Ethiopia Genna Festival & walking vacation

Planet

Our clients are fully briefed on the best environmental practices before traveling to Ethiopia. This adventure involves walking through very natural environments and we work with the policy of ‘Take nothing but memories, Leave nothing but footprints’.

This means that we do not leave any foreign materials or waste in these environments from our camps, nor do we take any objects from the environment nor disturb its equilibrium by our presence or actions.

We stay in locally-owned hotels in Addis Ababa, Lalibela & Gondar, but also spend time staying in local homesteads on the Tesfa Trekking part of the itinerary. This not only helps to keep carbon emissions as low as possible - but actively gives back to these remote mountain communities. 'Tesfa' means 'hope' in the local Amharic language.

Water is a precious commodity in Ethiopia and our local guides actively advise travelers on initiatives to manage water consumption during the trip. They are are committed to encouraging you to treat this scarce resource with the utmost respect.

Further to this, we are very proud to have partnered with Water-To-Go, specialists in personal and expedition water purification, instantly, and on-demand. Their unique, 350L water bottles incorporate advanced filtration technology to convert even the dirtiest water to drinking water as you fill up.

Being able to produce safe drinking water from sources off the beaten track, of sometimes dubious quality, offers incredible benefits to our adventure travelers and eliminates the need for single-use plastic bottles. We subsidise this product to make it more accessible to you.

People

On this adventure, our travelers get the unique opportunity to experience the elaborate and highly stylised rituals and parades of this wonderful festival, alongside the thousands of Ethiopian pilgrims who flock to the 13th Century rock-hewn churches in Lalibela.

We use our popular and charming local guide from Ethiopia on this adventure and he will help to explain the culture and customs throughout the trip in order not to offend, confuse or endanger the local villages and communities we meet en route.

Many of our adventurers have talked to us about how best to support those experiencing poverty or with very little access to equipment and services. They ask what they can bring to donate or leave in the country after their trip. Our response has been to develop links with well-established local projects and charitable organisations that are sustainably benefitting the regions and communities that we visit.

In this itinerary, we include an opportunity to learn about Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia. Set within the bustling capital city of Ethiopia is an unexpected haven of tranquillity: the Addis Ababa Hamlin Fistula hospital. Funded and directed by the charity Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia, established in 1974 by Drs Reginald and Catherine Hamlin, the hospital is a world-class center of excellence for treating obstetric fistula patients, and training obstetricians to specialise in this surgery. Rehabilitation programs assist former patients to reintegrate to village life. The organisation also has a preventative strategy that aims to eradicate obstetric fistula from Ethiopia, by providing trained midwives in the rural regions of the country.

In taking you on the path less travelled, your YellowWood adventure is taking you into remoter corners of Ethiopia. Here, in the small villages, there is often little or no midwifery support for women in labour. Girls and women may experience prolonged and difficult labour, leading to still-births, and obstetric complications such as fistulas, which go hand in hand with urinary incontinence. Ashamed of their symptoms, they may either isolate themselves or be spurned by their husbands, leading to utter loneliness and sorrow.

Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia provides stable employment for many local Ethiopians while also providing much-needed health services for women and girls. Their work on the ground is sustainable and enriching – run by Ethiopians, for Ethiopians.

They are proud of their facilities and welcome visitors to their hospital, to teach them about the obstacles faced by some women in more remote areas, and the progress they have made towards eradicating obstetric fistulas. We are invited as a group to learn about their work, and see first-hand the facilities at their Addis hospital, either during our first day Tour of Addis Ababa, or on the penultimate day of your adventure, when you travel back to the capital to ready for your homeward flight.

The visit is entirely optional, but offers a unique opportunity to understand more about life off the beaten track in Ethiopia, and a chance for us to reflect on what we can offer, be it a greater level of understanding, empathy and compassion, informing others of the realities that face these women, or making a donation of time or money to the Hamlin Fistula cause.