Travellers
recognises that our social, environmental and
ethical conduct has an impact upon our reputation,
organisation development and personal development. We take our
corporate social responsibilities (CSR) seriously and are committed to
implementing our policies and systems across the
Organisation around the world. These
include:
- good ethical behaviour,
- concern for employee and volunteer
health and safety,
- care for the environment,
- care for the local economy,
- care for the communities
we work in, and
- moral responsibilities.
We aim to maintain a productive and open dialogue with all
interested parties, including stakeholders
(i.e. the beneficiaries of the help we and our volunteers provide),
volunteers, employees and
partners & affiliates. Our aim is to
create always a win-win-win situation in terms of the benefits for the local
communities and institutions that we work in, for Travellers, and for the
Volunteer. We do not embark on any project that
is not beneficial to the communities, institutes
or volunteers. We conduct
regular volunteer satisfaction surveys
to monitor our performance and we
maintain our website as one of the main routes for providing information to
interested parties and for contacting us.
Travellers take responsibility for CSR
and are committed to developing and implementing appropriate policies to
create and maintain long-term value for recipients. Sound organisation ethics makes business sense by
helping to minimise risk, ensuring legal compliance, enhancing company
efficiency and building reputation amongst stakeholders.
Business Ethics
We endeavour to conduct all our business activities
ethically and in compliance with applicable
national and international laws. Appropriate ethical behaviour is
constantly reviewed during our day-to-day working
practice.
We have extended this code to the organisations we work
with, as
far as is possible when dealing with different cultures and third-world
countries.
Concern for employees and good employment practices
Travellers aims to attract, retain and motivate the highest calibre of
employees within a structure that encourages their development and
initiative. In our overseas destinations we endeavour to employ local staff
wherever possible. By doing this we are able to help the local economy and
provide necessary employment to a number of individuals within the
community. In some destinations we employ as many as 30 staff alongside our
Country Manager, such as; volunteer liaison officers, work supervisors,
cooks, house keepers, house-mothers, cleaners, drivers and security
personnel.
We believe in paying our overseas staff fairly. Many are rewarded with
higher than average wages for local standards.
Health and Safety
As far
as is possible when dealing with different cultures, we have responsibility
for the health, safety and environmental performance of our operational
areas. Travellers is committed to trying to meet all relevant health and
safety legislation, regulation and codes of practice, within the limitations
of the constraints imposed in our destination countries. Our health and
safety performance and significant risk exposures are reviewed regularly.
Travellers
produced an extensive and comprehensive booklet on ‘safety whilst
travelling’ in order to promote sensible awareness amongst travellers. This
booklet is free to download on our website for all travellers, not just our
volunteers.
Care for the Environment
Good environmental practice and the impact our operations have on the
environment are of great importance to Travellers.
The main aim is to comply with all relevant legislation in all areas in
which we operate and to adopt responsible environmental practices.
In our UK office we minimise waste by following re-use and recycle policies.
In our overseas destinations we ensure volunteers are informed about the
customs and cultures of the countries they are visiting and encourage them
to respect the local environment and host community.
We provide projects to enable voluntary assistance in
areas of environmental conservation and believe that education and first
hand experience of the environment promotes a deeper care and affinity for
nature. By enabling volunteers to experience the effects of environmental
practices first-hand (such as coral decay, the
obliteration of rainforests for palm oil) we feel that Travellers is
contributing to a wider education of Western society.
Care for local economies
With the increase of overseas tourism, there is a
growing concern of the possible negative impact of tourism on the local
econoy, environment and culture. We have an
important role in encouraging responsible tourism, to minimise damage and
improve and protect the environment for future generations.
At Travellers we encourage volunteers to support the local
economy in as many ways as possible. For example:
- We encourage our volunteers
to make the most of local opportunities available to them, such as
shopping at local markets, eating in local restaurants and using local
services and transport.
- In almost all cases our staff force in-destination are
locally employed workers.
- We encourage volunteers to pay fairly for goods and
services. We believe that over payment for goods and services or payment
to beggars can have negative consequences and result in the over-reliance
of tourism within the local community.
- We strongly advise against
purchasing wildlife souvenirs or anything which may perpetuate the death
or cruel treatment of animals for the purpose of profit.
Care
for the Community, and Community Involvement
Travellers recognises the role that local communities play
in our organisation.
-
We aspire to be a responsible partner in the communities
in which we operate.
-
We encourage all our overseas units to support the
particular needs of their communities and the organisation as a whole
contributes to local overseas charities and community initiatives.
-
We advise on dress codes and codes of behaviour in all of
our destination countries to ensure volunteers don’t cause offence to
local communities.
-
We make as many donations as possible to local
communities and, where possible, we choose projects which are focused
around providing long-term contributions.
- Many of
our Country Managers are involved in local activities within the
community and are respected for their good will and contribution to
society. We select our Country Managers with such attributes in mind and
communication between the local community and Travellers is open and
honest. If a program run by Travellers were to cause problem or offence
locally, we would endeavour to rectify any such problem or offence as a
matter of highest priority.
Moral Responsibilities
We have a high sense of moral responsibility towards our volunteers and the
organisations we work with. Unfortunately, in some
countries we work with organisations whose moral obligations are not in line
with ours. However, we believe our involvement in
such organisations is crucial in establishing change, even if this change
only occurs over a significant period of time. For example:
Animal Welfare: We have concerns over the animal
welfare in one or two of the captive animal sanctuaries
or zoos that we work with. We believe that all animals
should be free, but where this is not possible, we believe that animals
in captivity should have as much similarity to their natural environment
as possible and as good a quality of life as possible.
Therefore, although we may not agree with the morals of
one or two institutions that we support, we see
an important role for ourselves as the provider of voluntary assistance
because change can only be brought about from the inside, not from the
outside as a spectator. Any small steps taken to alleviate the suffering
of animals can only improve their quality of life, thus we aim to
improve conditions in these centres by our presence. Just one volunteer
can make a direct and positive impact on an animal’s welfare, which we
believe is enough to keep our programme going,
despite not agreeing with the overall objectives of such captive animal
sanctuaries.
Child Welfare: In a small selection of schools that
we work with corporal punishment is used. We don’t agree with this system
but feel that we are making an important contribution by continuing to
provide voluntary assistance to these schools. Through our volunteers we are
able to demonstrate that corporal punishment is not necessary and that there
are ways to encourage good behaviour by displaying positive reinforcement.
Summary
Travellers are committed to reviewing our
policies and adding to them, wherever possible. We welcome suggestions and
feedback on our services and take all comments seriously. We believe deeply
that Travellers makes a positive and lasting impact upon the environments,
communities, institutions, volunteers and all stakeholders
that we work with, by providing placement
opportunities whilst ensuring that our own ethical standards are met.
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