By Leanne Haigh, Project Development Manager at Acacia Africa

Voluntourism has generated a new wave in travel, the growing feel good factor creating opportunities for the everyday traveller and not just the career minded charity worker. But the question remains, can you make a difference when you’re a short-term tourist?

Ali Dempsey

Global Basecamps and Maasai Wanderings strive to make education easily accessible and free to the Maasai children of Ilkurot, with the hope that educated Maasai will be better equipped to aid in retaining their ancient culture. In addition to providing valuable educational opportunities to children, Ilkurot Nursery School also supports teachers and cooks by offering employment, and promotes additional cultural tourism throughout the village.

Association “Neni E” (meaning “Neni, Yes!”) was founded in 2004 by two French brothers, who had lived with an African family for four months and observed the tourist flow passing by the village of Neni. The Association aims to provide a different way to discover the Dogon Country: in a humane, ecologically responsible and ethical manner, giving the travelers a real insight into the life in an African village.

Basecamp Foundation Kenya and Mara Naboisho Conservancy, in collaboration with The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), will celebrate the World Tourism Day (September 27th, 2011) in Maasai Mara, a national game reserve in Southwestern Kenya. The celebration will be hosted at Koiyaki Guiding School, at the heart of the Conservancy and will focus on this year’s WTD theme, “Tourism Linking Cultures” and tourism’s role in bringing the cultures of the world together and promoting global understanding.

By Kim Houghton, Marketing Manager, African Impact

Volunteering offers an opportunity to see and experience a culture in a way that’s not possible through conventional travel. By visiting parts of the world not available as a normal holiday destination, you become immersed into a local community. No longer bystanders on the side of the road, volunteers, with dirty hands and broad smiles, are integrated into the local community in a way they would not have been before.

By Victoria Okoye

Mole National Park, Ghana’s largest protected ecosystem, is surrounded by nearly 30 indigenous rural communities that rely on the land for their livelihood. Addressing these fringe communities’ livelihood concerns is an important part of the work done in the area by one tour company, M&J Travel and Tours, committed to ecotourism in Ghana. It currently works with more than 350 women to support the local Shea-butter production efforts for commercial trade.

By Ezekiel Ole Katato

Joseph Thomson, the 19th century explorer and first white man to cross Maasai Land on a caravan in 1883 and came out alive, was a pioneer reporter who wrote about the “Dark Continent of Africa” – so named because no body knew anything about it save that it was full of savage tribes and wild animals. Across Maasai Land Initiative offers a unique opportunity to follow Thomson’s footsteps on a five-day walking adventure.

By Hannah Wood

The site is officially named Udzungwa Forest Tented Camp, but the locals call it Hondo Hondo which translates to “hornbill” in Swahili; the camp is a favoured nesting spot for these birds. Due to the high biodiversity and fascinating ecological features of the park, we proved popular with school and university trips. Soon the camp was full of students from Germany, the UK, Uganda and Tanzania, to name a few.

Over the millennia, the Fish River, the longest river in Namibia, has slowly but surely etched through a dry desert landscape to define the largest canyon in Africa (and second largest in the world) – the Fish River Canyon. Although booking canyon access can be tricky – numbers are restricted and the season is short – trekkers (principally local Namibians and South Africans) do tackle the steeply inclined paths that cut through Gondwana Cañon Park and plunge into the 550-metre gorge.

Kona AfricaBike is an excellent, durable and easy-to-use commuter bike, designed for the conditions of riding African terrain. With a few AfricBike donations around Africa and promotion through Bicycling Magazine, the attention of the general public was captured. People were asking, “how can we be involved?” and “how can we buy a Kona AfricaBike?” So popular did they prove to be, Kona started to sell them on a not for profit basis – for every 2 sold, another was donated. Sales and donations have allowed over 3,000 bicycles to be donated.