Chongwe River CampWorld Lion Day (WLD) falls on August 10th and is a fairly new event, launched just two years ago. This global campaign celebrates the importance of lions worldwide, particularly as their populations are dwindling to the point of risk of extinction.

In Zambia, Livingstone hosted WLD by creating a big event last year during UNWTO and won Africa’s best World Lion Day event! This year we are trying for the World’s best Lion Day Event! Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) in conjunction with the Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia (WECSZ) are organizing this as an educational and fun filled day for children.

Mama Zambia Concert

Two well known, very talented Zambian artists; Cactus Agony and Maureen Lilanda who are very interested in Zambian conservation, will be performing. They have co-written, with young Mikki Shenton, a beautiful song called Mama Zambia and will be singing it in Livingstone on WLD. Their audience will include approximately 400 children, aged 7 to 15 years from mainly local schools and orphanages. The public is also encouraged to join in and make this a day to remember!  Activities will include a procession along the main road in the town centre, lunch for the kids, mask making, games and activities and concert in Mukuni Park. Litter picking will be done and, to make it fun, a giant steel elephant has been erected in the Mukuni Park which gets fed with the rubbish.

Not Just Lions

Lions

The purpose of this event would be to educate the children and create lion conservation awareness in the Livingstone City, particularly concerning the status of lions in Zambia today and their importance. Elephants are also targeted in this conservation drive as the local community is often in conflict with them on a daily basis. Using appropriate technology a Livingstone based NGO is deterring these magnificent yet fearsome animals from destroying small scale farms and gardens. WLD will be used to inform people that elephants can be deterred, but only through a concerted community effort that includes everyone! If this is a success elephants and Lions that plague the community are less likely to be shot by Game rangers. Losing lions from our world would mean losing part of our global heritage. The environmental impact would be devastating.

To make a donation to support this event details are on Facebook