Celebrating a heroine in Tsavo National Park


It is 7.00 a.m. when Tiju gets a phone call that one of the trucks that delivers water to vital water holes in Tsavo National Park in Kenya has broken down. Quick action is necessary to replenish the dry water holes before the drought-stricken wildlife start to die.
 
Ms. Tiju 
After a few phone calls and acts of goodwill from friends and family, she’s on her way to make sure the truck is up and running. This is just a typical day in Tiju’s life in Tsavo.

Tiju Aziz is a passionate conservationist currently working on a Water for Wildlife project in Tsavo East National Park. The Park is one of the oldest and largest in Kenya. The park is situated in a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert, not far from the town of Voi in Taita-Taveta County.

In search of water, wildlife, especially elephants, stray into villages destroying farms and endangering people’s lives. This often leads to retaliatory attacks in which elephants are killed in the never ending human-wildlife conflict.

The Water for Wildlife project is just one of the relief initiatives that Tiju is leading. In mid-March this year, with her friend Fazeela Mubarak of Care for Wild Kenya in Lamu and a host of others, they set out to provide water to wildlife in Lamu County and carry out rescues.
Ms. Tiju busy replenishing one of the ponds
The animals most affected by the drought were hippos and buffalo that were getting bogged down in muddy water holes. Within 24 hours of receiving reports of wildlife in distress, they had managed to get a truckload of hay for delivery and within two days they were able to mobilize volunteers on site and start the relief effort. They continued to supply water and hay to the affected areas until the rains finally came, minimizing human-wildlife conflict.

Tiju believes that with support from friends and partners, she will be able to sink boreholes in several sites to make the initiative sustainable.

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