Social / Cultural Impact and local employment
We focus much of our responsible tourism efforts on human and social issues and needs. In order to ensure sustainability of itineraries that incorporate so much involvement in local communities and grass roots operations, we conceptualized and implemented a mechanism now called The Spirit of Africa Humanitarian Initiative (SOAHI).
The SOAHI s a vehicle for humanitarian aid delivery in South Africa to deserving and largely community-based programmes, projects, initiatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and organizations (collectively referred to as “initiatives”) that are contributing to the upliftment and development of the country and its people.
The objective is to fund and otherwise support worthwhile and resource-constrained initiatives that address a wide range of essential community issues and needed services. The primary goal is that this funding and support should make a measurable difference to the lives of less fortunate South Africans.
We donate a fee into the SOAHI for every guest it travels on any of its programmes and itineraries.
Other examples of how we practice responsible tourism:
Local employment – we only employ local guides and try to make sure that where more than one guide is needed for a group (either due to size or changing locations) we use guides from different ethnic and language groups. We further utilize expert guides for specific communities or activities such as Soweto/township guides and Zulu-speaking guides at the Durban Muti Market, game rangers etc.
Local restaurants – are used wherever possible in itineraries where content is located in communities. Meals at shebeens are a highlight that we included long before it became popular.
Locally owned accommodation – is used wherever appropriate.
Local flavour – is included by ensuring that menu’s contain local dishes to expose foreigners to the full spectrum of local character.
Informal interaction and contact – is encouraged and included by planning meals in the homes of ordinary South African families. This is unstructured time and allows for spontaneous inter-cultural and international bridge-building.
Information – is shared with all groups by mans of a comprehensive “in-country briefing” where you are given open, honest, inclusive and reliable information about the country, it’s people, history and contemporary life. We try to educate you, our guests, about local culture and where necessary make you aware of how they should behave to respect it. We help you to show respect by teaching them local words and phrases.
Cultural inclusivity– we have always strived through our tours to expose visitors to the full spectrum of South African culture. Hence we have included time spent with Sangomas (traditional healers), at muti markets, in townships and participating in drumming sessions. Our pamphlet on local “South Africanisms” (using words in different languages) also helps opening visitors to cultural inclusivity.
Tangible/material assistance – is provided by donating all our unused IT and other hardware to community service providers. This is a critical need in a country where people do not have access to fixed phone lines and electricity in their homes.
Entrepreneurship support – we promote and support emerging entrepreneurs in local communities by supporting their tourism services and products (such as township tours and restaurants).
Buying power – we buy hand-made beaded craft items as corporate gifts directly from handicapped and disadvantaged crafters as well as supplying them to our clients so that the crafter’s sales can increase. Our support of one such crafter has provided him with the means to support his family and receive a steady monthly income - a far cry from his previous unemployed status.
No exploitation - We approach representatives of the organisations we work with to ensure that they are satisfied that the relationship is mutually sustainable and beneficial.
Involvement – where appropriate and possible we have included local, disadvantaged youth in foreign visiting student programmes so they too get to experience the beauty and benefits of their own country while also learning more about the greater world around them. This exposes them to new experiences and international awareness and interaction.
On this trip you will spend four days volunteering in a diverse array of inspiring projects in and around Cape Town. These include being a reading partner in an impoverished school, where you help on a one-to-one basis, or helping with repair and maintenance work in an AIDS orphanage in a township. Or, you could help in a community kitchen, preparing the meals and making the deliveries. This should prove to be the highlight of your trip as you get to interact meaningfully with the local community, and make a positive impact in their lives.
A minimum of 10% of our profits goes straight into funding our Community Development volunteer project partners. All costs of materials and administration are included in the trip price.
Environmental Impact
Recycling – we recycle our major consumables such as paper and printer products, donate hardware and use low-energy light bulbs. We try to rely on electronic communication and services to reduce material consumption.
All our trips are 100% carbon neutral – meaning that even though you don’t book your flights through us, we will pay for the equivalent number of trees to be planted to cancel the CO2 emissions from the flights, and also from the tour vehicles.
Responsible Tourism Policy
Economic Responsibility:
• Use of Local Guides: We are committed to using local guides, and we are committed to the training and mentoring of local people with the potential to become guides. Our guides are trained in responsible tourism and will help our travellers to be both culturally and environmentally sensitive.
• Retention of trip costs in local communities: We are committed to investing in local communities, and we aim to retain a significant portion of our travellers’ trip cost in the destination country. We contract with tour operators that use, wherever possible, locally owned and operated hotels and restaurants. We offer opportunities for travellers to purchase local crafts and food, and our guides will provide guidance on appropriate places to shop for these.
• Hands-on community development work: All of our trips involve a component of community development volunteering, and as such, our travellers have an opportunity to contribute directly to the local communities they visit.
In addition, a portion of each traveller’s trip cost goes to support the development project for that trip. For instance, where our travellers are building a house, the cost of the materials required is included in the trip cost.
In other areas, the trip cost includes a donation to the charity supported by that trip. Our development projects are carefully selected in conjunction with local charities to ensure that your work will be of maximum benefit to the local community, and are also projects that involve you working side-by-side with the local people to improve their circumstances – part of our philosophy that help should be a “hand up” and not a “hand out.”
• In addition, we have established a charitable trust to support our community partners on an ongoing, sustainable basis; we hope that this will provide our travellers with an opportunity to maintain a vital link with the community development projects in which you participated. We are committed to investing a portion of our profits into this charity, and we cover 100% of the administrative expenses associated with the charity so that your donations go directly towards the projects.
• Carefully thought-through projects: Our volunteer projects are designed so that even if you have no specific skills, you can make a difference, but if you do have specific skills, we will match those wherever possible and put you to good use!
Environmental Responsibility:
• Sustainable travel: We are committed to sustainability, in the communities in which we operate and in the ecosystems we encounter. We seek to minimise the impact of our trips by minimising and properly disposing of waste created, by conserving energy and water, and by ensuring that endangered wildlife and environmentally compromised areas are treated with respect.
• Environmentally-focused community development projects: In a number of destination countries, the community development aspect of our trip is directly focused on improving the natural environment. These projects include gardening, planting trees, harvesting crops, or helping preserve endangered animals.
• Small group size: Our independent travel options and small group sizes help us to tread lightly and to use more environmentally sound forms of transport, minimizing impact, and ideally enriching the environment.
• Carbon Neutral: A way we seek to conserve the environment is by including an “eco-contribution” in the price of our tours. We pay for this on behalf of you, our guests. The amount of this eco-contribution is based on a calculation of the carbon dioxide emissions from the flights required to participate in our tour and will pay for the planting of the equivalent number of native trees that will soak up the carbon dioxide emissions – where practical, you will even have the option of planting the tree/s yourselves.
• Environmental training: Many of our guides are trained in principles of environmental sustainability and will offer travellers tips on how to conserve water, reduce waste, and otherwise minimize the environmental impact of their trip. We hope that our travellers will be able to take some of the conservation tips they learn from our guides home with them.
• Corporate recycling/energy policy: Wherever possible, we use recycled paper and recycle waste created in the office, as well as attempting to minimise waste created and be a “paperless” office. We also work to minimise energy and water consumption in our offices, and we encourage our partners to follow similar waste management and energy philosophies.
Social Responsibility:
• Pre-Trip Information: We send each traveller a pre-departure pack, describing the destination country, its history, cultural norms, and general health and visa requirements. We also provide important practical information such as how to pack and dress appropriately, what to expect when encountering the local populations, how much money they will need to bring, etc.. We encourage travellers to try to learn a few phrases in the local language(s) before they arrive. Most importantly, we encourage all of our travellers to arrive with an open mind and to be prepared to have their world-views gently challenged by the new cultures they will encounter.
• Cultural Sensitivity: An important benefit of using local guides during our trips is the training they can provide to travellers in cultural sensitivity. Our guides will coach our travellers in general best practices (e.g. how to avoid encouraging a “begging” mentality, how to be sensitive in photographing local people, etc.) as well as specific tips on how to avoid running afoul of local customs. Wherever possible, we schedule the community development component of our tours in the middle of the trip, so that travellers will have a chance to acclimate to their new environment and learn how to behave in a culturally sensitive manner prior to this part of the trip, where the interaction with the local community is particular intense.
• Protection of Child Welfare: For those community development project that involve interaction with children, we require a police check to be carried out by the traveller, in order to project the children from physical, emotional, or sexual harm.
• Homestays and Language Immersion: On some of our itineraries, we are able to offer travellers a chance (entirely optional) to stay in the home of a local family, thereby achieving a unique level of cultural exchange. Travellers wishing to participate in a home stay will receive special instruction from their local guides to prepare them for the experience. In addition, through our tailormade trip offerings, we are able to offer interested travellers a chance to participate in an intensive language immersion program in either Spanish (Latin American destinations) or French (Vanuatu).
• Community Development: In addition to the community development component of each of our trips, we also encourages our
employees to volunteer in their own communities and will offer each employee a half-day per week to participate in such projects. In addition, we encourage our staff to participate in our community development projects through partially subsidised holidays for staff and their families.
• Volunteering where you live: Part of our vision is to enable you to experience how fulfilling and rewarding volunteering is, and to be inspired to volunteer for longer periods of time, and to volunteer where you live. We have information on suitable volunteer projects in the UK, such as teaching English to refugees, which we make available to all our guests.
