She drove all night. The elephant calf finally fed from her hands.

Dorothy Lowakutuk drove through the night across rain-soaked plains to reach a week-old elephant named Nemparwai, whose eyes were swollen shut after a fall into a well. The calf arrived at Reteti, Africa's first Indigenous-owned elephant sanctuary, in northern Kenya. For two nights Lowakutuk sat beside her, talking and singing. On the second day the calf scooped milk from her cupped hands and finally fed. "She became my baby," Lowakutuk says. "She wouldn't take her milk unless I was near." Reteti, founded in 2016 and run largely by local Samburu people, has reunited 60 stranded calves with their mothers. Last year it paid almost $342,000 directly to Samburu women, many of whom opened their first bank accounts. Lowakutuk is one of Africa's first female elephant keepers. She credits the animals with teaching her how to lead. "Not by intimidating, and not by fighting. Leadership has to grow from inside you."