Santorini Footprints

Nestled in the cliffs of Kingfisher Bay overlooking the pristine waters of the protected Bazaruto Archipelago Marine National Park we are so fortunate to be surrounded by Africa’s wild beauty and the kind and wonderful Mozambican people. We believe in giving back to those in need around us through various initiatives including the resources and time of our Santorini team and owners and monetary support in education and mentors. Every night spent by our guests at Santorini, a percentage of revenue is donated by Santorini to our Santorini Footprints Projects. Through our various initiatives we aim to leave a sustainable and positive footprint in the lives and land of this Mozambican coastline.

Chigamane Primary School Initiative

We are thrilled to partner with Parco to support the deserving Chigamane Primary School located in our direct community. ParCo is a community development agency based in Vilanculos with a mission to improve wellbeing and environmental conservation through community led, sustainable initiatives.

The primary school has just over 500 students from 1st to 7th grade. The children are taught over two periods by 14 caring and passionate teachers. Chigamane is an agricultural area, and agricultural is a prominent subject at the school. The school teaches Portuguese, English, Maths, Arts, Nature Science and Social Science and plays a vital role to the only education these children will receive as 20% of the students will not go onto secondary education. 6% of the students will need to repeat their school year based on results from end of year tests and their grades throughout the year. Some children will only leave primary school as late as 16 years old for this reason. Local leaders assist the school with campaigns for enrolment in the area, and the school remains flexible with the government uniform policy to reduce the cost. However for some families the tuition fees are still unaffordable and a small percentage of children will not receive any education.

Chigamane Primary is a government school issued with a budget amount at the start of the school year, to which the headteacher allocates the funds according to the schools needs of that year. This budget is usually too little to cover all the needs of the students, teachers, building maintenance and other expenses.

The school is a 10 to 15 minute drive inland from Santorini which is visible from the school grounds. The school has nice sturdy classroom buildings and a borehole with a hand-pump on site. The teaching team has kept a

garden at the school for many years which helps children learn about water conservation horticulture. Students take produce home to eat and sell some to raise funds to buy uniforms and school supplies for the most disadvantaged children.

Santorini guests will be able to visit the school during a tour of Chigamane Village and will be able to donate to the school project.

We are involved in several projects with the school as listed below:

School Meals

A healthy appetite supports a healthy mind and functioning brain to better receive the teachings in their various subjects. It cost $20 to provide a school meal for one child for a whole year.

School Access Kits

School access kits can be purchased in our Pansy Shell shop or on our website for $50. Each kit includes a sturdy backpack, annual tuition fee, uniform, soap, pens, pencils, notebooks, sweets and games.

These kits give opportunity to the more disadvantaged families in the community to enrol their children in primary education.

Teacher Support 

The teaching team has a dedicated, caring and self – motivated spirit. Four of the teachers live at the school in basic run down reed huts and the others take a taxi from across town every day. Santorini Footprints assists with transport expenses for the offsite teachers and is working to providing better accommodation for the onsite team.

Anti – Plastic Campaign

Leave a footprint, not plastic. We are passionate about supporting a local environmental initiative called-Plastic free Vilanculos. This new community driven projects goal is to eliminate plastic and other waste from our sea, beaches and roads. We have Santorini branded glass straws to enjoy all beverages with. Console glass bottles are being used and we no longer purchase the large plastic water bottles. We have also introduced bamboo ear buds.

Beach Clean Up

We are at a critical time where, globally, we are waking up to the frightening impact of plastic on our oceans ecology. Vilanculos is no exception and as a community we have come together in efforts to turn the tide.

Santorini Mozambique proudly supports the Vilanculos Beach Clean Up Team. The team consists of a group of young individuals who are personally motivated by the cause, as they are fishermen and handcraft sellers. They know that plastics are bad for their environment and their businesses.

PACK FOR A PURPOSE

We are proud members of Pack for a Purpose, an initiative that allows travellers like you to make a lasting impact in the community at your travel destination.

Santorini Mozambique supports the Chigamane Primary School which serves 500 children from Grade 1 to 7. We have a dedicated drop off box in our gift shop for guests to donate anything they wish from a list that is available on our website. The list include school supplies and sporting equipment to name a few. We do drop offs at the school on a bi-weekly basis.

LUZ

Finding sustainable resources for the community. In the last few years LUZ has raised community awareness about HIV, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, LGBT rights, rabies for stray dogs, good nutrition, health of children with Albinism and the promotion of breast-feeding. They have also installed 3 bore-holes with hand pumps.

How can you help?

Leave any of your sun cream or sunhats behind when you leave. We will donate these to the small community of Albinos in Vilanculos to help protect them from the extremely strong Mozambican sun. They cannot afford sun cream or hats or even long sleeve t-shirts and sun shirts so anything you don’t want, we will donate. We have a dedicated box for LUZ donations in our gift shop and we try to do weekly drop-offs depending on how full our box is or how urgently they are in need of items.