Gap year expedition in Kenya
| country: | Kenya |
| departures: | 2008: 4 Nov 2009: 9 Jan, 3 Feb, 3 Mar, 2 Apr, 1 May, 2 Jun, 3 Jul, 3 Aug, 3 Sep, 1 Oct, 2 Nov |
| price: | From £1550 - £2850 (1 - 3 months) based on itinerary and length of stay, excluding flights. 18-24 years only. We can help arrange flights from UK. |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Whether you stay with us for 1 month or 3, you will rotate through our community and wildlife camps and have the opportunity to trek mountains and dive the Indian Ocean with gappers from UK, Australia and Europe. Our camps have been established in partnership with rural African communities and we continue to fund ongoing projects and sustainable development everywhere we operate.
Highlights
Community projects, including construction, teaching and sports Working safari at Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary 3-day big game safari included 7 day Primate conservation Inc in 2 and 3 month trip 5 day Marine conservation Inc in 2 and 3 month trip Indian Ocean beach and Kenya bush location Opportunities to scuba dive or mountain trek
The Community project work focus’s on developing rural schools, for example, Muhaka Primary School where most of the children you will work with come from large families that survive on less than a dollar a day. The work will vary however you should get the chance to teach basic lessons and assist in the classrooms, play sports after school, renovate the dilapidated school buildings as well plant trees for future resources and constructing classroom furniture.
You will typically spend 4-5 days at Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary and the focus is to develop wildlife initiatives, which benefit the local communities and in turn the elephants.
Highlights
Producing elephant dung paper products that can be sold to increase revenues for the Sanctuary. Regular monitoring of the elephants and reporting any welfare concerns to the Kenya Wildlife Services. Developing wildlife education programmes for the surrounding communities to try and reduce human-wildlife conflict.
The Primate Conservation course offers an informative and entertaining insight into ways of conserving these amazing animals. This course is run in partnership with The Colobus Trust and WWF and is an ideal extension if you wish to stay longer than the one moth programme.
Highlights
Practical conservation techniques Inc clearance of invasive plant species, tree planting, removal of illegally set mammal snares, and marking boundaries of managed areas. Habitat and diet study of 4 primate species in the Diani area. Nocturnal primate census – The study of Galagoes (or ‘Bushbabies’).
The Marine Conservation programme looks at the coastal ecosystem of Kenya and its rich biological resources including long white sandy beaches, diverse coral reefs and mangroves, a rich cultural history and traditions, and abundant marine and terrestrial wildlife. The coastal ecosystem of Kenya is listed as one of the top 25 Global Biodiversity Hotspots - harbouring more species of plant and animal life than anywhere in the world.
Highlights
Wildlife Spotting, Whale Sharks, Dolphins & Turtles Shoreline Safaris & Beach Clean-ups Environmental education workshops with local schools
‘Safari’ is the Swahili word for journey and no visit to Africa is truly complete without one. Your three day Big Game Safari will take you 3 hours to the Tsavo region through the Kenyan Bush to search for some of the spectacular wildlife Kenya has to offer. Additional ocean activities can be booked and paid for before you travel but can also be added on at any stage of your placement (Subject to availability).
If trekking up mountains is more your thing for an additional cost you have the option of trekking for 5 days up Mount Kenya, the highest mountain in Kenya at 4985 metres. If that is not a big enough challenge a seven day trek up Kilimanjaro at an altitude of 5895 metres should meet even the most adventurous persons expectations and with our success rate of over 95% your chances of reaching the summit are pretty good!
Highlights
The Community project work focus’s on developing rural schools, for example, Muhaka Primary School where most of the children you will work with come from large families that survive on less than a dollar a day. The work will vary however you should get the chance to teach basic lessons and assist in the classrooms, play sports after school, renovate the dilapidated school buildings as well plant trees for future resources and constructing classroom furniture.
You will typically spend 4-5 days at Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary and the focus is to develop wildlife initiatives, which benefit the local communities and in turn the elephants.
Highlights
The Primate Conservation course offers an informative and entertaining insight into ways of conserving these amazing animals. This course is run in partnership with The Colobus Trust and WWF and is an ideal extension if you wish to stay longer than the one moth programme.
Highlights
The Marine Conservation programme looks at the coastal ecosystem of Kenya and its rich biological resources including long white sandy beaches, diverse coral reefs and mangroves, a rich cultural history and traditions, and abundant marine and terrestrial wildlife. The coastal ecosystem of Kenya is listed as one of the top 25 Global Biodiversity Hotspots - harbouring more species of plant and animal life than anywhere in the world.
Highlights
‘Safari’ is the Swahili word for journey and no visit to Africa is truly complete without one. Your three day Big Game Safari will take you 3 hours to the Tsavo region through the Kenyan Bush to search for some of the spectacular wildlife Kenya has to offer. Additional ocean activities can be booked and paid for before you travel but can also be added on at any stage of your placement (Subject to availability).
If trekking up mountains is more your thing for an additional cost you have the option of trekking for 5 days up Mount Kenya, the highest mountain in Kenya at 4985 metres. If that is not a big enough challenge a seven day trek up Kilimanjaro at an altitude of 5895 metres should meet even the most adventurous persons expectations and with our success rate of over 95% your chances of reaching the summit are pretty good!
volunteer travel - what's it all about?
Are you are looking for an adventurous trip with a purpose, or on a gap year or career break? If you want to make a difference in some of the world’s most important conservation areas - and in community projects - then volunteer trips are for you! Volunteers tend to have a sense of adventure, and come from a range of different backgrounds and from all over the world. Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'.
highly commended
This tourism business was Highly Commended in our 2007 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards - the largest awards of their kind in the world, and organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine, of the Royal Geographical Society.Since 2004, the Awards has recognised individuals, companies and organisations in travel making a big commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and helping to conserve biodiversity.
how this holiday makes a difference
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Highly Commended in the Responsible Tourism Awards 2007, Best Volunteering Organisation category, we own our ground operation, which means we have complete control over the integrity of our projects and the quality of the experiences we provide. We additionally subsidise our philanthropic objectives through additional funds raised by our Charitable Trust.
Your participation on this tour provides a significant contribution to indigenous communities, environment and wildlife. Achievements include the completion of a three year programme at Makongeni Primary School, an area where over 60% of the community lives below the poverty line and few children have access to education. By improving learning facilities, providing better sanitation and clean drinking water, as well as offering 17 scholarships to enable children to progress on to secondary education, attendance has risen by 75%. In addition to this incidences of water-borne diseases have been reduced for more than 500 families in the surrounding communities as a result of the clean water which has been provided. We are now donating the entire camp to the community to enable them to run their own eco-tourism initiative. With the success of Makongeni behind us we have moved our focus to Muhaka Primary School where we have already seen a 100% increase in attendance at the local school and with your help soon hope to mirror the success of Makongeni. Our initiatives in Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary, which include producing Elephant dung paper using waste paper collected from eight major coastal hotels, have generated revenue for the community and provided protection for the animals. Your assistance in the vaccination of chickens and de-worming of goats will help to reduce poaching in the area and with your help we can build on our current achievement of planting 70,000 trees to provide communities with firewood and building materials and to offset our carbon footprint. Our Team in Africa originates from the host country and their passion for sustainable development of their communities and environment is inspiring. Camp Managers such as Eustace in Kenya are the local guys that make our experiences unique. They provide advice on conduct, language training and skilled project managers such as Combo and Donald work alongside you on projects. This interaction creates a unique bond between you and the Community and leaves you feeling a guest not a tourist. 100% of fresh produce and project materials are sourced from sustainable local supplies, stimulating entrepreneurial activity which in turn improves investment and living standards in the local area. Group sizes are kept small to reduce any negative impact. Our programmes combine Community work and Wildlife Conservation in an uncompromising way. Our commitment to the environment does not stop in Africa our UK office is dedicated to saving energy and have systems in place to deliver shredded recycled paper to local pet shops for bedding! In short, our commitment to local people and the environment is not a by-product of our programmes but core to everything we do - we adhere to the Responsible Tourism code of practice and encourage everyone we work with to do the same. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |