Indochina holidays, tailor made

People

Three decades of war in Cambodia have left scars in many forms throughout the country. Unfortunately, one of the most lasting legacies of the conflicts continues to claim new victims daily. Land mines, laid by the Khmer Rouge, the Heng Samrin and Hun Sen regimes, the Vietnamese, the KPNLF, and the Sihanoukists litter the countryside. In most cases, even the soldiers who planted the mines did not record where they were placed. Now, Cambodia has the one of the highest rates of physical disability of any country in the world. While census data for Cambodia is sketchy, it is generally accepted that more than 40,000 Cambodians have suffered amputations as a result of mine injuries since 1979.

That represents an average of nearly forty victims a week for a period of twenty years. We are proud to support 2 NGO’s dedicated to helping eradicate this problem. The first, Adopt-a-minefield is an NGO that saves and improves lives by raising funds to clear landmines and help landmine survivors in various places and around the world. The second organisation is the Mines advisory group (MAG), is an international implementing NGO for the MAT Project in Quang Binh Province. MAG clears and destroys the landmines and left-over weapons that make areas unsafe after war. Each Mines Advisory Group mobile Mine Action Team (MAT) removes the burden of mine disposal from the local villagers and provides immediate assistance in the removal of all reported items from within household areas, villages and communities.

By incorporating home-stays, locally owned hotels, restaurants and the services of guides into our itineraries, we ensure that money goes directly into the local economy and local communities benefit from tourism. We also supports emergency relief efforts in the areas we travel to, such as the Pakistan Earthquake Fund set up in 2005 and a variety of other community benefiting NGOs around the world.

In order to facilitate an enduring support structure for the communities we visit, and to show a commitment to these values, we have set up a charitable foundation through which we can channel funds to both existing NGOs and our own development projects. In addition to organising ethically sensitive Indian cultural tours, having our own charitable foundation allows us to raise money – through the cost of our tours, charity trips and fund raising events – which can then be used to fund various projects in education, sanitation, reforestations and a number of other important issues facing developing communities. Wherever possible we are happy for our clients to visit these projects to see for themselves where and how this money is being spent.