Flight Centre Canada’s third annual charity trip raised $31,500 for Project Somos, a children’s village in Guatemala that supports single and widowed mothers who are at risk of losing their kids to poverty and difficult living conditions.
Through Project Somos, widowed and single at-risk mothers are empowered with the necessary education and useful skills to provide for their children, sustain better lives, and raise happy and healthy kids within a supportive community. The Flight Centre Foundation’s donation helps fund the continued development of the village to give families the chance to prosper.
Fifteen eager volunteers from brands across Flight Centre Travel Group (Flight Centre leisure, FCBT, Corporate Traveller, FCm Travel Solutions and Stage & Screen Travel Service) raised a minimum of $1,000 each, 100% of which goes directly to Project Somos, and spent their time in Guatemala building a home – the fourth one for the village.
Volunteers insulated the house with eco-sustainable materials, like earth bags and repurposed plastic bottles stuffed with debris, then up-cycled into one-pound earth bricks. Plastic bottles were removed from streets, fished out of rivers, pulled out of canyons and more than 35,000 pounds of garbage was put to use. Since Guatemala is an earthquake-prone region, the construction of new buildings must be built to be seismic resistant.
The Flight Centre Foundation takes its mission to a new destination every year to give back to the people and communities where we work, live, and travel. The charity trips are also an educational experience for the volunteers who learn about responsible travel on a social, economic, and environmental level in-destination.
This year’s team flew down courtesy of Aeromexico who generously donated the volunteers’ flights.
The Flight Centre Foundation’s commitment to corporate social responsibility has raised tens of thousands of dollars for charitable causes. In 2016, the Flight Centre Foundation raised $30,000 with help from Intrepid Travel and Cathay Pacific for Friends of the Asian Elephant, an organization that protects and rehabilitates mistreated elephants in Northern Thailand. In 2015, Flight Centre partnered up with G Adventures for an Iceland trek and raised more than $50,000 for the Make A Wish Foundation.
For more information about the village in Guatemala and to donate, visit Project Somos, a registered Canadian charity. To learn more about our CSR initiatives at Flight Centre including our partnership with Aeromexico, check out the Corporate Social Responsibility section of our website.