Done!

Within only one day, we got the visit visa for Tanzania! After a very friendly meeting at the Embassy in Abu Dhabi yesterday, they promised us to be as fast as possible and kept the promise!

We also just got the compulsory vaccination against yellow fever this morning and will start taking the Malaria tablets from this weekend onwards, so we are set.

In the meantime, we still have to organize a flight from Nairobi to Arusha, book the accommodation and get a list of the items that we have to buy here in the UAE (since not available in Arusha)... This would be socks and proper underwear, "glowing in the dark" stickers, vitamin candies and maybe 81 Abu Dhabi branded baseball caps (when I find out where to get those)?

Another great news - we are now 100% confirmed going with three Sheraton delegates to Arusha, that makes it much easier in distributing the gifts into the luggage and helping on site with physical work!

Keep you posted!

CONFIRMED!!!

Thanks so much to SUNSHINE TRAVEL & TOURS, the tour operation company of our owners Abu Dhabi National Hotels (ADNH) for sponsoring our tickets!

One worry less in our planning process - now we need to get the visas, the yellow fever and malaria vaccinations done and we should be a massive step further.

We will be flying from Dubai to Nairobi (Kenya), from there organize an internal flight to Kilimanjaro Airport (near Arusha, Tanzania) and look for a cheap accommodation - every Dirham less for our travel expenses is one more for the children!

Keep your fingers crossed....

Welcome to our blog for a very special case!

It is confirmed from today - we (Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort) are physically travelling to Tanzania to use our charity funds for the 81 children at the "Glorious Orphanage" in Arusha, Tanzania!

Let us give you a little bit of background regarding this outstanding project:

The Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort has been doing a lot of charity work locally and internationally within the last years. From collecting bottle caps for wheelchairs to sponosoring a child in South Africa for lifetime, we are very active in giving back to the community.

One of our fund raising projects is the “Embassy Charity Fund” – whereby instead of sending gifts or flowers to the UAE based Ambassadors for their National Day felicitations, we are donating a certain amount to a charity account. Within the last two years, we managed to collect around a substantial amount with this project.

Another initiative of ours is the “No e-mail Day” where all Department Heads in the hotel should refrain from sending e-mail one day a week. Should any of us fail to do so, we pay a voluntary fee per e-mail. We managed to collect around 11.000 AED in 2011 which will also be used for this initiative.

We have been researching a worthy cause and finally found an organization which really needs charity donations: the “Glorious Orphanage” in Arusha, Tanzania.

In this private-led orphanage, 81 children without parents found a home, basic education and they just started to build a very basic school from the multiple donations received in the recent years :

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Glorious-Orphanage/197696586919551

In order to provide basics to those children, such as school furniture, a chalk board, socks, underwear, toys, books, crayons, blankets etc., we have decided to send a “delegation” of two persons from the Senior Management team (including myself) on site to bring useful gifts for the children and help with the setup of the orphanage.

We are very very excited about the project and are planning our trip on Sunday, 19^th of February 2012, which is in less than three weeks!

So, with this blog, we would like to keep you updated on the project, on the challenges along the way, how charities work in that part of the world and how an Abu Dhabi based individual hotel is flying abroad to help the ones REALLY in need. Keep you posted!