As COVID-19 caused a sudden pause to travel around the world, Exodus thoughts quickly turned to their extended Exodus family; their expert local teams of leaders, operators, porters, drivers, and the communities around them. The people that welcome Exodus travellers and share their world with us not only faced a battle against the virus, but the significant economic impact from the global halt in tourism. So, while Exodus’ travels were grounded, the Exodus Travels Foundation immediately adapted and worked hard to support these communities where possible.

 

As the human and economic effects of this virus have continued much longer than any of us anticipated, The Exodus Travels Foundation has launched the Community Kickstart Project with the aim of helping those communities to recover and rebuild while we all wait for the world to open its doors again.

 

Exodus’ has already donated $30,000 to the fund to allow some of the most crucial projects to begin, and now they’re asking you, their own community of responsible adventurers, to help them triple this, and triple the social, environmental and economic impact we can have across our destination communities.

 

As ever, thank you for your generous and tireless support for communities across the world; we can’t visit them right now, but through the Exodus network, we can show them we’re standing with them.

 

What Exodus is doing

The idea is simple - enable Exodus teams on the ground to kickstart local initiatives which will help support their local communities. After all, their expert and passionate Exodus leaders and operators are best placed to identify the greatest needs across the destination communities and hard-to-reach places.

 

 

“Over recent months Coronovirus has devastated the global tourism industry. This has hit both developed and developing countries indiscriminately and whilst richer nations will get through this we could not sit idly by without trying to help some poorer and less developed parts of the world. To do this we have launched the Community Kickstart Fund to directly help our friends, colleagues and local communities we visit overseas. Whether this is through food parcels, environment improvement or extra training programmes, we aim to help now so that when Coronavirus is defeated, people’s livelihoods can be improved too. Do help us if you can.”

Pete Burrell, Exodus Travels Foundation Chairperson

 

Our Community Kickstart Project Initiatives

1. School Essentials by Boat Project, Laos

Delivering school and hygiene packs by boat in Laos. Click here for more information.

 

2. Education Catch-up, Zambia

Providing education workshops for schoolchildren in Zambia. Click here for more information.

 

3. Yala Park Driver Support, Sri Lanka

Providing food and medical supplies for Yala Park drivers. Click here for more information.

 

4. Eco-brick Building, Indonesia

Creating eco-bricks from waste to build a local cafe. Click here for more information.

 

5. Shark Conservation, Maldives

Working with tourist businesses in the Maldives to protect whale sharks. Click here for more information.

 

6. Fruit Tree Planting, India

Planting trees in Himalayan villages to provide income and protect biodiversity. Click here for more information.

 

7. Rainwater Harvesting, Malaysia

Capturing rainwater to support community gardens before the dry season. Click here for more information.

 

8. Solitaire School Food Clinic, Namibia

Hot meals for school children in Maltahohe, Namibia. Click here for more information.

 

9. Karma’s Food Packages, Nepal

Delivering meals to poor and vulnerable people in Kathmandu. Click here for more information.

 

10. Porter Food Distribution, Peru

Emergency food parcels for porters and their families. Click here for more information.

 

11. Jungle Trek Path, Malaysia

Building tourism income opportunities in Pekan Nabalu. Click here for more information.

 

More initiatives starting soon

Cooking for communities

As well as donating to Exodus’ appeal, you can support these global, community-based initiatives by purchasing an Exodus Travels Cookbook. 100% of the proceeds will go to the Community Kickstart Project.

Purchase yours here.

 

 

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