Volunteer

Lion Encounter is a responsible and ethical travel and tourism company. It is not a charity and therefore does not have to rely on donor funding as a means of support. It facilitates volunteers and staff to assist in local communities, research projects and the lion conservation work that would otherwise not benefit from their skills and expertise. There is no financial burden for the community as the project fee paid by the volunteers covers the cost of the volunteer’s stay in addition to providing surplus funding essential for the projects and organisation to continue to operate.

We also work very closely with African Impact, a company of the African Encounter Responsible Tourism Alliance (Lion Encounter is also a member of this alliance). African Impact was started in 2004 at Antelope Park in Zimbabwe. This family run business is the largest on-the-ground facilitator of socially responsible volunteer projects in Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana, Namibia and Madagascar. With over 20 years of experience in African travel, African Impact is the voluntourism arm under the umbrella of the travel group African Encounter.

Learning from our successes and mistakes along the way, in addition to the advice given to us by African impact we now have considerable experience and understanding of sustainable development and of Zambian communities. We are not an ‘aid-agency’ but operate at grass roots level dedicated to building strong relationships with our partners and stakeholders within the communities. This strategy focuses on:

• In depth assessment of community needs;
• Initiating, facilitating and supporting community development projects;
• Empowering communities to become self-sustaining;
• Continuous monitoring, assessing and reviewing with stakeholders to ensure what we are doing is achieving the objectives and truly benefiting the local communities in the most efficient way.

Our volunteer project aims:

• To facilitate the social development and economic upliftment of Africa through carefully designed volunteer projects
• To play a pivotal role in the research and conservation of Africa’s environment
• To provide travellers and volunteers with a holistic African travel and working experience that includes an authentic encounter with local communities
• To see negative perceptions of Africa challenged through the development of cross-cultural relationships, shared experiences and increased awareness and education

We believe whole heartedly in what we do and extremely proud of the projects that we support here in Livingstone. We are in this for the long term, none of this could have been accomplished without our volunteer’s dedication, energy and hard work.

Lion Encounter offers 2 different volunteer projects that you can chose from. You can choose to volunteer on the lion conservation project in either Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe or the Livingstone, Zambia project or our community project in both locations also. As we emphasize the importance of operating our projects with a holistic approach volunteers on the lion conservation project will also be included in the occasional community project and vice versa.
Lion Encounter also offers internship placements, please contact us for more information.

Volunteer with our Lion Project

Lion Encounter offers two options for people wanting to volunteer with us on our lion project. For those with only a few days in Livingstone or Victoria Falls, why not volunteer with us for a few days as a Short Term Volunteer. People wanting to get more involved and spend 2 to 6 weeks with us, living on site, have our long term volunteering option.

Contribute to the welfare and rehabilitation of the cubs as they undertake pre-release training; take part in research and join our conservation education and community programs to involve communities in conservation as part of our holistic approach.

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Volunteer with our Community Project

Contribute to the education and welfare of the local communities, an area rife with poverty and hardships; provide education and guidance to communities on greener living and the importance of wildlife and habitat protection. There is a volunteering community project on both sides of the border (In Livingstone and Victoria Falls) so you can choose which project suits you best. The aims and goals of the programmes are the same, but they differ in specific projects so read on for more info….

(Long term volunteering option only)

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