Empowering young Zambian eco-leaders

Chipembele Willdife Education Trust has been teaching and inspiring young people in Zambia about willdife conservation and enviromental protection for 25 years. During this time a large number of our students have taken up careers in different fields in conservation and in doing so have become 'eco-leaders' across the country. The students are all from poor, rural backgrounds and live in communities close to the world-renowned South Luangwa National Park. While there are opportunities for employment in the local tourism industry, positions are very limited and children usually grow up with negative attitudes about wildife, mostly perceiving them as threats who steal their food or damage the familiy's crops or as potentia sources of meat. A herd of elephants can destroy the family's maize crop, that would sustain them for the following year, in one night. In addition to human-willdife conflict there are huge problems of poaching, deforestation, bush fires. over-fishing, waste diposal and habitat loss as the rapidly growing population searches ever further for agicultural land, firewood, timber and protein.

Teaching the young generation about how live in harmony with wildife, receive benefits from tourism, appreciate nature and manage suatainable livelihoods is essential to the future of the wildife and habiatats that support them.

Our GlobalGiving campaign to raise $15,000 for this project has so far raised $12,503 - so we only have $2497 to go! We really need your help to reach our goal. A huge thanks to all our suporters who have donated so far - we appreciate it so much. 

The funding so far has all bee directly used in our projects and has contributed towards 

• Field trips into the National Park for 31 school Conservation Clubs, each with 5 students = 465 students in total
• Educational materials for our 5 Commnity Conservation Educators to run Conservation Clubs in schools throughout the year (4 per week)
• 26 all-day sessions at the Chipembele Conservation Centre for students from Grades 5 to 12
• A month-long student-led annual environmental campaign in July 2023. This year it was 'Conserve our Trees' with a student parade for 5km along the main road tthrough Mfuwe and culminated in a large community event with performances and speeches.
• 4  x Nature Nights excursions - camping expeditions into the wild for 12 studentsover 3 days

However, we still need funding continue our prgrammes. In particular we need funds to support our annual Conservation Awards for students who have participated most in our conservation programmes and have best shown attributes such as passion, integrity, leadership teamwork and creativity, all of which are needed to become one of Zambia's conservation leaders in the future. We also need funding to support our impactful day-long sessions at the Conservation Education Centre. 

Warmest wishes from us all at Chipembele!

Links:

• Chipembele Annual Report 2022