CAMPS INTERNATIONAL WINS THE PRESTIGIOUS “OUTSTANDING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE” GLOBAL ANGELS AWARD

CAMPS INTERNATIONAL WINS THE PRESTIGIOUS “OUTSTANDING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE” GLOBAL ANGELS AWARD

Responsible Profit is Possible

Responsible Profit is Possible

Camps International will shortly be celebrating 10 years of operating responsible school and gap year expeditions across the globe. What started in 2002 as as a small operation on the coast of Kenya has grown to include camps in Borneo, Cambodia, Tanzania, Uganda and more recently Ecuador. Traditionally the summer season was the reserve of UK based schools, however as the message about our unique brand of responsible tourism has spread so has the location of traveling schools. In the last few years we have welcomed students from Australia, China, Vietnam and even Kenya. Dipesh Pabari our Africa Operations Manager was asked by the Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) to write a piece on Responsible school tourism for Connections magazine. He has since delivered this article as a talk at the Annual conference in Nairobi. See the article below.

“As we wound down our summer season with a big smile of satisfaction and some relief, I could not help but think how middle class high school Kenyan students would fit into a program like ours. Most of our hip youth loathe the thought of spending a long weekend in ‘shags’ let alone spending a month planting trees and digging toilets. Then I wondered whether this lot who spend their holidays hanging out in Nairobi’s shopping malls would feel about spending a month in the south of France picking grapes in a vineyard or working on a sheep farm in the UK? Would this appeal to them?

Over the course of two months we hosted about 650 students from the UK in Kenya and Tanzania who spent a month in country working hard and playing hard. I recalled scenes of 30-40 pairs of hands digging away under the baking sun as they eagerly tried to complete their target on a trench in yet another neglected primary school on the periphery of Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary. I remembered another group who sang through the entire six days of laying blocks for a classroom in a little primary school tucked away on the South Coast and I smiled thinking about the team who refused to stop working until they finished breaking the old concrete of a massive water tank for cattle that was to be restored for elephants on Rukinga Ranch.

This was my third full-blown season with Camps International – a responsible Travel company that operates its own camps and projects across the Coast Province in Kenya and around the Arusha-Moshi region in northern Tanzania. With the primary clientele being under 18 high school students from the UK, one is immediately inclined to wonder how you would convince a teenager who has just completed high school to spend their first month of freedom taking bucket baths and digging holes in the African outback.

And equally important, is the enigma that 95% of these students actually fundraise and work odd jobs for over a year to save up and come out for these trips. This is not mommy and daddy paying to get rid of little Johnny for the summer. This is someone who believes that this is the right thing to do: a young mind who chooses to spend a month working on various projects that they may or may not see to completion on a continent that they have never set foot on and in the case of Kenya, probably the only thing they have heard is that people were hacking one another to pieces over some rigged election less than two years ago.

Expeditions such as the ones Camps International offer are part of a growing trend across the globe. For those that work in the industry, you will be very familiar with the ‘Gap Year’ industry which is all about offering young people a useful holiday which gives them exposure to new cultures and societies and hands on experience with various ‘problems’ from wildlife conservation to community development in parts of the world like ours – the so-called Third World. In the UK, taking a ‘gap year’ has become so much the norm that one would be considered weird if they went straight to University out of High School.

Like any other trend, the gap industry has not been spared from the critical gaze of the media, which keeps a tab on just how these expeditions are packaged. It’s a necessary evil that keep its eye on the profit moguls for like anything else that operates in regions like ours, it is so easy to turn pictures of swollen bellies and fly infested children or elephants grazing peacefully on the savanna landscape into profit.  As a Kenyan, I loathe what Africa has become in the western eyes (more so because we allowed it to happen) and thus approached entry into the responsible travel industry very cautiously.

Having worked in the not-for-profit sector for the past 15 years, words like ‘sustainable’, ‘eco’, ‘responsible’ ‘community’ had long since become a cryptic crossword divorced from the reality that they are used to describe. Most people who are not in the NGO are very skeptical about this do-good industry but that is another discussion. Suffice to say, that from where I am sitting now in a company that employs over 60 people and spends millions of shillings building schools, creatingincome generating activities for various local youth groups and women’s groups, repairs water tanks for elephants, builds new homes for widows and the elderly, plants thousands of trees and still manages to make some profit – I would like to think that those countless workshops and conferences that led to trends like ‘responsible travel’ and ‘sustainable tourism’ have actually played their part in creating what I hope one day will be the norm and not the exception.”

411MixTV - Sports Development Exchange 2011

A Level Results - What to do next, Volunteer?

There is a lot of media coverage at the moment covering the value and necessity of a gap year. With University fees going up to £9k a year in 2012 its worth a bit of debate on the issue...
Does this spell the end of the Gap Year? Our answer is NO...
If you want to see the world, enjoy yourself and make new friends we've got no problem with that. If you want to improve the world you visit, enhance the lives of your new friends and enjoy yourself then you simply must talk to us.
Our camps are uniquely co-located within communities and wildlife areas, away from the main tourist circuit, enabling all our volunteers to become part of the local community and experience complete cultural immersion as a guest, not a tourist!
According to a recent survey two thirds of our  volunteers raised 75% or more of their funds through fundraising. This isn't about parents writing a cheque, this is about independence, self esteem and most importantly showing initiative. We want our volunteers to travel with us with the same sense of pride that we take to work each day. The average Camps International volunteer will have shed blood sweat and tears to make this opportunity a reality before they even set foot on a plane.
To give you an idea of  what you can achieve over the last 2 months our Gap Year and School volunteers have:

• Planted over 7500 trees worldwide
• Constructed 8 traditional houses for impoverished local people in Kenya
• Made desks and chairs for 400 students in four schools
• Provide 30,000litres of water storage and catchment
• Renovated and rebuilt 7 classrooms in four different schools

Not to mention the collection and recycling of tonnes of marine refuse, micro finance initiatives, anti jigger campaigns, adult literacy classes etc etc.
If you haven't done as well as you'd hoped in your results or been turned down by your chosen university put yourself in their position.
Would I like to accept or employ someone who has...

• Volunteered to make a difference to others less fortunate
• Volunteered to help the environment
• Volunteered to protect endangered wildlife
• Chosen a company that employs 150+ local staff full time in Africa, Asia and South America

Most importantly, someone who has learnt to raise their own funds for their trip. It doesn't matter if you sat in a bath tub of baked beans, washed cars, flipped burgers or even set up your own jewellery shop. These are life skills that no-one is going to turn down, what are you waiting for! Camps International are here to help you every step of the way.
Don't forget you can also do the ASDAN award for 70 UCAS ASDAN points or take the universities award. So go on select an ethical company that will improve your CV, boost your independence and give you the time of your life.
Give us a call now and have a chat about the rest of you life...0844 800 1127 or use the enquiry formprovided.

One week to go

Very exciting times at Camps International as we say hello to hundreds of excited school groups heading out on their expeditions across the globe. We have school groups traveling to Borneo, Cambodia, Kenya and Tanzania. On JUly 3rd the first groups travel and will be heading off to take part in reforestation projects, Community work and wildlife conservation. As an added bonus some will come back having climbed some of Africa's highest peaks including Mt Kenya and Meru or having gained their PADI open water certificate. Good luck to you all.

Gap Year photographs from Camp Kenya with Camps International

From the Field

Leila Berney is a three month gap student from Australia who has been with us for a few weeks now. We met when she just arrived and could see straight away that her passion is the lens. I am sure you will all share my sentiments that these are really special…

World Environment Day

Muhaka Islamic Primary School

Community Toilets

Team Toilet!

See more of Leila’s collection HERE. 

Mantanani Island Marine Awareness camp Gap Year and Shools

Mantanani Island Marine Awareness Learning Centre

June 17th, 2011 by Rory

Since we started out on Mantanani a few years ago, we have been looking to build an iconic symbol cum learning centre cum adventure playground as a hub for our growing Marine Awareness Programme.  Our ultimate aim is for the community of Mantanani to take over the stewardship of their own marine environment, the surrounding lagoon, reef  and its once rich marine life.  And these things dont happen over night!  So, slowly, very gradually, we are starting to raise awareness of the importance of caring for the environment and the issues that it faces every day.  We felt the children were a good place to start and we originally hit on a brain wave one warm evening sat on the veranda of the chief’s house – an iconic hub which would be a fun place to be, play, hang out and ultimately learn.  And so the seed was sown and it has grown, evolved, been cut back, sprouted again until now we have something very special.  

Our good friends at Arkitrek, who have been behind a lot of our designs for our camps and associated projects, pulled together a small team of budding architects to design and build our Learning Centre.  The trip was co-run between Camps International and Arkitrek, with us providing the infrastructure and logistical framework, and Arkitrek running the camp itself and all the technical aspects of the project.

You can read all about the exploits of the Arkitrek team that designed and built the Learning Centre on the following blog entries by Richard who is a local writer and who spent the 3 weeks of the camp working with the architects.  Some of these pictures are from Richard and other members of the Arkitrek team.

Part 1 – Coming together and briefing

Part 2 – Arrival on Mantanani

Part 3 – Plans & work starts

Part 4 – Taking shape

Part 5 – The finished article

The brief to the team was very open and we have been rewarded with an incredible structure – it is so much more than a mere structure – it has character, everywhere you look are different textures and styles, all beautifully linked to the local environment.  You can sit and look at the incredible shapes and size of the driftwood beams, uprights and wall cladding, marvel at the texture of the driftwood footings and their maze of knots, holes and termite tunnels, consider the plastic bottle mosaic wall taken from the beach, let the sand run through your hands or simply stare out to sea across the blue lagoon, past the fishing boats and towards the mainland.  It really is an inspirational place, at one with its surroundings and in my mind truly iconic.

I would like to say a massive thanks to the Arkitrek team for all their hard graft, sweat and contributions to such a fantastic project.  We will continue to add to it, maximise its use and will let this be a spring board to pushing our Marine Awareness Programme to new levels.

Anyone interested in joining future Arkitrek camps can either contact us or Arkitrek directly.  The next one is scheduled for Jan 2012, again on Mantanani, and is designed for trainee/trained architects or civil engineers to get hands on experience of a project from conception through to a finished product.