Improve lives and livelihoods on Giving Tuesday
It truly takes a village to make change happen. Especially in this season of gratitude, AKP is thankful for our donors’ support.
One factor in our ability to make a difference in the lives and livelihoods of our community partners is that we can be responsive to emergency needs, opportunities for maximum impact and community priorities. We live and breathe in these communities through lodges and boats and by delivering an exceptional guest experience.
November 28 is Giving Tuesday, a day of giving worldwide. We invite you to remain part of the global travel village — specifically those small, often rural areas where we operate. Below, we have highlighted four of the highest priorities identified by our community partners. By making an AKP General Donation on Giving Tuesday, your gift will benefit children in Peru, Ugandans seeking health care, remote villagers in Cambodia or the women and their families in Nkuringo, Uganda.
Thank you for your steadfast support and consideration in making a gift on Giving Tuesday.
Empowering women entrepreneurs and providing communities with transportation
Our Bike Enterprise Program has sent nearly 17,000 bicycles overseas to our global community partners in Zambia, Jordan, Uganda, Egypt and Tanzania.
In remote communities, lack of transportation is a big obstacle to receiving health care, attending school and going to work. AKP’s bike shops empower local communities through mobility.
Each women-owned shop in Africa is established as an independent social enterprise. Female entrepreneurs are trained to repair bikes and manage a business, allowing them to support their families through earned income. AKP and its partner, Working Bikes, fill a shipping container with bikes and send it overseas to establish new shops. Once it arrives, the women sell the bikes, setting aside a percentage for salary, spare parts and business licenses, as well as a portion to pay for their resupply shipments.
Since the Chipego Bike Shop in Nakatindi, Zambia, opened in 2015, it has been restocked 14 times. The model has been so successful that it has been replicated in Tanzania and Uganda, where a new shop is set to open next year.
There is already one bike shop near the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and it is thriving. The new shop will be located in Nkuringo, on the Kisoro side. Donations will support the first shipment, which will allow the women to launch their business and start earning money to support their families.
Transforming children’s lives in the Sacred Valley of Peru
For the last 15 years, AKP has impacted the Children of the Rainbow School students. We have built classrooms, provided educational resources, improved facilities and supported the school’s feeding program.
Located in the province of Urubamba in Cusco, Peru, the school serves the Sacred Valley, home to the world’s most direct descendants of the Inca Empire. Though most travellers know the Sacred Valley as the location of the ruins of Machu Picchu, it is also a place of extreme poverty.
Each year, the school serves more than 200 children between the ages of three and 13 in a condition of vulnerability through education, health and nutrition.
With your donation, AKP can increase our support of the school and our impact on its students.
Expanding health care for rural communities on the edge of wilderness in Uganda
Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH), located on the edge of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda, began as an outreach clinic under a tree for the Batwa. With our help, it has become a 112-bed facility providing health care for 40,000 patients annually.
AKP annually sends shipping containers full of medical equipment to the hospital. However, it has to turn away critical patients due to its lack of an imaging machine. CT scans are a standard of care worldwide, but in a region with more than 3 million people, the nearest facility to BCH is a six-hour drive away.
AKP is collecting donations to contribute to a CT scanner, which would be a game-changer for the hospital. The imaging machine will play a vital role in identifying internal issues, planning surgeries, evaluating treatment effectiveness, diagnosing hearing-affecting conditions and assessing trauma-related injuries — fundamentally enhancing the hospital’s quality and speed of care.
Water wells enhance families’ lives in Cambodia
In Cambodia, nearly 3.4 million people do not have clean water. AKP has drilled more than 1,500 wells, bringing fresh, bacteria-free water to over 24,000 people in the Siem Reap Province.
Coordinating with the Ministry of Development, our partner, Trailblazer Foundation, digs wells to access water and constructs bio-sand filters to purify the water. Each well costs just US$550 to build.
Not only does clean water improve sanitation and health, but it is also used to irrigate farm plots and provide drinking water for domestic animals. Healthy animals and good crops increase families’ opportunities, helping lift them out of poverty.
