Explore Worldwide has launched the Explore Foundation, a registered charity to facilitate meaningful relationships between travellers and the communities they visit that positively contribute to the lives of people around the world.
It comes as a recent Explore survey of 1,000 Aussies found a lack of awareness (32%), knowledge (30%) and information about how to give back (30%) were barriers to supporting local communities visited.
Explore Foundation will support grassroots projects that target poverty, promote conservation and increase access to education and healthcare, starting with two projects: One Bike in Tanzania and Lone Buffalo in Laos.
Lone Buffalo’s Develop Together program gives secondary school students access to learning opportunities to encourage them to reach their full academic potential.
One Bike is a social enterprise that uses bicycles to empower the local community through education, environmental awareness and sustainable tourism.
Explore has already worked with both organisations with 100 per cent of all contributions going directly to these initiatives plus more projects to follow.
To celebrate the launch, Explore will match One Bike donations in July 2023 up to the value of 25 new bikes. With an initial donation of 50 bikes provided by Explore Foundation, they hope to fund 100 new bikes this month.
Explore’s sustainability journey
Explore Worldwide Managing Director Michael Edwards said the establishment of the Explore Foundation has been a long-standing goal.
“We’re incredibly proud of what we do at Explore, giving travellers a fantastic time and memories that last a lifetime. But launching a foundation is probably one of the single things that we’re most proud of in our 41-year history.”
“We put purpose alongside profit and we know travel can be a real force for good in the world.
“This is the next step in our sustainability strategy and it’s going to be absolutely core to what we do in the future.”
Find out more about Explore Worldwide’s sustainability journey here.
For more info, head to theexplore.foundation
