Tanzania conservation & community projects

We ensure that all our programmes work with the full agreement of local elders and that volunteer’s work side by side amongst the community. Volunteers live in the community. We pay the communities for looking after volunteers and every volunteer has a donation to the community included in the cost – currently £80 per person. This is used to buy materials to build classrooms, pay for education fees and so on. We also work alongside local charities as often as we can supporting their aims. All volunteers and Project Leaders are fully briefed on the destination, host community, local culture, religions, customs and particularly ways of behaving.

We ensure that approximately 65% of the cost of each volunteers scheme is paid to the project leader in-country to cover all their in-country costs. This includes paying local communities for food and accommodation. In Tanzania volunteers live with a family who are paid for all meals and every night’s accommodation. In addition we pay communities a donation as described above and source all food, drink, equipment, fuel locally thereby enhancing the local economy. Through the income we pay the communities we do as much as we can to provide local people with jobs, cutting down on unemployment and providing families with an income. Sometimes this income supports numerous relations. We also recognize that volunteers spend their own money on drinks, transport, souvenirs, services (taxis), medical care, park fees, activities e.g. rafting, diving, climbing etc which are major contributors to local suppliers incomes and the overall economy.

One of the main negative impacts of our volunteers traveling, is the carbon dioxide created from flights. We work with a 'carbon neutral' charity to help ensure that an amount of carbon is sequestered through tree planting or the promotion of low energy technologies. While our volunteers and customers are overseas, we identify and encourage simple steps to minimize their impact on the local environment.

All foodstuffs are bought locally and resources such as heating in camps where possible is done in an environmentally friendly fashion e.g. solar panels. In addition rain water is collected for drinking water. Clothes washing is done where possible with bio-degradable soap.