Lionaid have just completed the Kilimanjaro challenge!
The LionAid team recently took on the challenge of climbing mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
The 19,340 ft trek was no mean feat and will took a lot of willpower and passion from the 14 strong team.
Their volunteers and Christine Macsween (LionAid’s co director) are aiming to raise £65,000 to start a very important human/lion conflict mitigation project in Merrueshi, Kenya.
The project consists of upgrading bomas (where the livestock are kept overnight to protect them from predators) and the Insurance herd compensation scheme:
Substituting a community-derived compensation scheme to effectively counter the continuing frustration with existing compensation programmes
Effective equipping of livestock bomas to deter and prevent livestock losses caused by predators
Provide local people with additional revenue opportunities directly linked to carnivores by establishing community wildlife conservancies
Prevention of retaliatory killings of endangered predators
Have a positive impact on human poverty. One further significant benefit of this scheme is the marked improvement in the lives and livelihoods of this rural community. The scheme will show a marked reduction in livestock losses, with cows, sheep and goats being the main source of income for this rural community.
Part of the funds raised will go to improve a community primary school where the 400 girls and boys are facing a hard life socially, morally and academically. Lionaid aim to provide better toilet facilities, two additional classrooms and maybe even a feeding programme if sufficient funds are raised to encourage children back into school.