Gap year & career breaks to the Himalayas

This venture supports the Mandore Village community project. Western Rajastan and the Thar Desert area of India is economically very poor. The Bishnoi are a community of indigenous people who live in scattered villages around the edge of the Thar desert. Health and education facilities are basic, and life tends to revolve around the village well or the temple. As India develops at an ever increasing rate, these rural communities are at risk of being left behind and being caught in a poverty trap.Our project partner in Rajasthan is the Marwar Medical & Relief Society (MMRS) who aim to improve the lives of the Bishnoi community by improving the basic infrastructure within their schools. MMRS believe that education is at the heart of socio-economic improvement. Working with MMRS, this Himalaya Venture project brings people together to share skills, creativity and learning for the betterment of Bishnois village schools. The Project will also provides fuel-efficient stoves and modified corn-grinding querns to family homes in the village.

As well as our guides you are also accompanied by local guides and project partners. Groups are kept to a maximum of sixteen people, big enough to help the local communities, but not big enough to have a negative affect themselves. Back in the UK we also have our own environmental policy and we believe this is where responsible travel should start, prior to departure. It is simple things that help and perhaps the biggest impact in the office comes from recycling paper, as a rule where possible we print on both sides of paper and it is not until it is completely beyond use that we then send it to be recycled.

All our development projects have been carefully chosen to satisfy several criteria. They are of definable and sustainable benefit to the indigenous community and allow us the opportunity to work in tandem with the host community. Funding for the projects comes directly from our Trust. For each person that joins us, we, as a company, give at least US $400 to the Trust. 100% of the money the Trust receives is spent on the projects.

All development projects are over-seen by a resident Project Manager whose role is to co-ordinate the adventures, the funding and the project's objectives.

We are committed to direct patronage within the local economies of the countries in which we operate. We pay local tutors to teach languages; accommodation throughout the adventure is in locally owned hostels or based in the project locations; and the entire expedition budget will be spent by the team at local "grass roots" level.