EVA Travel

I don't exactly know how old EVA Travel is. I feel like I've been doing this for at least 100 years, but today marks one year since we first took at tour group to Morocco. And here we are in Marrakech one year later doing what was originally planned to be the last tour. And oh my goodness me, what a year it has been.

So the first tour to Morocco was a steep learning curve for me. The girls who travelled on that tour nearly all tell me how much they enjoyed it but it was quite the adventure. We were in the Sahara Desert for a once in a lifetime flood where we thought our Riad was going to be washed away- literally. We saw grass growing in the sand dunes and while I think my reports of seagulls was possibly a slight exaggeration, there were definitely new species in the area of the floods. We had spent the previous evening making desert bread in the parched heat and woke to a Lake in place of sand.

But floods aside, I've learned a lot in a year. Most of my regular readers will know that I did not intentionally set out on this journey but once the wheels were in motion I didn't feel I had much choice but to carry on. The truth is that EVA is not one person, it's this amazing community of people from all parts of the world who believe in contributing to communities in need in a small way while also learning more about the culture of the country and having an immersive authentic experience.

I've become more clear over these 12 months about what we should look like. The two most important elements are the give-back projects and the EVA community. In terms of the projects, I have travelled far and wide over the last year meeting people who would like us to support them. When making that decision, I take into account the benefit to the wider community or wildlife project and look at how any money we donate will be protected and used. By and large, I try to work with small established NGO's so that we can monitor the accounts. We're pretty far down the road now of the EVA Travel Foundation so that donations made from your tour fee can be visibly seen to be helping those projects. And in a larger sense I want to have a broad range of opportunities so that we aren't just doing the same thing over and over.

To that end, in the past 12 months the EVA community have distributed menstrual pads to vulnerable girls in Tanzania and been present for their sexual violence lesson, planted mango and avocado trees at the school to start to provide a sustainable food source and worked in the local kinship community house to provide food and clothing to the children. Many of those kids lost one or both parents to HIV, so while we aren't yet tackling this head on, it might be part of what we do in the future,

In Northern Ireland we had a really wonderful time, but along with the fun and the history we helped a remote island community restore a greenhouse to ensure they had access to fresh produce when the storms come and they are cut off for days from the mainland. We were also privileged to watch the 'jumplings'- baby birds being given a hard life lesson after getting shoved off a cliff to sink or swim in the ferocious wild north Atlantic. We believe most or all of them swam!

Our trip to Uganda resulted in one of our members Anita Rackerby building a school on the side of a mountain in the dense Bwindi forest. The children there had no school and when we were there in February, Anita followed the sounds of their singing and found them sitting at the back of the church as they didn't have a school. She's an amazing member of the EVA community and if they needed a school Anita and her friends in California made sure they got one. We returned in August for the opening of the school and it was a humbling experience. And that wasn't just the chicken I bought at the auction- we were reminded again of how lucky we are. On that trip we hiked in our best clobber to the top of a mountain to visit a tribe of Batwa, delivering 34 football strips donated by KitAid. If you see a pygmy in an Aston Villa strip in Uganda, you'll know who brought it there.

By the end of this year we'll have done our second tour of Morocco, 3 trips to Tanzania and our first trip to Cambodia and Laos. In 2026 EVA will add Borneo, Nepal, Rwanda/Uganda/Gorillas, Ethiopia and Namibia. It's an overused word, but it really is exciting.

But none of this is possible without the amazing EVA community. You know what it means to undertake a give-back trip. It's not 5 star travel and some of you have been to places where the only stars were in the sky. We are privileged to be invited into homes and communities- often where it hasn't happened before. You are unfailingly respectful and unassuming. I won't say non-complaining because lets face it we're human, but taking all the privations in good spirit for the most part.

I appreciate you all- every last one of you. For my part, I have ensured that all of the money you place in my trust is protected. I am conscious of my age and the need for a succession and protection plan so I have worked with Inspired to be sure all the right measures are in place. Your trips booked through EVA are protected against the ghost of Bamboo.

So as I sit in here in a sweltering Marrackech with a group of 10 truly delightful people, I am thankful to all of you in the EVA community for not just continuing with give back travel but for putting your trust in me to bring you to this point. We've come a long way and I know in my heart that we will continue to bring light and hope to some dark places in the world.

Here's to what has been an amazing 12 months and here's to many more

Sheila