• Women’s Empowerment with Pink City Rickshaw Company - India
   
• The Street Child Cricket World Cup, supporting The Hope Foundation - India
   
• Gondar Girls Football Team – Ethiopia
   
• Gorilla Conservation and Community Education with The Pole Pole Foundation - Democratic
  Republic of Congo
   
• Classroom sponsorship at Lone Buffalo English School - Laos
   
• E-learning classroom sponsorship, supporting Camara Education - Ethiopia
   
• University Scholarship - Pakistan
   
• Baleygon Community School - Pakistan

Funding was generated mainly through a contribution from ticket sales at our now annual ‘Evening of Adventure’ at the Royal Geographical Society, London, which attracted an audience of more than 500.

Further funds were generated through ticket sales at smaller travel presentation events at the Frontline Club in London, while other funding came via the generous donations of Wild Frontiers Travel clients.

Proceeds from our major fundraiser at the Royal Geographical Society in October supported a new partnership project with the Pink City Rickshaw Company in Jaipur, India.

The Pink City Rickshaw Company is an amazing sustainable enterprise, set up by non-for-profit organisation Access Development Services, that provides innovative employment opportunities for women from low-income households in Jaipur, India as driver/guides. 

The initiative aims to empower local women, break the stereotype of a woman's role in India and provide them with the chance to develop a career and even gain shares in the company.

The ladies are also taught basic English language skills to be able to provide basic information to their visitors. The aim is not for them to provide an in-depth tour full of historical facts, but instead to allow visitors to step behind the scenes of one of India's most beautiful cities, and soak up their surroundings away from the typical tourist crowds, in addition to supporting a very important and inspiring initiative that is leading the way in experiential travel in India.

With over £4000 funds raised by the Wild Frontiers Foundation, we funded the purchase of two new electric rickshaws and will train five local women to become driver guides.

Our aim is to continue to support the ladies and the sustainability of this social enterprise by booking Wild Frontiers clients onto tours with the Pink City Rickshaw Company while in Jaipur.

We believe this initiative is responsible and sustainable tourism at its best, breaking down barriers and offering our clients a truly unique travel experience, while supporting a local enterprise that  offers disadvantaged women the chance to build a career and drastically improve the livelihoods of themselves and their families.

The ladies will undergo training and the rickshaws will be built in early 2020, ready for the start of the tourist season in India in February.

From the streets of Kolkata to Lords, the Wild Frontiers Foundation was bowled over to support members of Team North India at the 2019 Street Child Cricket World Cup.

Supporting charity partner The Hope Foundation, the Wild Frontiers Foundation helped to fund the players to travel to London to participate in the inaugural event, which saw the final played at Lords, the home of cricket.

We were thrilled to assist HOPE and offer the young people the chance to not only show off their cricketing prowess but offer them the opportunity to be ambassadors and the voices for street children across the world.

Four teenagers, Anjali, Millie, Jabir and Tarak, who live within HOPE’s care in Kolkata, joined the North India team to take on other teams from Bangladesh, South India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, England, Mauritius, Nepal and Tanzania to battle it out for the Street Child Cricket World Cup title.

Our sponsorship helped HOPE, which works with street and slum connected children in Kolkata, to obtain birth certificates, passports and visas; fund flights, sports kit, accommodation and accompanying carers to look after the children.

Obtaining birth certificates was just the first step towards recognising that these children are people not statistics. As Team North India captain Tarak put it, “when I’m playing cricket, I no longer feel like a street child, I feel like an athlete.”

In the cricket action itself, Team North India narrowly missed out on making the semi-finals but managed to beat Team Nepal with some fantastic batting and some wonderful bowling and fielding, finishing fifth out of the eight teams participating. But the real pleasure was to witness the confidence of some truly inspirational cricketers, who far from being intimidated by playing cricket on the world's biggest stage, rose to the occasion like they were born to do it. In doing so they helped raise the profile of millions of other children sharing their plight.

In the words of Monisha from the South India winning team, "If you respect us, you will listen to us, if you listen to us you will protect us. Please protect us!"

In November 2019, the Wild Frontiers Foundation established a new partnership with Link Ethiopia, to sponsor a girls’ football team and coaching programme in the northern Ethiopian town of Gondar. The programme not only develops football skills, but helps promote gender equality, self-confidence, fun and fitness for girls with otherwise little access to social growth activities.

Providing opportunities to move beyond the limitations of traditional gender roles, being part of the football team also gives the girls, aged between 13 and 16, will have the chance to learn new skills, leadership and develop a supportive network of friends.

The programme will also run regular information sessions for the 20 girls on puberty, sexual health, family planning, and the right over their bodies, along with providing menstrual hygiene management kits.

With the support of the Wild Frontiers Foundation, one of their goals for 2020 is for the team to participate in their first football tournament in Bahir Dar, and pit their skills against other girls' teams in the region. The programme kicks off in January 2020.

Since teaming up with the Pole Pole Foundation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 our community conservation and education project has enabled over 230 local people to visit the rare Eastern Lowland Gorillas they are learning to protect.

Trekking to see the gorillas and learning about their natural habitat has raised awareness of the importance of protecting these great apes among the people living in the villages bordering the Kahuzi-Biega National Park.

This unique project, which we are proud to have established alongside the Pole Pole Foundation, came about after its founder and renowned local primatologist and conservationist, John Kahakwa, invited Wild Frontiers, as an adventure travel company, to visit and help re-generate tourism in the area.

During the visit to the DR Congo, Wild Frontiers founder and foundation chairman, Jonny Bealby, had the opportunity to trek to see the gorillas and learn about the community conservation work being undertaken by the Pole Pole Foundation. It soon became apparent that the local people would have a better understanding of the gorillas and their habitat if they also had the opportunity to see them first-hand. While people travelled from around the world to see the gorillas, very few local people had the same opportunity.

‘We are so grateful to visit the national park. We had the opportunity to visit the lone gorilla, which was victim of poaching and lost a hand. We have seen him face to face in his natural habitat. Now we are going to explain to our women friends and tell our husbands and children to stop poaching in the park because as the gorillas are our neighbours it is our responsibility to protect and conserve them and their habitat.’ – the words of one of the 230 participants.

The Wild Frontiers Foundation continued its support for the Lone Buffalo English School, in Phosavan, Laos through its classroom sponsorship programme.
 

The Wild Frontiers Foundation has funded a class at the school, which nurtures students from beginner level through to gaining their high school certificate, for the past five years. We have continued to support the same cohort of students
since they joined the school three years ago, enabling us to monitor their progression from beginners at Level 1, to advanced beginner at Level 2 and now progressing through to elementary at Level 3.

The class tutor has reported an increased confidence as their English language skills develop.  The students were able to confidently converse with clients from a Wild Frontiers Travel group that visited at the end of October.

‘A massive thanks from all at Lone Buffalo for your continued support of Class 2A. Over the current term the class have almost completed their Advanced Beginner level course. The class will take their final exam soon – and most will move to level 3 (Elementary) – despite having an average age of 13!’ – Mark Steadman, co-founder Lone Buffalo, May 2019.

The Wild Frontiers Foundation works with Camara Education, an international charity and social enterprise that uses modern technology to help improve education and future opportunities in disadvantaged communities around the world by creating e-learning classrooms with recycled computers. In 2019 we committed funds to a third e-learning classroom.

The Wild Frontiers Foundation continued to support the education of a university student from the Kalash Valleys of northern Pakistan. The student, from the Kalash Valleys minority pagan community, is taking environmental studies at university. His ambition is to return to his village to help with the many environmental issues that face the vulnerable community that live a traditional lifestyle high in the mountains.
 

In 2019 The Wild Frontiers Foundation began talks with the Felix Foundation Baltistan, a locally based non-profit organisation working for the development of the people of the Hushe Valley, in northern Pakistan.

The Felix Foundation supports and manages schools in the valley, catering for approximately 1500 students from infants to secondary school.
 

With it becoming increasingly difficult to manage and monitor the Wild Frontiers Foundation sponsored school from the UK, the trustees felt it was time to look at alternative management. The introduction came via a Wild Frontiers Travel client, who had spent time volunteering with The Felix Foundation in Pakistan and lends ongoing support to the organisation from the UK.
 

The initial discussions are positive, and any progress will be reported in 2020.

 

2019 was an eventful year for the Wild Frontiers Foundation, with some fantastic new partnerships and projects established that will enable us to further support communities we visit as a travel company. With large expenditures this year, we are aiming for a bigger fundraising drive in 2020 through an initiative that will see £5 from every client booked on Wild Frontiers Travel tours, donated to the foundation. Along with our events and any other fundraising activity, we aim to raise £20,000 in 2020.

Wild Frontiers Foundation - Receipts and Payments Accounts
For the year 1st January 2019 - 31st December 2019

1. Receipts
(a) Donations/Legacies - £4,225.90
(b) Charities Trust - £959.24
(c) Just Giving - £956.56
(d) Bank Interest - £77.35
Total Receipts - £6,219.05

2. Payments
(a) J.Bealby/Khan Scholarship (Pakistan) - £1,239.80
(b) Pole Pole Foundation (DRC) - £2,777.38
(c) Hope Foundation (India) - £2,500
(d) Camara Education (Ethiopia) - £2,500
(e) Lone Buffalo (Laos) - £1,151.20
(f) Pink City Rickshaw (India) - £4,417
(g) Link Ethiopia (Girls’ Football team) - £5,000
(h) Bank charges - £85.83
(i) Website - £214.39
(j) Just giving - £216

Total Payments - £20,101.60.