Sabre Charitable Trust

How the minimum criteria of the responsible travel standard was met...

Economic responsibility

• We charge a flat fee in the UK of £300 per volunteer placement, all other funds are paid directly to the community liaison/volunteer management team. In each of the communities we work with there is a team of 4 people who are responsible for managing volunteers. They are all local Ghanaians and in nearly every case, community members.
• For our trips, we use locally hired vehicles or in some cases ones that are lent to us by hosting communities. We adopt a policy where by we take in everything we need and leave nothing we don't need. This way we impact minimally on what the community uses/needs for itself
• All the places we stay are either Ghanaian owned Guesthouses or Community Based Eco-tourism Sites (Initiative developed by the NCRC, USAID and the Peacecorp which we have been supporting since 2003)

Environmental responsibility

• Most of the places we stay do not have electricity or running water so their 'Environmental policies' are part of daily life. For those places that we stay in cities (start and end of trip), we are trying to engage them in effecting change, but this often takes much longer than one hopes! We also have a policy of not using the same city accommodation every time, we aim to ensure that what money we spend in Ghana is spread as evenly as possible.
• We don't have an office, we work from home. All light bulbs in our homes are energy efficient, all white goods have low energy consumption. We recycle anything we print, but the quantities of documents we print is minimal. Any one taking part in a trip only receives PDF documents.
• We are looking at partnering with a local farmers union in Ghana to plant trees and are looking to engage UK companies to buy our energy savings through the carbon offset scheme.

Social responsibility

• Over the last four years we have worked with only three communities as part of a 5-10year development plan. This has built up enormous trust on both sides and shows a deep level of commitment to each of the communities. Volunteers and trips focus on specific needs that have been highlighted by the community development team (generally the elders committee). The skills of volunteers are then matched to one or several of these projects that they can realistically effect a positive outcome in the time they have available.
• We are a partner organisation to Comhlamh, YET, KBYG Campaign and are about to confirm a long-term development plan with NCRC in Ghana. We are also working towards the creation of a Ghana based volunteer network to develop systems and practices for international and local organisations working on local community projects.
• In 2008 we are being observed by another student from Cambridge University Geography department as part of an annual assessment of volunteer organisations in Ghana. The last study, actually the first, was conducted last summer and out of the local and international organisations observed, Sabre Trust came out on top for its ethical, environmental and community focused support.