Birding Ecotours are offering 5 % off your next trip and donating 5 % of the tour price to their community birding guide relief fund
Birding Ecotours tour leader Andy Walker with one of their West Papua local guides and some support staff at one of the homestays they visit
Folks, how are you doing during these unusual, difficult pandemic times? We hope that you are safe, well and earning or furloughed. Unfortunately, this may well not be the case for birding guides in less well-off nations. Of particular concern are the community guides, birding lodges and other service providers around the world who would usually be paid by tour companies, helping them get birders to the birds right now. Obviously, with lockdown and the need to keep everyone safe, these trips came to a sudden halt in late March.
Birding Ecotours has been financially assisting some community guides they work with across the planet, but of course they don’t have enough resources to fulfil all the need that exists. These people were previously earning a living from showing people birds, but now don’t have that income. So, Birding Ecotours have created a fund for them, and for anyone who wants to make a donation. ALL the money raised will go directly to people from disadvantaged backgrounds who desperately need help right now. These are people that they work with and trust, of course, and in many cases the money will go to buying basics like food. Some are really in dire need and Birding Ecotours will make sure money donated goes to those they know of who are most in need.
However, if you’ve met one of those local guides on any of Birding Ecotour’s past trips, you’re more than welcome to tell them who you want your money to go to and they will get it to them. Click-thru for more details of the relief fund.
We understand that you have probably been adversely affected by COVID-19 (almost all of us have been). Hopefully the 5% discount will make you feel a bit better. Importantly, you don’t just get 5% off, but Birding Ecotours also donates a further 5% of the total tour price to the relief fund to help people who, because of Covid-19 are struggling to afford food, medicines and other essentials right now.
This is how it works:
- Up until the end of July 2020, if you book (with a 25 % deposit) any 2021 or 2022 tour shown at birdingecotours.com and quote “5 % to you, 5 % to a community guide”, they will give you 5% off, and donate 5% to a local birding guide who is literally desperate.
- Because times are uncertain, there will be no penalties if you have to postpone the tour you book by a year or two
- You can choose which local guide you want your money to go to, or Birding Ecotours will choose for you if you prefer. They work with people they trust, and they know who needs the money the most. Either way is OK with them. They want these good folks to be able to afford food, and they don’t want anyone who currently earns a living from showing people birds, to revert to hunting or logging (in desperation)
- This applies to any new tour you haven’t yet booked with them
- You can book at https://www.birdingecotours.com/booking-form/, and mention “5 % to you, 5 % to a community guide”
So why not make your next trip, be it to Costa Rica, Peru, Borneo, Uganda or the UK, help someone survive the crisis while helping yourself to a discount?