All hands on deck: Keeping our projects going with no volunteers

Back at the start of July, we announced our plans to maintain our commitments to our partner communities, staff and projects, despite having no travelling volunteers these past few months.

Well, what a journey it’s been. We’ve kept on the vast majority of our local crew throughout the pandemic, redeploying our teams to project sites in order to maintain our work on as many project commitments as possible.

If you’ve been following our stories on Instagram, you’ll have seen the amazing progress our in-country teams have made over the past few months. We’re proud to say that they have kept the #CampsEffect very much alive in the most vulnerable rural communities.

The work doesn’t stop here – and we’re continuing to develop our project plans even further for the rest of the year. But for now, we wanted to bring you an update on the progress made so far and the exciting projects that our 2021 travellers will be picking up on when our next expedition season arrives.

Africa

Due to travel restrictions and project focuses, our Africa team have focused all project development in Kenya over the past few months.

Our team have been working hard to establish a new organic permaculture farm for the local community – a brand new project we’ve developed which is needed now more than ever. We have built vegetable beds, a tree nursery, worm farm and pond and have already harvested kale, tomatoes and okra. The produce that is grown here will be sold to the local community, giving them access to cheap, nutritious fruits and vegetables.

This project has been designed to be as sustainable and self-sufficient as possible. Everything is organic and all the materials used are recycled. Old tents have become compost covers, bed frames have been used to construct the tree nursery and our old Camps truck has become the new farm HQ! The worm farm will be used to create rich fertilisers for the crops and the pond is home to insects that will keep any future pests at bay.

Our future Camp Kenya volunteers will get to take part in the exciting next phase of this project, as we start to harvest the produce and expand the farm.

Asia

The team in Cambodia have been working hard on several different projects that provide local communities with a clean water supply. In Camp Beng Pae, we have built a well next to the local community centre and carried out the vital yearly maintenance to the dam. This dam is important to the community in order to prevent floods that might cause destruction to homes and crops.

In Camp Beng Mealea, we built water pots that will be used to collect water during the rainy season as well as planting rice for a local family. This will provide vital water and food security during the upcoming monsoon season.

The Borneo crew have been continuing our pre-existing projects, ensuring we maintain our commitments to the local communities. In Camp Tinangol, we have been working on continuing the large-scale community centre project that was started in 2017. We have now plastered the walls ready for our next groups of volunteers to paint and decorate.

We also installed rafters and laid the roof on a new community centre in the village of Timbang Batu. When completed, this centre will act as a hub for the community where they can hold events, meetings and celebrations.

Over at Camp Bongkud, the team continued work on a youth centre. This youth centre will be used for indoor activities, workshops and classes that aim to support and teach new skills to local youths and is a vital resource for developing the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of young people in the area.

Due to strict lockdown restrictions in place throughout Latin America, our teams have been unable to work on the proposed projects that we had originally planned.

We’re keeping a close eye on the situation and, as soon as it is safe to do so, will be putting into action the plans we’ve developed to support the communities in and around our camps.

To find out more about all of these projects, make sure you keep an eye out for our Instagram story highlights. Here you can see updates on project progress and find out more about how each project will benefit the local community.

We really cannot wait to welcome our volunteers back to camp when safe travel commences again. The social impact of these projects is now more crucial than ever, and with your help, we will be able to expand our impact and make sure no-one gets left behind.