people and environment

support for local projects

As part of our commitment to the local communities we interact with during our challenges, we donate approx US$500 per group to a local community project. Examples of the projects we are funding include the following:

Vietnam: SOS Children’s Villages began nearly fourty years ago in Ho Chi Minh City. Some families are so poor that they cannot look after their children so they end up living on the streets, begging for money and food or are sent out to work. Government figures suggest there are over 21,000 children living on the streets in Vietnam. SOS Children’s Villages care for over 16,000 children in Vietnam and have twelve SOS children’s Villages and 31 related projects throughout Vietnam. Our support helps to fund the ongoing work of the charity.

Tanzania: Tanzania is a beautiful country with a warm and welcoming people and an excellent tourism infrastructure. Yet poor school facilities, HIV/Aids, and unemployment blight the lives of many Tanzanians. Over the last 8 years, Charity Challenge has contributed towards the vital work of Community Projects Africa in Tanzania by funding school building projects, providing educational bursaries and on a huge project to give vocational training to Tanzanians (especially women) affected by HIV/Aids. We have also organised three community challenges where our clients have travelled to Tanzania to get directly involved in the building of the schools we have helped to fund.

local community support

We employ local guides, porters and other essential support staff and we try, where possible, to use locally owned accommodation. This way, local challenge costs can truly benefit the local community. We train our overseas support teams thoroughly in all aspects of our responsible tourism policy.

sustainable development

A leading UK government body responsible for sustainable development recently commended Charity Challenge for its thorough and committed understanding of all aspects of sustainable development. It added: “It is clear that sustainable development is at the heart of the business. In this rapidly expanding market, it represents outstanding performance and is an example to others.”