News

One of our Patrons, the wonderful Diane Keen has courageously signed up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money and awareness for lions! How wonderful is that!!

Diane was born in London but grew up in Africa, first in Tanzania and later in Kenya. Diane considers Africa to be her spiritual home and she has said that if she wasn't working as an actress, she would be working in conservation. In her own words "I think we all have our place in the bigger picture,and a role to play in looking after it."

She will undertake this epic climb on July 9th and we are hoping that everyone will get behind this magnificent effort and help us raise crucial funding to enable us to protect the iconic lion from its slow slide into extinction.

This is an opportunity for everyone to get behind Diane's challenge and help us raise enough money to really make a difference.

The money we raise will be put to very good use and here is a list of some of the work we are doing right now:

♥ Working with the European Parliament to bring an end to canned lion hunting and associated cub petting trade, volunteer market and lion walking business in South Africa. In March we will take part in an important new debate in Brussels.

♥ Working with the European Parliament to ban the importation into the EU of wild lion trophies from Africa. We have already achieved a ban on lion trophies from Benin, Burkina Faso and hopefully Cameroon (the highly endangered western African lions) and now we must concentrate on bringing scientific evidence to support a ban in the remaining lion range States.

♥ Working in Kenya on our innovative and sustainable project to bring an end to the human/wildlife conflict that is one of the most significant threats to our remaining wild lion populations. We hope to start three pilot projects in conflict hotspots in Kenya in April - funds permitting. These pilots will also importantly help alleviate poverty in these areas, bringing much needed electricity and sustainable employment to rural households taking part in the scheme.

♥ Working with the UK Government on  their initiative to combat the Illegal Wildlife Trade. We are already delighted to see that "sustainable employment for communities" is one of the three main pillars of their combat strategy.

♥ Highlighting the cub smuggling trade which feeds the canned hunting industry and the pet trade, particularly to the United Arab Emirates.

♥ Working with school children worldwide through our Skype Classroom programme, to educate and hopefully inspire the next generation to become wildlife conservationists, and along the way, some will become Young Ambassadors for LionAid.

 Everyone can help!!

Even small individual donations to support Diane in this challenge will all mount up. Encourage all your families and friends to join in.

Organise local fundraising activities within your community, local businesses and schools to raise sponsorship money to swell Diane's Kilimanjaro fund.

Click here to DONATE to Diane's Kilimanjaro Climb page on Just Giving