Sustainable projects
World Challenge Sustainable Projects
World Challenge offers a whole range of sustainable travel projects where school children can give back something to the communities they visit. Here are some examples of our sustainable projects visited by World Challenge teams this summer:Madagascar – Sustainable ecotourism project with ‘Friends of Ifotaka’
World Challenge sent two teams over the course of the summer to complete projects in a small rural community in the south of Madagascar. The project was based in the district of Ifotaka near Fort Dauphin working alongside an established association – ‘Friends of Ifotaka’.Project details
Ifotaka contains important areas of spiny forest which is a habitat unique to the south of Madagascar. The area has been at risk by local uses of the forest for ‘slash and burn’ agriculture, extraction of fuel and food amongst other concerns. The area has been a conservation priority since the early 1990’s when Durham University and the WWF became involved in the area.
The World Challenge teams which visited the area in July and August 2008 assisted the ‘Friends of Ifotaka’ in developing the tourism infrastructure within the area. Tasks they completed included building signs for community and visitor information stations, building campsites and long drop toilets.
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The project was established in collaboration with ‘La Esperanza Granada’ a grass roots group of volunteers based in the region. ‘La Esperanza Granada’ began in 2002 when they started helping in one small village on the outskirts of Granada. They now work in seven villages – facilitating work from building new classrooms, to paying a local nurse to visit the schools, to making copies of exams for the children, and helping women start handicraft groups. The work is funded solely through donations and 100% of the money goes towards the project. Take a look at the Madagascar expedition. |
India - Sustainable project at Phyang Government School, Leh, Ladakh
World Challenge teams in northern India tend to have shorter projects than most destinations given the amount of trekking involved in their expeditions. This summer one team visited Phyang Government School near Leh in northern India to carry out some basic maintenance and painting work. |
Project details The team met with the project contact, Stansin, who works as a teacher in a local school but assists us in setting up projects in more remote schools. She took the expedition leader and some team members on a visit to the school so they could plan the work for the project and work out what materials needed to be bought. After consultation with Stansin and the head teacher at the school it was decided that the team would focus on filling the school external walls which were in need of repair. |
Then if there was time the team were asked to paint educational images on the walls. The team went out into Leh to purchase the filler, brushes and paint and travelled to the school the following day.
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The team completed a huge amount of work during the four days at the project site. The external wall of the school was completed filled and repainted in white. The team also managed to paint a map of the world, a map of India, a map of Jammu and Kashmir along with several different systems – the water system, the digestive system and the solar system. The project was a huge success for all concerned! Take a look at the India expedition |
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