Empowering young Zambian eco-leaders

This year has continued to be busy and exciting for Chipembele with many new activities in addition to running our regular 32 conservation clubs in 20 schools, our community meetings and our outreach work using our Mobile Education Unit (MEU).

Our Student Support Officer Purity Kalenge, who joined us earlier this year, has hit the ground running. She has been very busy in mainstreaming gender equality into our work, including giving an insightful talk to all the staff and running gender workshops for students in some of our local clubs. They covered topics such as confidence and self-esteem, communication, gender equality and teamwork.

In August we ran our third and fourth Nature Nights events of the year. Participation in our inspirational Nature Nights programme involves students camping in tents for two nights within the Lupande Game Management Area. They participate in activities such as team building, leadership, communication, problem solving and critical thinking. The programme helps them to develop conservation and life skills, all the while being exposed to wildlife and nature. We hold 4 per year, timed to fit within the local school breaks, with 12 of the most active students from our Conservation Clubs participating in each session.

The new Game Rangers International Wildlife Discovery Centre in Lusaka National Park is now officially open. We are proud to be a part of this amazing project with a conservation hut within the Centre highlighting the beauty of South Luangwa and what we are trying to do to conserve it through a collaborative initiative with Conservation South Luangwa, Zambian Carnivore Programme and Project Luangwa. We are grateful to the incredible talent of local wildlife artist, David Mweetwa, whose fantastic mural makes South Luangwa come to life in the hut. The Discovery Centre will provide daily, unique education experiences for groups of 20 children from low-resource Zambian schools, as they spend the day connecting to the wildlife that makes Zambia so special. It will also be the new home of GRI’s Elephant Orphanage Project, to which several orphaned elephants helped by Chipembele have been sent. The Centre will hopefully inspire future generations to truly appreciate Zambia’s unique natural heritage, its wildlife and wild spaces.

The Chipembele team would like to thank all of you for making it possible for us to support the next conservation leaders in Zambia. Zikomo!