Volunteer travel organization in Africa gains new accolades in Responsible Tourism

African Impact, a family-run African voluntourism organization, has been nominated for the prestigious Imvelo Responsible Tourism Award.

Built on a solid foundation of passion and pride, African Impact has taken the lead as the industry’s most renowned Africa-based volunteer travel projects. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, African Impact works in partnership with extensive office and field staff in Southern and East Africa, as well as volunteers from around the world.

Now in their eighth year, the Imvelo Awards have had a huge impact on tourism in South Africa, creating significant awareness of environmental management issues in the industry. The awards are in line with the Responsible Tourism guidelines for the South African hospitality industry and the UN World Tourism Organization’s code of ethics. Imvelo is supported by the Heritage Environmental Rating Program.

This year’s award ceremony takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 11th November 2009.

A worthy journey

Since its humble beginnings in late 2004 at their Antelope Park Lion Rehabilitation Project in Zimbabwe, African Impact’s first volunteers were welcomed with open arms. Since then, Andrew and Wendy Conolly, along with a dedicated team of managers, office and field staff, have built African Impact into a voluntourism organization of which they are immensely proud.

“Having traveled to our volunteer projects throughout Southern and East Africa, I’ve seen a lot of fascinating things and met a lot of intriguing people!” said Sarah Graham, a co-founder of African Impact.

“From camping with Masai warriors and camels in the bush of Northern Kenya while scouting a new project; to tracking leopards with experienced scouts in Southern Botswana; taking a ‘chicken bus’ up to the lip of the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, or having the time of my life reading to kids at our adopted orphanage in Mozambique, I have never failed to be continuously inspired, and re-inspired, by the people that I have met.

“Whether they were our very own African Impact project managers or participants or local partners such as headmasters in small rural schools or over-eager children with an amazing desire to learn, I am continuously awed by the beauty of the kind of humanity that can eclipse all boundaries and bring people together when working for a common cause.”

Creating real results

African Impact employs a “results-based assessment approach” to volunteer travel. The organization prefers to seek out the evidence and outputs that stand to support the work that they are doing as further proof that they are making a sustainable difference in Africa.

The African Impact team is made up of people with vast experience living, working and traveling in Africa. They raise up and invest in local staff wherever possible, and their colorful group is made up of people who have an unparalleled passion and enthusiasm for their work.

“The whole experience was absolutely incredible,” said Stuart Neath, a past volunteer to African Impact Volunteer Project in Mozambique. It was uplifting, rewarding, challenging, grounding, heart-breaking and soul-destroying in equal measure. To see the absolute joy on the faces of the children when we arrived to spend time with them, or their excitement at being given the opportunity to do something creative, was incredible. This is why I WILL do it again and why I would encourage anyone who is thinking about doing this to go and do it.”

“As a department, we truly appreciate your dedication and hope you recognise, as we do, the valuable role you play in building brighter futures for Zambia’s next generation,” reads a statement from the Zambian Ministry of Sport, Youth and Child Development. “Thank you for your continuing support. It is through the positive efforts of organisations like yours that we can change a lifetime for a child in need…”

African Impact is the largest on-the-ground facilitator of responsible volunteer projects in Southern and East Africa. In 2009 they were nominated as finalists in the World Travel Awards, as well as the prestigious Imvelo Awards, and are continuously striving to improve the nature of the work that they are doing in Africa.

“Without sounding trite, living in Africa and volunteering in this way has profoundly influenced my perspectives and outlook on life,” commented Victoria Blackwell-Hardie, another past volunteer to Kenya Medical and Community Project. “I re-evaluated my personal relationships, the way I interact with people, the things I value, my approach to material possessions, and my overall career goals. To say I loved living there would be an understatement.”

For more information on African Impact, visit www.africanimpact.com as well as www.africanimpact.com.