Experience the true Transkei way of life whilst you fall in love with the community your presence is assisting:-)

Community Work

As community members we are actively involved in a range of development projects in the village.

We have helped the community start a number of 100% community-owned and run businesses including horseriding, canoeing, fishing, guiding, baking, sewing, cooking, wood-carving and environmental protection projects. These have created jobs and income for 33 families over and above those employed directly at the lodge. Obviously many of these businesses are still in their infancy and are not always as professional as you would find in the big cities - no-one in our village had any experience of tourism prior to 2004. But everyone puts there heart and soul into their new venture and as a result there is a unique, fresh edge to these activities.

We have run a range of fantastic HIV awareness programs and voluntary counselling and testing days. The community are undergoing intensive training on permaculture and organic farming in order to improve nutrition and create surpluses that can be sold to the lodge restaurant. We have built a seedling nursery that is owned and run by members of the community selling vegetable seedlings to the surrounding communities. We also now have a community-owned, irrigated, organic vegetable farm which supplies the lodge with much of its fresh veggies. Four members of the community have been trained as beekeepers and supplied with hives and bees, and we expect our first honey harvest shortly.

• We are now about to embark on our most ambitious project: rehabilitating our local mud school which collapsed recently.
• All the above projects are housed and managed under our new Non-Profit organisation: the Bulungula Incubator. You can visit the Incubator's website at www.bulungulaincubator.org
• There is still much to do, and with this in mind, we offer free accommodation to anyone who has skills that would make a meaningful contribution to this community’s development.

Contact us:

Phone: within South Africa: 047 577 8900
outside South Africa: +27 47 577 8900
alternatively try: 083 391 5525

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Postal Address:
PO Box 52913
Mthatha
5099
South Africa