Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
Community:
All our trekking itineraries employ local guides and we have trained and consulted with those guides quite extensively to improve their service. We also take in a wide range of community based activities. All activities involve locals engaged in traditional crafts and trades, allowing them to gain some extra income from their traditional livelihoods by participating in the tourism industry.
Tourism in southern Ethiopia has been widely criticised due to marginalisation and alienation of host communities, for this reason we seek to include the host community of Konso in its activities to the greatest possible extent, allowing them to gain financial rewards but also to meet and interact with tourists more deeply so that they appreciate their visitors are real people not just white men flashing cameras from the windows of 4WDs. All payments made to community service providers are agreed in advance and paid by the local guides, so there is no scope for disagreement and the community is aware of the benefits of the trekking, so expecting guests will offer a far more welcoming face than when tourists just turn up uninvited. Controlling the kids is the main way in which this is expressed.
On this trek you will also visit the project of Mr Korra Gara, a local intellectual and author with an extensive knowledge of Konso’s extensive ethnobotany (the traditional use of plants), who has set up a special seed saving and information centre to preserve the traditional uses of native plants by the Konso community. We actively support this project through our program and you will have a chance to offer further support through a donation.
Environment:
We are actively engaged in Permaculture; an integrated ecological resource management system for sustainable land use and food production – encompassing soil conservation and water harvesting, seed-saving, tree nursery and vegetable garden development, appropriate technologies and promotion of indigenous knowledge. We give training in Permaculture (PC) to local school teachers and assist with implementation of PC in schools in Konso in a project run in partnership with Save the Children Finland.
Our trekking itineraries will also take in (upon request) some of our Permaculture implementation sites including Sawgume Primary School but also our demonstration farm (the first in Ethiopia) which is on the eco lodge site itself. We also run a Permaculture internship program for local high school students from Karat which is Konso’s administrative capital, ½km away.
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!
