his family couldn’t help. To earn his way, he cleverly offered to work around the school grounds during the holidays when other kids went home.

When he went to tell his family, he couldn’t find them. In Samburu they have seasons, not dates, places or times. His family had followed the goats in the direction of the rainy season and had left several weeks earlier. So Sabinga walked for 2 to 3 weeks toward the rainy season until he found them.

When he graduated, some staff from Save the Elephants were fetching water near his village. Sabinga offered to help, hoping to land a position one day. He worked his way into an internship. Then figured out other ways to gain employment and learn about animal conservation.

He heard about the CCI Program, and was clever enough to apply. He arranged his own internship in Houston—the first time he’d set foot in a zoo. Oh, the irony!

Sabinga wisely chose to study GIS at HCC because he knew that few people in Kenya had the training, and it would be useful to Save the Elephants.

The other thing he said that now makes me chuckle was that he used to be shy. Somehow he managed to overcome this and seize every opportunity to network, improve his public communication skills, start a safari tour business, organize environmental conservation projects, and work with local communities, engaging them and involving them in solutions for their own economic development as well as for protecting the elephants and other wildlife.

With his foundation, he and his network have provided clean water, books, and solar lights, and built a school. He has personally sponsored kids through school.

We went on sunrise and sunset safari and elephant tracking drives in Samburu National Reserve with Sabinga to watch him in action for hours. He confidently explained how he uses GIS to track elephants and protect them from poachers and human encroachment. He informed us about creative solutions like beehive fences and farmers registering to receive texts from elephants’ collars as they approach crops and fields. We visited his community where he rescued an elderly man lost in the dark and played with village children. Sabinga has one foot comfortably in each of two very different worlds, and he’s committed to bridging them for his people in a respectful, inclusive way.

I’ve been on several safaris in different countries, but going on safari with Sabinga was magical, emotional. We witnessed a family of elephants charge two lions to protect their babies, something Sabinga said was rare to see. We raced in his truck across the Reserve to catch a glimpse of a jaguar prowling through the brush, and then seemingly pose for us in a tree as the sinking sun threw long shadows. Powerful stuff. But observing Sabinga, is what moved me the most. He knows the elephants and the other animals like he grew up with them—like quirky cousins he loves. He speaks about them with affection, knows what they like, and don’t like. He’s committed to protecting them.

And... he knows where to find them.

Everything circles back.