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A fundamental principle for Oasis has always been to support local communities as much as possible. For example, on our trips, in Africa, you will notice that we try to buy local produce-fruit and veg, directly from roadside sellers, not supermarkets, spreading the tourist dollar at a grass roots level.
We also try to bring some positive benefits to communities that wouldn’t normally benefit from the tourist dollar. One of our proudest, and most long standing, commitments in this area is to the Hupenyu Hutsva Children’s Home in Harare. For the past 20 years or so we have been taking them food, educational supplies, sports and play equipment and have funded a borehole and seeds/ gardening equipment to help them be more sustainable with food production.
In addition to this, for about twenty years, we have been running an annual event that our crew affectionately call ‘Kids Week!’ We use our expedition vehicles and crew to take the children out on a day trip. In recent years, we have been running this event in conjunction with responsibletravel.com in conjunction with their ‘Trip for a Trip’ scheme.
Many of the children rarely leave the compound they live on and this event is a real annual highlight for them.
On 18 and 19 January 2024 we took 99 children and 12 staff from the Home to Mukuvusi woodlands, on the edge of Harare. They were able to see game, learn about Zimbabwean wildlife and conservation and have a wonderful lunch and play!
Probably the best way to sum up the day is in the comments from the staff and children.
Comments from the Home Superintendant:
"Thank you Responsible Travel and Oasis Overland. We wish to express our deepest gratitude for the quality time your organizations have afforded our children. The experience was life changing for our children as they could not hide their joy. We hope the special relationship between us and your organizations continues for a long time to come. May God richly bless you.’’
Comments from other staff:
‘’You do not realise what you are doing for the children when you take them out on these trips. They talk about it all year.’’
‘’These trips revitalise the staff. We can clear our heads for the day as we also rarely get to go anywhere. We feel revitalised in our roles afterwards and love to see the children so happy.’’
Comments from the Children :
‘’This is the best start to the year. I am so happy.’’
‘’This is such a perfect day. Thank you.’’
‘’I am so excited to have seen a giraffe, but I now need to find out how it’s digestive system works with that long neck!’’
‘Thank you for doing this for us. We are so blessed, but you need to do it for all children in Zimbabwe!’
Our next project is a major refurbishment of the ablution blocks at the Home. These are in a very sorry state of repair. Work has already begun and this will make a huge difference to the day to day quality of the children’s lives.
By booking a trip with us you are helping us finance these projects. Thank you! And thank you to all our crew that have supported these events over the years. Sometimes, we’re not sure who enjoys them the most, our crew, or the children!!!