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We believe that travel can change lives! Travelling can change you as a person and, if done responsibly, can have a profound affect on the people that you meet and the places that you visit. We want as many people as possible to experience the heart and soul of another culture in the way that we have, and in doing so, help them to make a positive and lasting impact on our world.
Shelter is one of the basic human needs and it’s difficult to imagine a good quality of life that doesn’t include somewhere comfortable to lay your head. Providing good housing is one of the first steps in any meaningful attempt to tackle social problems so your efforts can make a real difference here. This project works in two distinct areas Nakuru and Mount Kenya.
If you are building in one of the established community development projects near Nakuru, you could be laying or repairing the foundations for the community projects with children (orphanages), which will provide an educational centre, accommodation and medical care for the children and community who make their living on the local city dump. Beside the city dump is the community of Hilton where you may be asked to work building shelters for the people living there, often single parents, or grandparents caring for their orphaned grandchildren.
The community in the Naro Moru area of Mount Kenya is working to continue their social programmes supporting people away from offending behaviour, offering additional support to single parents as well as other much needed support. These are true community based projects, where they fundraise, build, and make full use of a variety of buildings. This will open your eyes to the social circumstances of many of the poorest people in rural Kenya. Currently the project is working with a local conservation group to help them build a future accommodation for volunteers increasing their opportunities for help and income.
We do not own or operate any project but simply partner with them to assist in achieving their goals for development. It is this continuous stream of committed volunteers that allows the projects the time to focus on improving the lives of the people they work with. On this project you will be required to work on one of several projects; either (literally) laying the foundations for children’s homes and educational centres, building homes for people currently living on local rubbish dumps or helping a community build a church which will also act as a community centre.
You’ll stay in a locally owned homestay (Nakuru) or hostel (Mount Kenya) ensuring that you directly support the local community while you’re there. You’ll also be supported by your local in-country coordinator; who with their team are best placed to understand the specific economic, social and developmental needs of Kenya and the surrounding areas.
On average half of your placement fee is distributed in-country for the services included with your placement (i.e. local support, food, transport & accommodation) meaning that the local communities are directly benefiting from your travels to their country. We will also use US$75 of your fee to purchase 6 bags of cement, 5 tons of sand or equivalent through our Big Giving programme. Often the great work of our projects can be limited by a lack of resources which can be simple things such as text books or mattresses. Big Giving is our way of helping these projects and providing them with the physical items that they really need – and that's on top of the hard work of our volunteers! We believe that it's important for all of our projects to be sustainable in their own right and for that reason we do not donate items that would encourage dependence on us. What Big Giving will provide are items we know are genuinely required by projects to help improve lives or meet goals. If money is paid directly to projects then they may become dependent on that income. If that country or project becomes unpopular, or through restrictions in the opportunity to travel to that country, the money dries up and they are no longer able to continue with their work. Supplying projects with enthusiastic volunteers creates a constant supply of helpful hands and as they are not reliant on an income can continue without the assistance of the volunteer travellers, although significantly slower in achieving their goals.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
