Leila was only four and a half years old when John Grobler found her chained between two trees in Angola.
She was malnourished, without shelter, and survived on the junk food and alcohol that curious onlookers gave her, as well as her own urine to quench her thirst. A scar on her head told the story no one wanted to tell him: she had been struck with a machete. John, a Namibian journalist, could not leave without doing something. Together with the Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation and Dalene Dreyer, he organized a rescue with permits, vaccinations, and a passport included.
When he finally removed her chains, Leila hugged him tightly, as if she understood that something had changed forever. Today she lives in a temporary home in Namibia while waiting to be transferred to the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, where she will learn to be free again. At their farewell, she wrapped her arms around his neck, unwilling to let him go. That gesture is perhaps proof that sometimes all it takes is refusing to look the other way.
