The Exodus Travels Foundation are supporting REACT Disaster Response to deliver humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable, in hard to reach parts of Türkiye and Syria following the devastating earthquakes. The affected people desperately need heaters, shelter, blankets, sleeping mats, thermal clothes and camp beds. There’s also demand for first aid and medical care, kitchen kits, potable water and ready-to-eat food.
Times have been really tough in this area as a result of the pandemic, with the cost-of-living rocketing and people have been unable to buy the basics. Through our Zambia COVID relief appeal, in partnership with a local organisation Baraka, we supported a number of families this region.
A month’s worth of food (mealie meal, soya chunks and cooking oil) was given to 12 of our local trek and other support staff and their families, and 125 vulnerable kids and their families. Most of those children are attendees of the Learning Centre and 40 of them are young people who attend the Chawama Child Development Trust – a football organisation based in a poor shanty town in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, that encourages education through sport.
As the pandemic continued into 2021, many families and communities across India and Nepal started struggling to get by. Our COVID emergency relief appeal provided over 1000 food parcels to 1755 people in need, including 200 tribal families in India, 21 children at Angel’s Children’s Home in Nepal, 6 elderly people at Kyanjin Gompa Old People’s Home in Nepal, 108 trek staff across Nepal and India and 124 families in Nepal after the flooding.
The Exodus Foundation donated to two organisations, WIRES and Red Cross Australia, who were working tirelessly on the ground in extremely dangerous conditions to evacuate stranded local folks and rescue native animals trapped by the bushfires that so tragically ripped through the country in 2019.
Our affinity with Nepal dates all the way back to our very first overland expedition in 1974. So, when two momentous earthquakes devastated huge parts of the country in 2015, affecting tens of thousands of people, our staff, partners, and customers alike were called to action. Thanks to the staggering generosity of everyone who donated, Exodus Travels raised an incredible £270,000 for emergency relief including medicine and food supplies to very remote communities. Longer-term projects were also funded to aid the recovery of the region, including the rebuilding of three schools, numerous homes, and the establishment of a 3-day medical camp for those badly affected in the Thulopatel region. Exodus Travels supplied 1,920 tarpaulins, 79 tin shelters, and building materials for 87 homes that were destroyed during the months of April and May of 2015.
As Nepal began to rebuild in the aftermath of the earthquakes, Exodus Travels were there every step of the way helping in whatever ways that we could.
Our partnership with the remote village of Tighza, nestled in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and its inhabitants has a long history. In November 2014, Morocco was ravaged by storms which severely hit Tighza. Countless buildings were ruined; damaged by falling rocks or washed away by flash floods. Crops, livelihoods, and homes were destroyed in just one weekend. In conjunction with our charity partner, Baraka Community Partnerships, we organised a delivery of emergency aid and set up a relief fund to aid the long-term recovery of the village we are so fond of.
Most of us can vividly remember the day that the Tsunami hit Sri Lanka causing colossal death, damage, and destruction to the island nation in its path. In the aftermath, Exodus Travels teamed up with ‘Back to Life’ Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with a vow to rebuild 25 homes and provide other essential aid.
