Project Luangwa is a charitable organisation formed by some of the Safari Operators of South Luangwa as a part of their commitment to responsible tourism.
What We Do
At the heart of Project Luangwa is the belief in empowering communities through the benefits of tourism.
South Luangwa dazzles in its beauty and serenity, and is the most densely wildlife populated area in Zambia. While the sound of monkeys chittering in the treetops as a wake up call, or the echoing roar of a lion signalling dusk, are both magical and captivating, the relationship between all of the Luangwa's inhabitants is not without difficulties.
On establishing Project Luangwa in 2010, some of the valley's tour operators realised the need to empower communities and show the incredible benefits that wildlife and an unspoiled habitat brings to the region. By using a portion of the proceeds from each visitor, Project Luangwa seeks to reaffirm the importance of tourism in action.
At the cornerstone of our beliefs is improving standards of health and education, providing a platform to help raise rural areas out of poverty. As part of this program, Project Luangwa has or seeks to:
-
Constructed and built infrastructure for 14 schools, which we continue to support. Equating to upwards of 4,500 children in education each year.
-
Improve educational impact through our four ‘Edulution’ centers by providing higher standards of numeracy to 1200 pupils.
-
Through our menstrual hygiene program we have supported thousands of young women with safe, clean and washable sanitary products and education.
-
Our sponsorship program supports around 150 children through secondary education each year, and 25 students through tertiary.
-
Our 20 gender support clubs across five chiefdoms inspire, support and empower hundreds of young men and women, and help to break down barriers of inequality.
-
Supporting the communities and chiefdoms of South Luangwa through this crisis by providing hygiene facilities in schools, and we are beginning to support through face mask production
-
Despite losing 70% of our funding from tourism and having to close our shop due to the lack of visitor footfall, we are continuing to support vulnerable artisans with a living wage and are diversifying the workshop by making face masks.
-
Improve efforts in health, conservation and habitat protection by bringing safe, clean eco-stoves to thousands of households (a programme due to begin in late 2020).
Education
Sponsorship and Edulution
At the heart of Project Luangwa is improving educational standards in marginalised communities through school sponsorship and other programs.
Gender Support
Girls' and Boys' Clubs and Menstrual Health
Rural children need to believe in themselves, regardless of their gender or background. We help to empower young adults through our Gender Support Clubs, and assist local girls with our menstrual health and hygiene programs.
Stove Project
Supporting South Luangwa
Our exciting new Stove Project, in partnership with C-Quest Capital, seeks to tackle both a critically needed reduction in deforestation, as well as one of our key objectives of Female Empowerment.
It is predominantly women who carry out the cooking within communities. This necessitates walking vast distances into the bush, the chopping down of trees, and the carrying of up to 30kg of wood on their heads for many kilometres. In addition the smoke from wood fires causes many respiratory problems, and women traditionally spend hours cooking due to the inefficiency of cooking on an open fire.
Our project seeks to address all of these issues. By only using small, locally gathered twigs, the fires from our Eco-Stoves burn far more efficiently, giving off less smoke, and requiring far less cooking time. Materials for bricks are gathered from within the community, insuring local support.
Annually each one of our stoves reduce 2-4 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, saves 2 hours of cooking and collection time each day, and prevents many diseases such as pneumonia and lung cancer.