My involvement with SESOL Travel has come about through an association with SNE (Sacred New Era) School in Leh, the capital of Ladakh, ever since 2001. In a nutshell, I visited this little School then with its first 5 pupils aged 3 & 4, taught by a Montessori trained teacher and today the school has over 150 pupils and is especially known for its mix of Buddhist, Moslem & Hindu pupils and teachers, and is a popular choice for parents in Leh.
To travel to Leh, you fly to Delhi, and then transfer to a small plane which takes an hour to reach Leh with spectacular views of the Himalayas beneath you. There is a very recent alternative way by Bus, a 33-hour journey with a night stopover. In this way, you become accustomed to the gradually rising height – Leh is 11,000 ft above sea level. If you fly, you need a couple of days to acclimatise to this new great height, rest and relaxation.
Altogether I have visited Ladakh 7 times, always with the School as a priority. The Director of the School, Shabir Banday, is a dedicated Ladakhi, aiming to bring a lot more education to his country, due to not being able to finish his own education in his country, but having to go to other parts of India and also to London, where he studied to obtain Masters Degrees. Knowing the people whom he stayed with, I met Shabir and on my first visit to Leh he gave me his parents’ Guest House address and suggested I stay there in between my visits to a Farm working on a ‘Farm Project’ run by the International Society of Ladakh, headed by Helena Norberg-Hodge. So began a wonderful association with Shabir and his family, which lasts to this day. One day Shabir will return to live in Ladakh, but first he has to earn a good living in the UK and lives in Glasgow, Scotland with his wife and small daughter.
So, why have he and his friends set up SESOL Travel? The idea came to him when he realised first, he needs a regular income for SNE School, and second, that travel and hotel bookings are what people need – so perhaps these two goals could be combined.
It is an entirely ethical project, giving a good deal for all clients, and helping to support a growing School. However, hotel bookings can be made all over the world, and there is nothing difficult about booking: you simply go to www.sesoltravel.com website, and search for a place you want to visit and you will find a comparison of hotels in the city/place you want to stay, and it will bring you the best price available on the dates you specify! In other words, you want to go to, say, Paris and find a Hotel at the best price, it will bring up the best deal available by comparing hotel prices from all the major booking websites. By doing this through the SESOL Travel website, each booking will give a small amount to the School, but it will not cost you any extra. So everyone benefits.
This is a brief introduction from me to this project which I believe in wholeheartedly – a great deal more information can be found on the following websites & indeed SESOL Travel has access to a database of 5,000,000 hotels worldwide.
Or, if you wish to discuss it first, you can always email info@sesoltravel.com or if you wish to write to me about this article you can email me denise.newleaf@phonecoop.coop.
Denise Moll
Trustee, SESOL UK Charity (Registration number SC041237)
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