Responsible travel news from the field - Oasis Overland

Following on from the great success of this event in 2008, we have recently spent a week taking the children from the Hupenyu Hutsva Children’s Home in Harare, Zimbabwe out on a series of day trips. Julie and Nev, two of our Africa crew used one of our overland trucks to take all the children and staff out to the Kuimba Shiri Bird Park. There, they were given a guided tour of the Lake and wildlife, a cooked lunch was provided and the afternoon was rounded off with face painting, games and cricket! According to all accounts the week was a great success-although we’re not sure who enjoyed it most-the children, staff or our crew! Many of the children rarely leave the compound they live on so it was a real adventure for them and a complete break from their normal daily routine.

The week was funded by money raised by our UK office staff. They held a charity comedy night and raised over £1500 (split between Hupenyu Hutsva and a charity local to our UK office.) This was the fourth comedy night they’ve organised and so far they’ve raised almost £4,000 for local and overseas charities. We’re hoping to run another week of day trips next year and our crew are already fighting over who’s going to run it!

We also funded the installation of a borehole at the Home to able them to be far more self-sufficient in food production. They have a huge vegetable patch, which, in the past, has not produced much food as they weren’t able to water it. This year they were actually able to sell a surplus of veg in order to buy meat (a very rare treat).

Jackie, Oasis Overland