July 14th is World Chimpanzee Day, a day dedicated to chimpanzee research and the wonderful species that they are. This year, a group of Laidlaw Scholars celebrated World Chimpanzee Day with the Kasiisi Project and the Kibale Forest Schools Project while on their LiA experience in Uganda. These celebrations included two weeks of preparatory visits by the KFSP Conservation Education Team who provided each of the 16 KFSP-affiliated schools with educational games and materials on chimpanzee behavior and threats. On the 14th, the scholars then visited two schools to watch the skits, dances, poems, and crafts that the children in the School Wildlife Clubs had created to teach the rest of the school community about chimpanzees and the need to protect the animals and their habitat.

This video created by the Laidlaw scholars on the Conservation Education Team details the preparations for this day and the Kasiisi Project’s mission to conserve Kibale National Park through the education and empathy of primary school children in the KFSP schools that surround the protected habitat. If you are interested in learning more about the Kasiisi Project, information about the program can be found here: https://laidlawscholars.network/documents/project-deep-dives-leadership-in-action-with-the-kasiisi-project.

Video Director/Editor: Zhang Yichuan      
Video Producer: Eavan O’Keeffe
Video Contributors: Maddy Beck, Luke Sewell, Theo O'Connell