Ramblers Worldwide Holidays Charity UK & Abroad

Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust – what is it?

Unlike many tour operators, Ramblers Worldwide Holidays' profits are channelled back into environmental conservation projects in the UK and overseas, including Romania, Peru and Sri Lanka.

Ramblers Holidays Charitable Trust and the UK

Whilst continuing to be fully committed to supporting The Ramblers’ Association, and aware of the Trust’s objectives to ‘help all people to a greater knowledge, love and care of the countryside’, the Trust has recently expanded its grant allocation policy to include a small grants scheme.

This aims to provide financial support to a number of environmental and educational organisations in the UK. These include smaller charities that can provide an outdoor experience for the disadvantaged and disabled; outdoor education centres for inner city children and perhaps in the future, funding a variety of other programmes focussed on the countryside and outdoor activities.

Our most recent grant was to an outdoor education centre near Birmingham for the purchase of camping and ancillary equipment. This will provide an outdoor challenge for Year 6 children from inner city schools in the Birmingham area - many of whom have never visited the countryside.

Ramblers Worldwide Holidays charity abroad

We try to put something back into the local communities that provide the backdrop and interest for our holidays. Recent projects include:

South Africa

We are sponsoring a new primary school built by one of our hotels in the Drakensberg to support local children from disadvantaged homes. Providing these children with a solid foundation will help them gain access to good secondary schools and allow them to reach their full potential, hopefully giving back to the community in which they grew up.

Ghorepani

1990 - 2000 Nepal. We financed the introduction of a water supply, the building and running of a local school, and finally the building of a medical post in the village of Ghorepani. These projects were finally taken under control of the villagers themselves in 2000.

Romania

Ongoing since 1999.  We fund a project on the outskirts of Bucharest to house and train youngsters in utility skills. Most of the young people had previously been living on the streets of Bucharest.

Many Ramblers who have been on our Nepal and Romania holidays have visited the school/workshop to see, first-hand, the teaching and resulting levels of skill achieved by the young people.

Peru

The Yavari project is restoring a steamboat (The Yavari) on Lake Titicaca. The boat was built in Britain in pieces, before being transported to Peru where it was carried on mules from sea level to 15,000ft at the lake. The boat is being restored using local labour and is set to become a big tourist attraction, which should again increase local employment.

Samos

Greece. Following the extensive forest fires in 2000 on the island of Samos which cleared all vegetation from 20% of the island's hillsides, we commissioned and funded a report by an environmental expert from Kew Gardens to evaluate the best way to ensure the regeneration of the forests and protection of the landscapes.

Sri Lanka

We are supporting a Sri-Lankan orphanage that is run by Buddhist monks looking after traumatised children following the 2004 Tsunami.

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