Charitable Partners
We believe that travel has the power to change the world, do you?
Your vacation is never just a vacation – it’s a gift to the communities you encounter. Enchanting Travels is committed to creating a positive impact on the societies within which we operate.
We agree with considered charitable efforts, but even more than this we believe in wealth creation and economic opportunity. The old adage of give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, give a man a fishing rod and he can eat for a lifetime, rings true. The magic of being a global travel company is that we are always connecting with incredible organizations and individuals from all walks of life. Our eyes and ears are always open.
Enchanting Travels has forever changed how I think of vacationing and what happiness really means.
– Antavia Hamilton, USA
We love to support organizations that we see are truly shaping a more inclusive world around us. If we find a group that inspire us, we make it our mission to find a way to collaborate! The numerous charitable organizations we have connected with and support provide another motivation for us to continue delivering trips of a lifetime to our guests.
Enchanting Travels gets to live up to its name, as we embrace the impoverished or marginalized, and shine a light on unsung heroes.
Talented Artisans
Whenever our guests travel, they usually like to take back a memento from their trip. Due to the requests from our guests, our team in Nairobi often ended up recommending interesting NGOs that they themselves personally knew and loved where guests could witness first-hand some beautiful local crafts, before purchasing a memento to take home with them. This sparked an idea that has since spread across all our destinations: sourcing guest gifts from unique NGOS that are dedicated to training communities to produce local works of art.
Read more about some of our guest gift providers, such as our partnerships with Shanga in Arusha, Tanzania, Jacaranda in Nairobi, Kenya and Tamana in Delhi, India.
The Wonder of Waste
In Argentina, our local team save their milk cartons and deliver them to Fundación Pan de Vida Argentina, an organization that collects this rarely thought about waste product and then re-purposes them into sleeping bags that provide comfort and warmth to the homeless. When we drink our milky beverages in the office, we know that we are also providing a hug that can be kept. This is just one of many examples that has come from our Responsible Travel champions for our Global Green Office initiative.
Spotlight on our NGO Partners
Tamana
It’s been an honor to work with Tamana, who are based in Delhi, India.
The Indian word for Tamana means “wish”, and the organization was built out of an aspiration for the founder, Dr Shayama Chona, to give her daughter, who was born with cerebral palsy, and other children like her with special needs – such as cognitive impairment and autism – a place to be cared for and nurtured.
Tamana first began in 1984 with four children and has since grown to support 200 children and is considered one of India’s most dedicated special schools. Tamana believes in nurturing children with special needs through education and therapeutic interventions so that they can become confident young adults who are skilled and able to make a living independently as integrated members of society.
When we visited Tamana for the first time, we were impressed and felt touched by the organization’s strong principles and ethics, the care and dedication of the staff for the students, to make a difference in their lives by enabling these special needs individuals to become happy, useful and integrated members of society by realizing their full potential.
We acknowledge that caution needs to be applied when opening up visits to places that house and support vulnerable individuals and children.
We continually encourage our staff to purchase the vast array of crafts that the students of Tamana produce. For all our guests traveling to India, we source beautiful, handcrafted gifts from the organization, which you can read about here. When we receive positive feedback from you about these gifts not only does it give us joy, but we can pass on the appreciation to the artisan who produced it.
We believe that disability should never hinder opportunity and that we can make a positive impact. We encourage our staff to spend quality time with the students so that they can form new friendships through mutual interests and interaction – such as singing, painting or dancing. We provide the chance for Tamana students to intern within our office in Delhi that provide them with a holistic experience where they can take on new responsibility in a professional working environment. For our team members, time spent with the students of Tamana becomes a meaningful encounter with individuals they may not otherwise interact with.
How you can get involved
We provide an opportunity for our discerning guests to visit the Tamana centers for themselves so that they can interact with the students. With such encounters, we encourage our guests to come with a skill that they can teach or inspire the students with, so that while you take home enthralling memories, the students of Tamana are left with a tangible and enriching experience of their own.
SOS Children’s Villages
Across many of our destinations we work with the non-denominational global federation, SOS Children’s Villages, which works with communities, partners and states across 135 countries to protect and care for children who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care, and to provide them with social development.
The focus is on education, emotional well being, care, physical health, food security and shelter. Each community creates a village style environment in which different-aged children are brought up in small groups of eight to fifteen families staffed by local individuals. SOS Children’s Villages also work hard to ensure build stability and resilience to keep children with their families.
The goal is to ensure that the children and young people are able to integrate fully with society. A social impact report highlighted that over 87,100 children and young people were cared for and supported in 2017, with over 151,000 people benefiting from the SOS educational facilities.
How you can get involved
As each SOS Children’s Village is run locally, there are differences in the experiences that our guests can have. For example, in Jaipur, India, guests are welcome to visit the village and meet the staff and young people, either leading or participating in entertainment activities.
Salaam Baalak
Our friends at Salaam Baalak provide an alternative perspective for your time in Delhi. Salaam Baalak is a non-governmental organization working with street and working children in India’s capital, to help them realize their dreams and be given the nurture and care they deserve.
On the street, children are at risk of crime, abuse and exploitation, as well as hunger and poverty. Salaam Baalak provides safety and security through full care residential centers across the city. Salaam Baalak also provides day centers across several vulnerable areas in which children and their families beg and rag-pick, where a caring team build a strong rapport for children to feel cared for and receive comprehensive medical support, counselling, peer education, food, clothing, recreational facilities and toilets.
There are many different projects that Salaam Baalak has established, the most notable being Childline, the first 24-hour national helpline for children across India in which child laborers, lost children or abused children can call for aid.
How you can get involved
We highly recommend our guests to go on a Salaam Baalak Trust City Walk, which we can arrange, to receive a child’s perspective on Delhi and to learn about the world through their eyes This is an English-speaking tour delivered by Salaam Baalak adolescents who were formally street or working children and have now been fully trained as local guides and will take you into the heart of Delhi away from the tourist attractions to spots such as New Delhi railway station. This incredible experience provides an economically viable solution for empowering those children who were formerly disenfranchised.
Logos Scholarship Fund
Religion has become an important part of urban Kenya’s culture. Started in 2008 under its earlier name of The Jubilee Scholarship Fund, Logos Scholarship Fund is Students Scholarship Program initiative of Nairobi Chapel, a well-established Christian place of worship in Kenya’s capital. The initial goal was to help settle families who had been affected during the 2007-2008 post-election violence and establish a fund for donors to pay the expensive secondary school fees. Over time, the fundraising extended to individuals from and around the slums of Kibera, Ngando and Kwangware.
Every individual who joins the program receives eight years of funding which includes a full high school scholarship, a gap year residential character formation, leadership and missions experience, and a full University scholarship.
In addition to school fees, the goal was always to provide a personal mentor to students who could walk with the young people through their life and well into their professional lives, meeting them at a minimum at least three times a year. The organization also run camps in which students can bond and share stories, develop leadership and professional and life skills, and come together as a spiritual community.
How you can get involved
Through our internships, there If you are visiting Kenya then there is often an opportunity for you to meet some of the young people who have benefited from Logos Scholarship Fund. Many of our interns do the airport meet and greets and join our briefing sessions.