Spirit of Big Five
Supporting environmentally responsible tourism
Travel, particularly international travel, provides an arena in which we may glimpse the extraordinary and come to understand our own place in the world in more meaningful terms. Travel allows us to garner fresh outlooks and form new attitudes that broaden our horizons. But travel also carries a degree of personal responsibility. The responsible global traveler honors the authenticity of ethnic lifestyles and unique cultures. The concerned global journeyman and woman seek to demonstrate a personal commitment to helping these special places remain special for many generations to come.
Big Five recently began a pro-active collaboration with Costas Christ, an internationally recognized expert on sustainable tourism. He will support the Big Five team as "Ambassador at Large." Costas serves as Chairman of Judges for the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, which promote global tourism best practices. He is also recognized for his work as the lead author of "Tourism and Biodiversity: Mapping Tourism's Global Footprint" and is a contributing author in "Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places." He regularly appears on television and as an international speaker.
Costas' alliance with Big Five signifies a deepening of the company’s desire to expand its efforts to support the preservation of cultural and natural heritage through sustainable tourism. He will assist Big Five on its initiative to launch the Spirit of Big Five Foundation, a non-profit entity. In addition, Costas will serve as a guest expert on three select, exclusively designed Big Five trips in 2008 to the Galapagos Islands, Tanzania, and Vietnam and Cambodia.
Among its affiliations, Big Five Tours & Expeditions is a sustaining member of Tourism Cares for Tomorrow, a non-profit organization formed to preserve, conserve and promote the responsible use of the world's natural, cultural and historic treasures, as well as to support education initiatives and research to help ensure the positive future of travel and tourism worldwide.
This section of our website is designed to grow as the Spirit of Big Five Foundation evolves. Below is a sampling of some of the worthwhile projects and programs we have supported. If you'd like to find out more, please email us, info@bigfive.com, or call us at 800-244-3483, ext 2214. We hope you will come back often.
Thank you.
Mahen Sanghrajka
President
Africa
Nairobi, Kenya
St. Nicholas Community Development Center and Children’s Home
St. Nicholas Community Development Center was founded in 1986, under the auspices of the Anglican Church of Kenya. The center, located on 12 acres, has become home to more than 168 orphaned and abandoned children; some fresh from living on the streets, others victims of abuse, still others whose families have been devastated by AIDS. Children range in age from two to 20. Big Five and its staff in Nairobi have worked closely with the center over the years. Most recently, the company donated money to build two new dormitories, which opened last year and now house 80 children.
In addition to food, shelter and medical care, the center also provides educational opportunities for both residents and children of community. The center runs a primary and secondary school, and is working to expand a vocational training center. St. Nicholas Center is also involved in a variety of outreach programs to help reintegrate children back into their communities. The center offers hope and help to some of Kenya’s most forgotten children.
Kendu Bay, Kenya
Nyambok Self-Help Project
Nayambok Self-Help Project (NYASHEP) is a community action group based in Kendu Bay Kenya, dedicated to helping children and families devastated by poverty and AIRS/HIV. NYASHEP sponsors a high school academic scholarship program to support bright young people who would not be able to continue in school without help with basic supplies and tuition fees. The group also supports Nyanya: Women Helping Women, a small community project dedicated to helping young girls stay in school once they have reached puberty, a critical time for many young women.
South Africa
Lemoenland Educare, Promoting Education in Southern Africa
In 2001, our partner office in South Africa built and established a local pre-school for underprivileged farm worker’s children. Typically, these children have no educational stimulus until they go to school at seven years old. This lack of attention means that they are often ill-equipped for the challenges ahead and do not thrive. Lemoenland seeks to redress this, albeit in a small way. The school caters for 3 to 6 year olds with fully qualified teachers, garden, playground and a range of educational toys. Its overall goals are to provide educational stimulus for children in the vicinity of the school; to prepare the pre-primary children so that they are ready for school in a year; and to ensure that all children in the area have access to the school, both in terms of low fees and transportation.
New developments have been a second teacher for the school to allow for more children to attend, a system to assist with primary school fees, school outings to local farms and to Cape Town (a first for nearly all the children.) The school currently serves about 50 children in two classes.
India
Blind Foundation for India
More than 13 million people in India are blind; two million of those are children. With the knowledge now available, up to 80 percent of blindness cases are curable or preventable.
Big Five has worked with the foundation since1989. In 2002, the company funded the acquisition of a mobile ophthalmic van, one of a fleet of 65 such vehicles that are used throughout India in free outreach “eye camps.” Through these camps, medical teams have subsequently restored sight to more than 40,000 individuals, and have examined and treated more than 500,000 people. The foundation has also distributed more than 5,000 Braille and mathematics kits to blind children in all Indian states.
Veerayatan
Bihar, India
Veerayatan was founded more than 30 years ago in Bihar, India to help care for some of the poorest of India’s citizens through medical care and education. Big Five has worked with this worthy organization since 1998. A nonprofit organization, the center is home to a modern, world-class eye hospital and orthopedic center. The 52,600-square-foot facility has 150 beds for eye patients and 50 beds for polio victims.
Visiting and resident volunteer doctors have performed almost 112,000 eye operations, and carried out more than 727,000 outpatient procedures. Doctors and staff have also helped more than 2,500 polio patients. The center’s mobile van takes food and medical care into more than 1,358 villages.
Education is fundamental to Veerayatan, which is based on the principles of the Jain religion. The combined centers serve the needs of more than 10,000 students annually. The centers rely on volunteers, both resident and international, to fulfill a broad range of tasks from teaching and fieldwork to administrative and communications.
The founder of Veerayatan is a woman of indomitable spirit, Acharya Shri Chandanaji. Her vision has lead to the establishment of three permanent sites – Bihar, Pune and Bhuj. A fourth permanent location in Kutch, nearly completed, was established following a devastating earthquake that destroyed much of the area in 2001, including most of the schools. The center now teaches 5,600 students, mostly from very poor families.
Latin America
Willoq, Peru
In 2002, Big Five Tours, in conjunction with Peruvian Odyssey, sponsored a health and education day for the residents of the small Andean community of Willoq, Peru. The goal of the daylong event was to work with area teachers, health workers and others who are in a position to improve the standard of health in the community. The team treated about 140 people, the majority of whom were children.
Big Five continues to work with the residents, providing funding for restrooms and other public facilities. On a trip to Willoq in 2006, Mahen Sanghrajka, president of Big Five, delivered soccer balls, toys and school supplies to the small Andean village.
Fundación Galapagos
Big Five Tours & Expeditions, the parent company of Galapagos.com, is very proud to announce our first initiative to help save the endangered eco system in the Galapagos Islands through the Fundación Galapagos. In collaboration with our partners at Metropolitan Touring, we are partially funding a much-needed waste recycling facility on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos. Through the Spirit of Big Five Foundation, Big Five is one of the only Platinum Sponsors for this facility. For information please visit the Fundación Galapagos website at www.fundaciongalapagos.com.