Kenya Holidays Blog

I read an interesting article on the web from The Baltimore Sun regarding “VolunTourism” which combines a holiday with an amount of time giving something back.

Here’s a brief snippet:

“As David Clemmons, founder of VolunTourism .org, frames it: "This is more than just putting heads in beds."
Volunteer vacations or service trips have been around for years in the form of tax-deductible trips arranged by nonprofit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Earthwatch and Global Volunteers.

But volunteer tourism is different. Instead of focusing on away-from-home volunteer projects, often long-term, voluntourism combines a pure holiday - say, a 12-day safari in Africa or a week in New Orleans during Mardi Gras - with a short-term volunteer undertaking”.

When I last visited Kenya I spent some time on the Masai Mara, courtesy of Virgin Holidays and whilst there myself and a number of other travel agents spent a day in a local Masai village painting a new school building.  (I’m about to add a video to the main Kenya Holidays website showing us actually doing it).

So in a way we were taking part in “VolunTourism” without realising.

I can recommend it as we had a great day, met the local people in their own surroundings and put just a little back into the area that we were enjoying from a “tourist” standpoint.

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Reading my favourite Sunday newspaper travel section, (The Observer) I read about “Kahawa Shamba” which is the “favourite eco-escape” of Harriet Lamb, excutive director of The Fairtrade Foundation.

A community-based project built on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, the project aims to bring extra income to the small scale coffee farmers in the region by opening it up to tourism.

Accommodation is in simple chalets, thatched with banana leaves and built in traditional style, and local families look after the guests and cook the meals.

According to Harriet, “It is one of the most beautiful and tranquil places I have ever been”.

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