Good Work Foundation

Good Work Foundation

August 11, 2022 Selene Orellana Meals, Partners, Youth

Good Work Foundation

Hazyview, South Africa

Impact

The Good Work Foundation (GWF) is a nonprofit organization that trains local youth in technology, conservation as well as Tourism and Hospitality. They provide opportunities in the tourism sector for youth in the villages bordering the Kruger National Park. Every year GWF provides free training to 25 youth and bridges them into opportunities in the hotels and lodges in the area.

Thanks to GWF, youth are gaining skills in entrepreneurship and tourism to break the cycle of poverty around the Kruger National Park by generating sources of income. Additionally, through the training provided by GWF, youth are able to access much-needed education.

25+
Youth trained each year
45+
community members benefitting
GoodWork Foundation_planeterra
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Critical Need

Youth unemployment rates in communities around Kruger National Park, one of South Africa’s most popular tourist destinations, soar above 65%. Many local people will leave their homes to search for work in other metropolitan areas such as Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The lack of opportunities for employment and investment leads to poor living quality and many women and youth are forced into low-paying menial labor and possibly illegal behavior such as wildlife poaching.

Our Involvement

Planeterra partnered with GWF and their Hospitality Academy to create an express Coffee Bar that serves hot and cold coffee and locally sourced snacks to travellers who are visiting the Kruger National Park.

The Coffee Bar supports covering tuition and is also an opportunity for youth in the program to receive practical training in barista skills as well as earnings for their work. Tourism allows GWF to reduce their dependency on grants to fund the academy, increase class sizes and train more youth.

GoodWork Foundation_South Africa
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Moshi Mamas

August 21, 2020 Planeterra Partners

Moshi Mamas

Moshi, Tanzania

Impact

Give a Heart to Africa (GHTA) welcomes approximately 30 women annually into their year-long school program. By connecting the graduates of the school with a primary consumer market from the tourism industry, the makers of the Moshi Mamas and Lala Salama Spa can create a full-time income for themselves and their families. Transport, a platform to speak about the work of Give a Heart to Africa, and a market link are provided through Planeterra’s partnership with G Adventures. Proceeds from the sales help support the women-owned-and-run businesses and school, allowing more women to access free education.

30
women employed
600
community members benefitting

Critical Need

Gender inequality is still very much felt in Tanzania. Things are changing, but when it comes to educational opportunities, girls are still often passed over first compared to their brothers or male cousins. Only 5% of girls finish secondary school. Education for adults is expensive and as many males in the family control the income of the household, many adult women have limited chances to invest in their own education and the well-being of their family.

Our Involvement

Planeterra partnered with a free, women-only, adult business school named Give a Heart to Africa (GHTA) in 2015. GHTA provides a year-long curriculum in Business Management, Accounting, and English. Top graduates (based on drive, need, and grades) are provided seed-funding to start their own businesses. Planeterra funded and supported businesses launched by graduates that serve the tourism industry, as the town of Moshi where the school is located is a  popular destination for travellers hiking Mount Kilimanjaro. Businesses supported include a handicraft maker’s studio and shop, called the Moshi Mamas Cooperative, as well as the Lala Salama Spa.

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Maasai Clean Cookstoves

August 21, 2020 Planeterra Partners

Maasai Clean Cookstoves

 Rift Valley, Tanzania

Impact

So far, the Maasai Stoves & Solar Project has trained over 120 women and installed more than 4,000 stoves in more than 60 Maasai villages across the Serengeti. Planeterra connected Maasai Stoves & Solar with travellers from G Adventures and Travelsphere, and their travellers have supported over 250 of the stoves installed, with each new stove removing 90% of indoor smoke in a family’s home. The engineering team has also created 11 widow support groups that provide social support for widowed women across a number of villages. 

15
women employed
1,250
community members benefitting

Critical Need

Household air pollution through traditional cooking practices over an open-fire stove or inefficient fuel burning stove is the fourth biggest health risk in the world. Four million people die worldwide each year from exposure to cookstove smoke that causes cancer, pneumonia, heart and lung disease, blindness and burns. Close to half of the pneumonia deaths among children under five can be linked back to the inhalation of particulate matter from indoor smoke. Every eight seconds, smoke from traditional indoor cooking fires claims a life.

The Maasai Stoves & Solar Project has developed a local solution to the problem of indoor air pollution, and have engineered clean cookstoves that can be easily installed into homesteads across East Africa. Affordable and made with local materials, they’re even installed alongside solar lights by an all-female team of engineers.

Our Involvement

Planterra helped the Maasai Stoves & Solar Project to develop an educational experience around the installation of their stoves, and it is their first revenue-generating program related to tourism. The visit is led by the organization’s all-female engineer team, which takes travellers to experience the air quality of a boma (homestead) with and without a clean cookstove. The tour pays for the cost of a new stove in the homes that do not have one. Along with the stoves, the entire boma also receives solar power, increasing security and safety in the homes.

Maasai Stoves & Solar works closely with Maasai women to incorporate their ideas into the stove construction. Through a training course, women become experts of stove and solar panel installation in their villages and neighboring villages. They have also begun training community members on more sustainable methods to create cow feed to avoid environmental destruction due to overgrazing.

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Nyamirambo Community Tour

August 21, 2020 Planeterra Partners

Nyamirambo Women's Center

Kigali, Rwanda

Impact

The Nyamirambo Women’s Center launched the product line “Umutima” – including housewares and children’s wear, employing women from the community, at a fair wage for their work. At the moment there are 50 women employed as seamstresses, and women from various other cooperatives contribute their weaving talents through contracts with Nyamirambo.

As part of NWC’s goals to promote women in tourism, the center has started to offer a community walking tour and lunch. The community-based tour runs in Nyamirambo community of Kigali, giving visitors an insight into the every-day life and challenges, social events and businesses. It also employs six local guides to facilitate and organize the tours. Travellers obtain an authentic experience and at the same time, the tour benefits the women at NWC and the community at large.

78
women employed
390
community members benefitting

Critical Need

Many Rwandan women face gender-based violence, inequality, and discrimination. The Nyamirambo Women’s Center (NWC) opened in 2007 to provide education and training to disadvantaged women so that they can gain better opportunities for employment. To fulfill its mandate, NWC offers the community different activities, such as free classes in literacy, English, basic computer skills, handicrafts and sewing, and training on gender-based violence and women’s empowerment.

In order to ensure they can support their community, the Nyamirambo Women’s Center started taking advantage of the tourism industry in Kigali by offering community tours, cooking classes and craft workshops.

Our Involvement

Planeterra partnered with Nyamirambo Women’s Center in order to increase the number of customers they were receiving to their newly-developed tourism program, which includes a walking tour of the businesses of the Nyamirambo area of Kigali, showing travellers what it’s like to live in this vibrant community. Their other tourism experiences include a local cooking class and lunch. Planeterra was able to connect Nyamirambo Women’s Center with the travellers from G Adventures’ group tours, who now visit the organization to learn about their work, purchase handicrafts, and enjoy the walking tour and lunch.

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August 21, 2020 Planeterra Partners

Café Ubuntu

Nakuru, Kenya

Impact

“I am deeply passionate about enabling others who may not have hope, because my own life is a testimony that it is possible to rise from the ashes. After joining Ubuntu, my life was never the same again. I finally felt at home, after having been discriminated against in my native community because of my son’s condition. I have five children between the ages of 12 and 29. Mike, my 15-year-old, has special needs. Before joining Ubuntu, I worked menial jobs to earn some income. Then Ubuntu taught me to sew. I had no prior training in the trade, but over the course of one year, I learned. We created things from scratch. And I harnessed these new skills and it helped change my life exponentially. I became part of the growth and development of Ubuntu Made. I now have a great sense of purpose. I have a renewed hope for making a better future for my children.” – Alice Njeri, one of the Ubuntu Makers

400
people directly impacted
1,200
community members indirectly benefitting

Critical Need

Maai Mahiu town is located along the major tourist and trade route in East Africa.  This route is also known as the AIDS Highway due to the truck drivers who travel it propelled the spread of the disease. As adults become ill or die, they leave an ever-growing population of orphaned or abandoned children to fend for themselves on the garbage-strewn streets.  These hardships along with the communities roughly 80% unemployment rate makes it extremely difficult to build and empower themselves and those around them. The Ubuntu Team realized that lasting change begins with creating jobs, and building opportunities that empower the local community to take ownership of their own lives so that they can begin building a brighter future for their families and the wider community.

Our Involvement

Our ground partners, Ubuntu Team, empower communities and create jobs through social impact businesses in Kenya, including Ubuntu Made, Ubuntu Cafe, and Ubuntu School. Our corporate partners support Ubuntu Made and Ubuntu Cafe by incorporating a visit to the Cafe in their Kenya tours. Through intentional purchasing decisions, our corporate partners are helping provide a customer base for the Ubuntu Team, which, in turn, offers jobs for marginalized women in Kenya. Travellers enjoy a complimentary meal at Ubuntu Cafe and have the opportunity to shop for locally and internationally sold products as memorable and impactful souvenirs. These social businesses also support Ubuntu School, which addresses injustices affecting the community of children with special needs by providing therapy, education, and vocational training.

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Mto wa Mbu

August 21, 2020 Planeterra Partners

Mto wa Mbu Cultural Tourism

Monduli, Tanzania

Impact

Mama Yusuphu and her family, including Aziza, pictured below, are cooks who host a meal that is part of Mto wa Mbu’s tour of the area. Visitors eat a traditional meal cooked and served at one of the host families in the village, allowing many households to benefit from the tours. The benefits from Mto wa Mbu’s community tourism initiative are invested back into community development projects like sanitation projects for the local schools. They also run a training program, where youth pursuing a career in tourism can shadow tours while they are studying at university.

475
people employed
2,380
community members benefitting

Critical Need

Nestled in the Monduli district outside of the Tanzanian city of Arusha is the community of Mto wa Mbu, meaning “river of mosquitos.” In a country where the unemployment rate hovers just above 10%, Mto wa Mbu Cultural Tourism Enterprises is providing jobs to locals, including women, in an innovative and sustainable way that celebrates local culture and heritage. Boosting the economies of villages and towns near national parks also increases the protection of the environment, biodiversity and curbs urban migration and loss of culture and heritage. The Mto wa Mbu people are successfully celebrating their heritage and people while protecting the valuable natural resources and wildlife alongside which they coexist.  

Our Involvement

Planeterra works alongside Mto wa Mbu Cultural Tourism Enterprises to monitor the positive effects of tourism on the village, which runs multiple experiences for travellers such as bike tours, cultural experiences, and delicious meals.

Along with empowering community members through employment and economic opportunities through an influx of visitors willing to purchase goods such as handicrafts, Mto wa Mbu also has a Village Development Fund. This means a portion of the funds raised through tourism are invested back into the area for improvements to schools, sanitation and water.

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!Khwa ttu San Cultural Centre

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!Khwa ttu San Cultural Centre

Cape Town North, South Africa

Impact

The ||Kabbo Academy takes on approximately 30 students per year for their seven-month program, with a combined total impact that spans approximately 150 dependents across a number of countries in Southern Africa. The implementation of the sustainability training into the ||Kabbo Academy has helped the graduates learn practical skills that they can implement at home. Having international travellers and a new educational tour has also given the graduates and !Khwa ttu staff the opportunity to interact with more international travellers, and practice their English and public-speaking skills.

40
people employed
400
community members benefitting

Critical Need

There are currently around 113,000 San scattered across six countries in Southern Africa, whose ancestors are the earliest visible inhabitants of Southern Africa. The San are increasingly thinking of themselves as ‘First People’ or ‘Indigenous People’, a step that aligns them with the histories and empowerment of ‘First Peoples’ around the world.

Like many other ‘Indigenous People’, the languages, cultures and home ranges of the San are under very considerable threat from the fast changes to their world. They are now amongst the most marginalized and poverty-stricken peoples in Southern Africa.

Our Involvement

Planeterra worked with their partners at G Adventures to help the staff at !Khwa ttu and their trainees at the ||Kabbo Academy to develop a one-of-a-kind tour which will not only educate travellers about San culture and language but will also include information about how the training program is changing lives. Planeterra also provided !Khwa ttu with a grant to be used to enhance the organization’s “Green Team”, adding additional sustainability training into the ||Kabbo Academy, which graduates can implement in their home regions.

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AidChild’s Café & Gallery

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AidChild’s Café & Gallery

Kayabwe (Equator), Uganda

Impact

In 2002, AidChild was chosen by USAID, the Uganda Ministry of Health, and the CDC as a model for pediatric HIV/AIDS care for the continent. Through this model, AidChild has served thousands of children, and has graduates and students in the fields of education, medicine, pharmacy, fine arts, cosmetology, and engineering. By supporting A.L.I’s businesses, travellers are having a direct and positive impact on the lives of the youth and children in their care.

52
HIV positive youth benefitting

Critical Need

There are approximately 130,000 children under the age of 14 living with HIV in Uganda. These HIV-positive children and youth are in need of support, medical care, and education that enables them to live long, healthy lives—and to transition from “vulnerable” to powerful. The AidChild Leadership Institute (A.L.I.) provides tutoring, leadership coaching, job-skills training, language development, music education, nutrition and wellness support to the older children or “interns” in the organization’s care. AidChild’s Human Development Centre (H.D.C.) is a creation of the organization’s senior interns at A.L.I., offering psychosocial support and innovative pedagogy in early childhood education for 30 babies and children daily.

Our Involvement

As much as 70% of the A.L.I. budget is covered by the businesses under their corporate label, including AidChild’s Café and Gallery, located where a highway crosses the equator line in Kayabwe, Uganda. Planeterra has partnered with A.L.I. and provided them with a grant to upgrade their kitchen, which once struggled to meet the needs of the busy café. A grant has also been given to provide training to the nine staff members working at the café and gallery. 

Planeterra connected the café with travellers from their tourism industry partners, where they have a meal at AidChild’s Café and Gallery, supporting the charity’s sustainable business so that more funds can be channelled towards A.L.I.’s innovative new models of care.

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Soa Zara

August 21, 2020 Planeterra Partners

Soa Zara

Ranohira, Madagascar

Impact

Soa Zara and the ITC Lodge employ eight full-time and four part-time staff and their association is made up of five members which include someone from the forestry department and two community members. Soa Zara also works with the local community of Ranohira on a number of community programs that enhance their environmental work. Their “energy tree” project in the town is encouraging the community to grow and use trees solely for the purpose of firewood and charcoal (like fast-growing acacia and eucalyptus) and to discourage the cutting of forests. This project will also protect the longevity of the tree-planting project. 

Soa Zara is working to protect Madagascar’s natural environment while empowering its people, and the result will be the reforestation of the area around Ranohira.  This will lead to a renewal of habitat for species like endangered lemurs, but also expand the current ecosystem within Isalo National Park. 

33
people employed
198
Community members benefitting

Critical Need

Madagascar is home to an abundance of plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. However, because of destruction by humans, the island has lost 90% of its original forests, cleared mostly to make way for agriculture and to be used for fuel. This makes deforestation a major issue in Madagascar, and along with it, the vulnerability of many unique animal species.  

L’Association Soa Zara was founded in 2016, and since then they have planted more than 100,000 trees. Soa Zara has two tree-planting initiatives – the first is a project to replant a forest corridor between Ranohira and Isalo National Park, which will create a green corridor for future rescued lemurs and encourage the repopulation of the area’s wildlife. Green corridors are especially important in Madagascar, as the fragmentation of forests means wildlife can’t migrate and breed outside of small groups created because of isolation caused by deforestation.  

Our Involvement

Planeterra has partnered with Soa Zara to create a tree planting activity for travellers staying at the ITC Lodge. Travellers get hands-on planting their own trees in the “green corridor” next to the Isalo National Park, and learn about the reforestation project.

Along with this steady stream of income from the tree planting experience, Planeterra is helping to support Soa Zara’s current washbasin project. In order to protect the nearby river from pollution, Soa Zara is working with the local women’s cooperative to create a washbasin station and water filtration system in Ranohira, which will allow the community to do their laundry in a safe environment without polluting nearby water systems. This is just one of their many community outreach programs that seeks to bridge the protection of the environment with economic development for the people of Ranohira.

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Penduka

August 21, 2020 Planeterra Partners

Penduka

Windhoek, Namibia

Impact

By ensuring a customer base, Planeterra connected Penduka to a reliable revenue stream for their restaurant. An added bonus is that while waiting for their lunch boxes, travellers visit the workshop to learn more about the work done at Penduka, and often shop for souvenirs to bring home. As a result, travellers are also making a difference in the lives of the cooperative’s women and 350 others, who do not work on the property but are contracted out from various villages in rural Namibia.

81
people employed
405
Community members benefitting

Critical Need

Namibia paid special attention to gender equality and women’s empowerment during the formation of the country’s constitution, and significant gains have been made since then, including increased school enrollment for girls, and political representation for women. However, there is still much improvement left to make for women in the country’s socio-economic sphere. The patriarchal nature of many local cultures combined with the impacts of the HIV/AIDS crisis mean women often face an uphill battle, particularly in women-headed households. Employment opportunities, particularly those that take into account the special circumstances of those living with conditions or illnesses such as HIV are needed throughout the country.

Our Involvement

Planeterra has partnered with Penduka, a women-owned-and-run business in the Katutura Township outside of Windhoek, which employs at-risk women, many of whom are living with chronic illness or are differently-abled. Planeterra provided Penduka with a link to more than 1,500 international travellers and assisted them in the creation of a takeaway-style lunch for travellers heading out of Windhoek to explore the rest of the country.

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Canada Not-for-Profit Corporation Number: 793488-2, US 501 (c)(3) public charity, EIN 83-1619668