We do everything we can to not only be good neighbours with the villages around us but to also make a positive impact on this area. ‘Sustainable’ is an important word for us because we do our best to ensure that the community involvement and environmental work we carry out is sustained in the long term. We have carried out numerous projects over the years, which we continue to manage and oversee, always undertaking and taking on new ones.

Community work

A cross section of the many projects we have undertaken include:

• Installing rainwater collection tanks in the villages for safe drinking water at schools, community centres and mosques
• Employing people from the village specifically for beach clean up
• In conjunction with the Tanzanian government, we facilitate patrols for bad fishing practices and mangrove protection
• In the past we have had adult literacy programs with our staff and villagers, employing a qualified teacher for this purpose
• We contribute money/levy to the village for each guests’ bed night

We have partnered with organisations and helped with the facilitation of other projects in this area, including:  

• Students from Purdue University have donated laptops, educational supplies and stationary and sports equipment to local schools
• Purdue students have also funded a library which we are building presently. The students also collected 5000+ books for the library
• Secondary students have helped build a pre-school from scratch, now with 2 classrooms, a store and office
• International and Tanzanian school students have helped build desks for local schools
• We have had students do great work on reef rehabilitation, building reefballs with local our local villagers
• Some of our guests started doing regular homeopathic doctor visits in the village
• We have helped with the refurbishing of one clinic and supplying of another with medical equipment and supplies
• Mwakambani primary school, has been built from scratch, largely with funds from FEP partners and guests, now going onto 6 classrooms. This over the past 5 years
• Two village kitchens and community centres have been supported and partly funded by FEP and guests

Over the years we have welcomed groups of students from Tanzania and abroad. While they are here, students, besides doing community work participate in a range of fun and educational activities as well as projects like ‘flip flop’ workshops (using rubber found on the beach to make key rings), coconut grove and rock pool walks, snorkelling, kayaking, volleyball competitions and ‘survivor’ challenges. Many students have become certified open water divers with us and partners over the years too!

Educational Groups

Reflections…

We do not have ‘developed world’ phone and wifi connections on site… In this day and age, is this possibly a positive? Follows a quote by Glennon Doyle, may put some perspective to the majority.

When we hand our children phones, we steal their boredom from them…  As a result, we are raising a generation of writers who will never start writing, artists who will never start doodling, chefs who will never make a mess of the kitchen, athletes who will never kick a ball against a wall, musicians who will never pick up their aunt’s guitar and start strumming… (Glennon Doyle)