The Elephant Havens Wildlife Foundation was founded in 2017 as the first (and only) elephant sanctuary in Botswana. Debra Stevens and her husband Scott Jackson fell in love with Africa and its wildlife over the course of their many years visiting the continent from their home in Texas. After Debra’s encounter with an orphaned baby elephant in 2013, she became very interested in how to help raise orphaned baby elephants. A friend from Botswana contacted them about taking action, and in 2017 they founded the elephant sanctuary together to care for orphaned elephants.

Elephant Havens believes that education is key to preserving and protecting elephants and the environment. Community outreach programs educate local communities on elephant behavior and health, as well as habitat protection and other methods of conservation. They aim to reduce human-elephant conflict by isolating specific areas that have struggled with elephant interaction and building creative solutions. The sanctuary considers hand raising orphans as only the first step in the long process of species protection. The sanctuary raises elephants hoping to return them back into the wild and uses their stay as a means educate foreigners and locals alike.