deeaspirit yoga retreats offer something back to the local community, on your retreat in The Gambia, some of your money will go towards funding local projects in the village and surrounding communities.
During your retreat you will be staying at Safari Garden Hotel - located in Fajara
Eco Tourism and how Safari Garden makes a difference:
Although Safari Garden Hotel is located in a residential area that does not include a 'traditional community', all of the staff are local people who travel a short distance to work from adjacent urban areas. All staff have paid holidays and many are sponsored to undertake training courses.
Some of these are not directly related to their present job but are career-enhancing course. The hotel therefore spends a great deal of time and energy finding ways to benefit the community & of staff, setting up a Staff Welfare Fund and regularly paying for staffs major health needs.
Solar water heating systems have been made at the hotel in conjunction with the Gambia Technical Training Institute, using materials supplied by the hotel to enable the training of their students. The hotel commission local craftsmen to make furniture, uniforms, napery and many other items.
Safari garden was the first hotel to sign a contract with 'Gambia is Good'; a wholesale organisation assisting local farmers to get local vegetables on hotel tables. The hotel buy as much of their food, meat, fish and vegetables as locally as they can and compost kitchen waste, do not heat water and employ local women rather than machines to do the hotel laundry, use natural rather than chemical sprays for mosquito control and use no fertiliser or pesticides in the hotel gardens; which receive constant praise for their lushness and beauty.
During your retreat you will also experience a unique opportunity to camp amongst the brightest of stars in a beautiful and friendly village approximately 40 minutes away from Fajara.
Kartong is a wonderful place to unwind and it is here that you will really begin to experience a taste of Gambian community living.
The owners of the Safari Garden Hotel have been creating something very magical here for the past few years, they are currently building a real eco and learning project called 'Sandale Eco-retreat and Learning centre'
which is a joint venture between the village of Kartong and Gamspirit (Safari Garden owners company). The aim of the company is to provide a unique cultural experience for its guests, whilst generating local employment opportunities and contributing to the local economy.
The learning centre will encourage people to engage in sustainable activities,learning about the culture,and taking part in crafts, music, drama, dance spiritual or similar interests.
Gamspirit has been working with Kartong Village development committee and plans to increase the project in several phases, the first phase will be powered with solar panels while later phases will see the introduction of a wind turbine to take advantage of the regular winds. Maurice has provided equipment and training in natural construction techniques -building with locally sourced earth. The company pledges to ensure 70% of its employees are Kartonkas, it will donate a third of its profit annually to the village, and the whole project will be signed over to the ownership of the village in 25 years.
Both the project, and its philosophy and ethics are amazing, with positive testimonies from the local community - a first class example of eco-tourism.
Offsetting your Air Travel deepaspirit understands the negative impacts of air pollution on the environment, therefore retreat makers are encouraged to take responsibility for their travel by offsetting their air travel carbon emissions.
Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and WWF jointly recommend we buy only offsets that fund: ''energy efficiency or renewable energy projects which support the transition to non-fossil fuel based energy systems, projects which make a valid contribution to sustainable development and deliver a real additional emission saving" - http://www.nealsyardagency.com/
