This guest blog was written by Tricia Barnett, Director of Equality in Tourism.

Equality in Tourism believes tourism should be fairer for women. We are a charity working to put gender on the agenda of global tourism. We want women all over the world to enjoy equal benefits of tourism, because in general they don’t. It’s not at all unusual for women to be working at the in the least well paid jobs with little opportunities for training. For example, a housekeeper in an award winning eco hotel in a country like Sri Lanka or Kenya might just earn £1 a day. She also might be struggling with a split shift, which means she hardly gets to see her children. But there are all sorts of ways that women can benefit from tourism and it’s so normal to see women selling their handicrafts or opening their homes for visitors to stay. For many of these women, tourism has been empowering.

Women farmers in Tanzania

But there are also people who live in successful tourism destinations who live in a parallel universe and have no idea how they might benefit from the visitors who are in a separate bubble. Equality in Tourism has our own path breaking project in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. So many people come to climb the iconic mountain, but all around are impoverished families living a subsistence life. Many of these are farmers, and in Tanzania as elsewhere in the world, it is women who are the farmers. 

Four years ago we began work with a local women’s empowerment organisation, KWIECO ww.kwieco.com 

to train the most marginalised farming women in better farming methods, farming as a business, entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment. The objective was to help them create a co-operative which would supply the many local hotels and lodges with quality fruit and vegetables. Before training, they competed with each other in the market place to sell their produce to dealers. Prices were very low. So low, that when we first began work with the women and started a microfinance scheme, some couldn’t even save 30 pence.

Our business plan showed that the co-operative, Wamboma: Women Farming for Their Future, would be self sufficient in three years. They opened a shop. But then climate change created floods and drought that destroyed three crops. We raised money and now they have industrial sized greenhouses, drip irrigation, tanks and pumps. 

We were back on our feet. Until Covid-19 closed all the hotels and tourism came to a halt. 

We have always operated on a shoestring. But now we are stuck. The women are back in the market place and not getting the cost of their labour back as they sell at low prices once again. Having saved brilliantly and made use of their loans to send their children to university or buy a sowing machine or improve their farms, they can no longer save. What is such an important asset though, is that they have, for the first time in their lives, food security. 

We have had to think on our feet and the women would like to be trained to dry their produce and – a very western suggestion – to create farm boxes. All of this needs investment for training and equipment and a website, so we need to fundraise again. 

The results have been life changing. We would love to take the learning and share it elsewhere where women farm and tourism is a key industry.

Tricia at a weekly meeting in Namwai

The women, who were the most marginalised in their communities, are now sought out for their advice. They are managing the shop and their savings and their production. They are working together. They are challenging their men to support them better and are being supported to fight against gender based violence that has been rampant. It is quite wonderful to hear from the women how the project has changed their lives. Before the pandemic, a big adventure operator was organising for their tours to come to the villages and meet the women and see what they’ve achieved and to buy their produce. 

One day, perhaps you will be able to as well. You would be very welcome. 

Tricia Barnett 

www.equalityintourism.org 

Director 

Equality in Tourism

Africa specialist tour operators have come together to support African rangers & wildlife by embarking on a cumulative bike ride which is being kick-started with an initial Land’s End to John O’ Groats challenge starting at 9 am on 15th August 2020 where a core peloton of 10 people will be joined by 40+ others, all of whom are combining mileage working towards a 30,000KM total – the equivalent of circumnavigating Africa.

Ride 4 Rangers is an initiative by the UK Africa Travel Industry in aid of Tusk which will see the team ride the 874 miles from Land’s End to John O’ Groats and is inviting hundreds of fellow Africa Travel industry professionals, Africa and wildlife lovers to join them on the way. The ride is part of the wider Wildlife Ranger Challenge, launched to support thousands of wildlife rangers across the African continent to face the threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Through the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, every pound donated to Ride 4 Rangers will be matched by the Scheinberg Relief Fund.

We miss our incredible opportunities to connect with nature and animals on an unbelievably intimate level. The African continent has been beyond generous to all its visitors over the past 150 years, hosting us and enchanting us each and every time. This time, it is our chance to give something in return and help support our beloved Wildlife Rangers.

Kenya’s number of elephants have more than doubled since 1989 thanks to a mission to stop poaching. All of these conservation efforts have had positive outcomes over time however, because of a decrease in the number of international tourism, the very animals we’ve been protecting for so long, are now at risk. This is our chance to make a difference and participate in a not only charitable activity, but also an experience that will benefit our mental and physical wellbeing. Cycling has countless proven benefits such as increased cardiovascular fitness, increased muscle strength and flexibility, improved joint mobility, decreased stress levels, improved posture and coordination.

Alongside the Land’s End to John O’Groats ride, 15th August also marks the start of a series of global Ride4Rangers events and activities where Africa and wildlife lovers across the UK, Europe and 9 African Nations (Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique) are getting involved clocking their own miles and raising vital funds.

The route will journey throughout the UK from Land’s End to John O’Groats via traditional LEJOG routes. For the full map visit:

 https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33296734 

Wondering how to get involved?

Visit www.ride4rangers.com

15 Aug–29 Aug Join all or part of the ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats

or

Do your own Ride 4 Rangers at home, in a park, around your garden 5, 10, 20, 50 KM

Ride 10KM, Donate £10, Nominate 3 People

or

Simply donate on our crowdfunding page

Madagascar is a strong contender for offering the most distinctive wildlife holidays on the planet. The island separated from the African mainland some 165 million years ago and much of its fauna and flora have evolved in a unique way - an astonishing 80% is endemic. Madagascar’s almost bizarre array of wildlife echoes the 88 million years the island spent in isolation. Evolution got to work to produce some spectacular species and the island is now one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. It’s so unique that the country is sometimes called the eighth continent. The blog post below belongs to our guest writer and beloved client, Sarah Mortimer.

You’ve heard the one about an elephant making a trunk call..? Well, now I have seen lemurs in Madagascar in full talk-back mode!

Walking quietly through the rainforest of Andasibe National Park we and our tour guides were on the lookout for some of the island’s many indigenous species that make Madagascar such a treasure trove of flora and fauna: chameleons, birds, butterflies and any number (and, it seems no exact number established, such is the range of species and sub-species) of lemur.

The birds are beautiful, the chameleons extraordinary, the landscapes amazing… but my own particular quest was to see – and hear – the indri lemurs.

The biggest of the lemur family, with sticky-out ears, a rotund bottom with barely visible tail, these black and white animals look more like a teddy bear – and every bit as cute. But it is their ‘song’ that enchants me: a haunting wailing sound more akin to whale-song in its tuneful cry than a call of the canopy. But having heard their siren call from afar early that morning I was desperate to see these songsters.

Our guide located a small group of these characterful little beings, and I watched them with delight. Then, right there, miles away from urban life and so deep in the Madagascan (I love the ‘taste’ of that word – as much as the taste of their chocolate!) forest, 21st-century phone-tech came in to play.  Our guide took his mobile phone from his pocket, googled YouTube, and relayed a sound recording of an Indri group’s calls. In response to that recording, our own little troop raised their heads, opened their mouths, and sang their baleful siren song to claim loudly (actually, very loudly) that this patch was theirs! I was entranced by this concert performance, albeit prompted by a degree of manipulation – courtesy of Messrs Apple, Google, and YouTube. But our gang didn’t seem too perturbed: they simply rang out their peal of territorial calls.

So…maybe there IS an argument for phones in the forest – but for appropriate on-line connection only. Ocado is a step too far…

Sarah Mortimer visited Madagascar in October 2019. If you’d like to hear more about our trips to the African continent, don’t hesitate to get in touch.