Press

Check out the latest press coverage relating to our projects, achievements and volunteers here.

If you are a member of the press and need further information on any aspect of our projects and trips please feel free to call either James or Jamie on the details below:

Press Contacts

James Chetwode
Marketing Manager
Phone: +44 (0)1425 485 390
Mobile: +44 (0)7872 548 440
Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

AND

Jamie Donald
Press Officer
Phone: +44 (0)1425 485 390
Mobile: +44 (0)7921 780 498
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Address:
Camps International Ltd
Unit 10 Kingfisher Park
Headlands Business Park
Salisbury Road
Ringwood
BH24 3NX
United Kingdom

Overview

Camps International are a multi award-winning expedition company with 9 years experience running Gap and School trips around the world. We are happy to assist you with any issues relating to outdoor education or volunteering abroad. Please find below links to our latest press releases, if you need to contact any relevant member of staff for an interview please use the contacts above.

For Immediate Release

2 July 2011

Camps International comment on new guidelines for school trips.

Camps International this year will be responsible for sending over 1,000 school pupils, aged 10 and upwards on school trips abroad. The pupils will stay in camps owned and managed by Camps International in Africa, Asia and South America.

Camps International is one of only 7 providers to have been given the Learning Outside the Classroom (LoTC) safety and quality badge for overseas expeditions.

Commenting on the news that The Department for Education has told schools and local authorities to ditch “unnecessary paperwork” for school trips, Stuart Rees Jones, founder and CEO of Camps International said:

“We welcome the loosening of red tape but only if it is done hand in hand with ensuring that providers can still provide real assurance that school trips will be run safely. The relatively new LOtC safety and quality badge for overseas expeditions puts the onus on the provider of the trip to be independently assessed against all the criteria that the school would have previously had to wade through themselves - at the cost of the provider - so saving cost and time for schools.”

For further comment or case studies, please contact:

James Donald
Camps International
M: 07921 780498
E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
W: www.campsinternational.com

Learning Outside The Classroom: www.lotcqualitybadge.org.uk

Notes for Editors

Camps International own and manage camps in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The camps are set at the heart of local communities and the work undertaken by volunteers benefits these communities in a sustainable way.

Before a camp is established, Camps International agrees and guarantees objectives with the local community to enhance their way of life, protect their environment and conserve the local wildlife. These objectives translate into the projects that pupils on school trips and gap year students will be involved working with.

When school trips and gap year students embark on their expedition, they are not handed over to agents or other organisers. They stay within the Camps International infrastructure at all times as the company runs all its ground operations – the only company of its kind that does.

The camps are all well supported – they are built using both local materials and workforce and Camps International buys whatever resources they can locally. Camps International also employ over 150 staff locally to provide around the clock communications, vehicle servicing, food supplies, stores, security and operational support.

As Camps International employs and trains these people who run the camps, they are of the highest standard. All camps are strategically located near to approved medical facilities and the local staff rehearse medical and emergency procedures.

The accommodation in camp ranges from traditional thatched buildings and longhouses to a simple dome tent or even a hammock in the jungle. The kitchens act as the heart of any camp and the staff work hard to create a great standard of food for most dietary requirements, regardless of power cuts, monsoon rains and supply trucks breaking down.

Working on the camp’s projects forms the majority of the expedition, but depending on which trip students go on, there are also opportunities for mountain trekking, jungle trekking, Scuba courses and wildlife watching.

Volunteers all fund their own expeditions. The whole experience teaches them to be independent, resourceful and opens their eyes to the larger world apart from their own home experience. This is a great boost to either their university or future career application.

Camps International In Figures

• £5,000,000 plus invested
• 600,000 plus trees planted
• 30,000 plus people benefitted
• 5,000 plus volunteers
• 200 plus schools travelled
• 150 plus locally employed staff
• 30 plus schools built
• 10 plus tonnes of marine refuse removed