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| Responsible Tourism |
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| New AITO 5 star Responsible Tourism status |
| KE is proud to have been awarded AITO's top, 5-star Responsible Tourism status in September 2008. Star-ratings are awarded to AITO members based on their environmental performance and the 5-star award is new for 2008. In order to achieve the star ratings, a company must fulfil a number of criteria covering the areas of RT policies, implementation of sustainable office practice, communication with customers, environmental practice and practical destination activity with the latter two areas having the most points allocated to them. |
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Responsible Tourism 2007 Winners in AITO Achievement in Responsible Tourism Awards |
| KE is very proud to be the winners of AITO’s Achievement in Responsible Tourism Awards for 2007, in recognition of the work carried out over the past 20 years, giving back to the communities and areas we visit. |
| The AITO guidelines for Responsible Tourism fit naturally within KE's travel ethic. It is important to us that our clients are not the only beneficiaries of the travel experience, but that we share a two-way relationship with the areas that we visit. We make sure that our local staff are well treated and well paid, we respect indigenous cultures, take care to protect the environment of the places we visit and take every opportunity to make a positive contribution wherever we travel. We also provide our clients, trek leaders, agents and staff with the KE 'Mountain Code,' which is a set of guidelines for everyone involved in adventure travel. |
• PROTECTING the environment – its flora, fauna and landscapes
• RESPECTING local cultures – traditions, religions and built heritage
• BENEFITTING local communities – both economically and socially
• CONSERVING natural resources – from office to destination
• MINIMISING pollution – through noise, waste disposal and congestion |
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| KE Highly Commended at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Award |
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KE were Highly Commended in the Best Tour Operator Category at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2007 held in London this November.
The Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards are the largest of their kind in the world and are a collaboration between on-line travel agent responsibletravel.com who founded and organise the Awards; UK media partners The Times and Geographical Magazine; and World Travel Market who host the Awards ceremony. The central tenet of the Awards is that all types of tourism – from niche to mainstream – can and should be operated in a way that respects and benefits destinations and local people. The Awards are different from other tourism Awards in that winners are nominated by tourists.
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| Changing Horizons |
(Registered Charity: 1053356. Patron: Sir Chris Bonington)
Since 1997, we have worked closely with the Juniper Trust and have a very successful record of locating aid projects and carrying them out. The Trust identifies projects likely to generate long-term benefits and KE uses its expertise and local knowledge to ensure that funds are successfully distributed and that the work is done. Working with a single charity in this way, we have been able to maximise our contribution to the areas we visit. Our focus is on finding sustainable projects where we can work alongside the local people.
News About Projects
Nepal
Nepal is the heart of the Juniper Trust and where Angela Locke found her inspiration to set up this worthwhile Charity. For the last 11 years, Juniper Trust has worked in partnership with KE Adventure Travel, fundraising for projects in Nepal. Most of our projects in Nepal are based in the Kathmandu valley.
Our three main projects over the past five years have been Education based,
building three flagship schools at Balodya, Chobar and Ardesha. All three schools are now thriving and victims of their own success. 2007 saw the extension of the Juniper Trust School in Chobar and fundraising for a new school block at Ardesha School in Kathmandu.
In 2007, the Juniper Trust supported the Himalayan Outreach Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable healthcare development in remote areas of Nepal and also donated to the Sedi Bagar Landslide Appeal in Nepal's Pokhara District.
Click on a link below for further infromation
Chobar School
Ardesha School
Balodaya School
Sedi Bagar Landslide Appeal
Himalayan Outreach Foundation
India
In 2006, work finally finished on a complete rebuild of Congress School in Darjeeling with all the children appreciating their new environment.
Solar Panels were installed in a remote village in Spiti in northern India and Loughborough School helped with a new classroom at Bagsu Nag School in Dharamsala.
The Juniper Trust and KIng Edward's School also helped with
the construction of a
new classroom at Ngayur Sangacholing School in Kalimong.
The Lingshed Area Children's Hostel provides a home from home for over forty children from one of this region's most remote villages so that they can receive a good education at schools in Leh. Most recently, a new washing block was built here using environmentally sound materials, to replace the single outdoor WC. Progress has also been made on the completion of the second floor. In 2009, the kitchen area will be made more suitable to cater safely for all the children and staff.
Click on a link below for further infromation
Bagsu Nag School
Congress School
Ngayur Sangacholing School
Solar Panel Project
Lingshed Area Hostel, Leh
Pakistan
Hushe Water Project
KE Adventure Travel first fundraised for this project over 15 years ago. Recently it came to KE's attention that a considerable amount of repair and maintenance work was required. In the spring of 2007, £2200 was raised by KE to assist with this project to enable this work to be carried out, ensuring a clean water supply to the village. As the winter snows melted, work began and throughout the summer of 2007, several KE groups visited the Hushe Valley and reported good progress.
A letter from the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Baltistan - 5th December 2007:
"As per measurement of work done at the site, the community have completed 90% of the work physically in November 2007 and the remaining 10% of the work will be completed by the community next year before April 2008. But the community have already started to get benefits from this project. They are using the spring water now. Due to the start of the winter season, they still have to plaster the bottom speed Breaker tank and this will be done in the Spring. The villagers of Hushe would like to thank KE and the Juniper trust for their kind donation."
Anwar Ali, Field Engineer, AKRSP Area Office
Peru
Since 2004, KE leader Val Pikethly has installed over 600 solar lights
in small mountain villages of Northern Peru. Past projects include installing solar lights in the villages of Pocpa and Pomapata, in the Huayhuash region (2004), Quisuar village in the Cordillera Blanca region and Tupacamaru village in Huayhuash (2005) and Queropalca in the Cordillera Huayhuash of Peru (2006).
In June 2007, Val installed 120 Solar lights in the village of Tayapurca area of the Cordillera Blanca. It takes 5 days on foot to reach these villages. Neither had any lighting other than candles before the solar lights were installed. In Tayapurca, the villagers are now running women and children's health classes in the village community centre - thanks to these lights. Juniper Trust contributed $8300 to fund this project.
Click on the link below for further information
Solar Lights
Ecuador
Carlisle College assist the Juniper Trust in Quito
On their recent trip to Ecuador, Carlisle College assisted with a Juniper Trust Project in the small village of San Francisco. The group helped with the painting of the Community Centre and the Church and mixed with the local people. The College raised around £250 for the project themselves and the Juniper Trust put £250 towards it to enable much-required work. This is the second project that the Juniper Trust has funded in Ecuador. The first was in a girls’ orphanage in Quito in 2004.
Africa
2006 saw the first project for the Juniper Trust in Africa, with a new water tank in the small mountainous village of Aroumd in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Noadswood School travelled to Morocco on a trekking holiday and took time out to help with this project. As well as looking for other projects in Morocco in 2007, Juniper Trust is proposing to re-build a school in the Chogoria village, below Mount Kenya.
Click on a link below for further infromation
Aroumd Water Project
Chogoria School Project
Sri Lanka
In 2005 The Juniper Trust teamed up with the Jersey Rebuild Sri Lanka Fund to raise money for this project in the Eastern Region of Sri Lanka, a small and hard to access project in the village of Kokkilai. The project is now complete with the help of the allocated money from the Juniper Trust.
Armenia
The New Play Room at the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Centre
Thanks to help from the Juniper Trust, the Children's Unit at the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Centre in Stepanakert, Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia, was opened in June 2007.
The Unit is the only one in the country and provides day & residential care for disabled children from all over Nagorno Karabakh. Up to 20 disabled children receive physiotherapy (including hydrotherapy), occupational therapy, speech therapy and psychological support at the Centre, before being integrated into mainstream education.
Work started on the children's unit early in 2006 and was completed 12 months later. Construction costs rocketed and whilst the building was completed, it stood empty as there were no funds to complete the project.
The Juniper Trust was asked to provide the necessary furniture, which was made in Stepanakert, thus supporting local business.
The Director of the Centre, Vardan Tadevosyan points out that the new unit is of huge value to the children and their families and helps to change perception of disability within the country.
For more information on how you can support any of these projects visit... |
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How can you help?
If you have a fundraising initiative or if (maybe on your next KE trip) you come across a project for The Juniper Trust to support, or would like to pledge your money to a specific project, then please contact: The Juniper Trust, PO Box 104, Keswick, CA12 5WD.
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