Elias Shayo, Safari Guide & Educator
Elias Michael Shayo is a renowned field guide with more than 22 years of experience leading safaris throughout the great national parks of Tanzania. A committed naturalist and conservationist, he is an excellent tracker and has a wealth of information and wisdom to share with clients. Elias brings to our UNITE tours an eye for the extraordinary, and continues to lead our teams on the grandest adventures of our lifetimes! Prior to joining the tourism industry, Elias worked as a teacher. Today he now carries that expertise over to UNITE as a leader and instructor of UNITE’s community health and empowerment programs, which are conducted via Skype with and for our partners organizations across the county.
Elias comes from the village of Mengwe Juu, Rombo district, Kilimanjaro Region. He was raised on the slopes of the great “Mzee” mountain by his parents who were farmers, growing bananas for food and coffee for cash crop. However, due to the fall of coffee prices in the world market, that crop is no longer a priority and for quite some time his parents have been 100% dependant upon him. Elias built them a house in their home village and continues to care for them along with his extended family in Arusha where he lives with his wife and younger children. Very sadly, Elias lost a son in 2007. He worked as a computer technician. His remaining children are a son who works for a weighing machines company in Dar es Salaam; a son who works in the tourism industry as driver and guide; a daughter who is primary school teacher; and a daughter who is now finishing her high school studies before hopefully joining the university in September.
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
–Robert F. Kennedy, 1966
