About Us
Our Story

Sandfield Travel is an ethical and responsible travel company, specialising in tailor-made safaris and volunteering trips. We believe that tourism can make a significant and long-lasting positive difference in communities throughout Africa.

OUR STORY

Sandfield Travel is an ethical and responsible travel company, specialising in tailor-made safaris and volunteering trips. We believe that tourism can make a massive and long-lasting positive difference in communities throughout Africa.

Profits invested in community projects

Our business model is very simple – we invest 10% of our profits from every trip we sell into sustainable community projects. So, you will have already started making a difference even before you leave your home.

African roots

Our responsible tourism philosophy couldn’t be closer to the heart of our founder, Wycliffe Sande. Born in Uganda, Wycliffe spent the early part of his life in poverty, witnessing the day to day challenges faced by the people around him, losing both his parents aged 13 and actually suffering from cerebral malaria himself. Fortunately, Wycliffe excelled academically, and after being accepted to study Law at the University of London, he graduated in 2008 and was recruited to work for a major blue chip organisation.

During his time working in London, Wycliffe began to ask himself how he could combine what he loves with the knowledge and skills he had gained to create a lasting benefit for others. It was then that he decided to found Sandfield Travel, providing once-in-a-lifetime travel opportunities that offer a taste of “Real” Africa, whilst reinvesting profits into African community projects.

Local knowledge

The focus of Sandfield Travel is to use our local knowledge and direct experience of Africa to bring you the best volunteering, gorilla tracking and wildlife safari holidays in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. By combining a fantastic holiday destination and a ‘taste’ of volunteering (or Volunteersafaris), you get the chance to not only see Africa’s greatest sights, but also to feel, touch and experience the destination whilst making a substantive difference to local communities.

We have offices in London and Uganda and coordinate travel opportunities to Africa every day. By using our local networks and long-term experience, we are able to perfect your itinerary and fully concentrate on the regions where we know you will not only have an unforgettable experience, but also have a positive effect on the communities you visit.

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Wycliffe Sande
Founder & CEO

I was born and raised in Uganda in very poor conditions. I lost both of my parents at the age of 13 but was determined to achieve my goals. I have lived and experienced the scourge of poverty and have made it my goal to do what I can to help poor communities in Africa. I wanted to start and run a successful business that would be able to make a difference in Africa.  This vision is embedded in the foundations of Sandfield Travel.

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Oliver Watson
Marketing and Sustainability Intern

Oli is currently helping Sandfield Travel as a marketing and sustainability intern. He is very passionate about volunteering, sustainability and travelling. Oli went to Uganda with Sandfield in 2009 and 2011 with his school where he fundraised for school/education, AIDS widow, sustainable agriculture and computer training projects. He loved immersing himself in the culture, meeting new people and working with the volunteering projects. His experiences have inspired him and he now wants to help Sandfield Travel, and everyone travelling with us, to make a real positive difference to communities in Africa.

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Hamid Mukalazi
Tour Guide

Hamid is our driver and tour guide for our wonderful volunteering and safari trips in Uganda. He is extremely friendly, funny and excellent at his job. He will ensure you have the trip of a lifetime, whilst ensuring you are safe and comfortable at all times.

“There are so many exciting places in Uganda I want to take my clients to. My passion is to share the beautiful land that Uganda is with others”.

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Alice Katimbo
Student Groups Coordinator

Alice is currently working at Sandfield Travel as a student groups coordinator in the Kampala office. She acts as a coordinator and guide for student groups that come to Uganda. She is really enjoying learning about responsible travel and how tourism can be used to create lasting possible impact in the community.

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Sulah Muyanja
Transport Operator

Sulah is responsible for the operation of transport for our trips. He has been with the company for over two years and has been enjoying every moment. He has been driving tour buses and coordinating transport for over 8 years.

“Joining sandfield Transport team was one of the best choices I have made. I have been on many safari trips all over East Africa and I love meeting with people from all over the world”.

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Vincent Mugula
Regional Manager

Vincent graduated from Makerere business School in Uganda and has training in the travel industry. He is responsible for looking after all of our trips in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. He ensures that everything runs smoothly for our clients across the region. =

DOING GOOD

When planning an African adventure there are so many sights and activities that are an absolute must. Coming face-to-face with a mountain gorilla, seeing wildebeest and zebra flood the Serengeti, spotting a lion stalk its prey on the Maasai Mara or white water rafting the source of the Nile. However, it is amazing how many people look back on their trip and say that the most memorable experiences were the people they met, the children they played with and the difference they made. At Sandfield Travel we believe that as a tour company it is our responsibility to ensure all our trips create positive experiences, not only for our guests, but also for the people they encounter.

We are unique in that we have a grassroots charitable foundation that allows us to work with local communities to help identify and fund projects that will make a real long-term difference to local people’s lives, without red tape and administration costs. This also gives our guests the opportunity to have as little or as much involvement in the projects as they like. So you can spend your trip doing what you want to do, knowing that you’re contributing by being there. Our community liaison team are always working to identify where we can contribute the most, but please see below for some examples of the kind of projects we have implemented and that you can get involved with.

KISA MEDICAL CENTRE

KISA MEDICAL CENTRE

With hard work from our volunteers and reinvested profits, Sandfield Travel has already built a top quality medical centre in the Mityana District of Uganda. Located between five fishing villages, the centre once fully operational will provide treatment for over 4,000 people who previously had no medical facilities nearby and commonly died from treatable diseases purely because they could not afford to travel to the next large town. The founder of Sandfield Travel, Wycliffe Sande, caught cerebral malaria as a child and would have died had he reached hospital just 30 minutes later, so he is proof that these facilities will literally make the difference between life and death for these people.“I had given up that something like this would ever come to our community. I have been mobilizing the people of this village for nearly 25 years, campaigning for the government to build us a medical clinic in this area, but nothing ever happened.” Mr. Kida Walime Village Chairman

Wamala Young Coffee Growers Project -

Mityana district of Uganda is an area with problematic levels of youth unemployment. Wycliffe saw a great opportunity to start working with the local small scale coffee farmers. Our work with them saw us bring young people to visit different model farms to inspire them and get into agribusiness especially coffee production.

EBENEZER SCHOOL

EBENEZER SCHOOL

The founder of Sandfield Travel, Wycliffe Sande, had his school lessons in a class of 50 children, under the shade of a mango tree. When he returned to visit 23 years later, he was surprised to find things hadn’t moved on, and the large classes still studied under the shade of the same tree. By working with the community to build a classroom for the school, Sandfield Travel are not only providing the children with equipment and facilities to help their education, but also helping to change their attitudes and aspirations.

The Village Schools Feeding program

The Village Schools Feeding program

Hunger is a daily reality for approximately 100 million people in Africa.Children in rural villages suffer the most. Here at Village Foods, we believe one of the most effective solutions to combat this crisis is through school feeding projects like our new Village Schools Feeding program; our first initiative for the Village Foods Charity. Rural schools in Uganda are mostly located in farming villages characterized by smallholder farmers who farm both coffee, corn and beans and Maize all very important commodities. Porridge is the most affordable school lunch, and you would think that there is a good supply of local food but sadly this is not the case. Most of the crops grown in rural villages are sold to middlemen who pay whatever they decide. During the rainy season, when there is bumper harvest, traders demand really low prices and the farmers have no option than to sell at low cost resulting in very little money for extras such as school meals.The Village Schools Feeding Project is going to change this. We will buy produce from the local farmers at the guaranteed good price through the year regardless of the season, ensuring a steady income for the farmers.For the program to be sustainable, we need to buy, process and sell some of the farmers’ food to the general public so that more revenue can be divested into the long-term sustainability of the program as reliance on donor funding alone is not an option – in the beginning, we will need seed fundingCurrently, we feed around 720 children in three village schools in Uganda supported by Sandfieldtravel and Wycliffe and his family.Through the Village Schools Feeding program, we aim to reach 2500 students by the end of 2020 in ten rural schools across different villages in Central Uganda. This will mean that 90% of children, who had previously been unable to afford school lunch, will now receive a daily school meal.As a result, young children will be better feed and the ability to learn more effectively.But there is something more, local farmers will have a guaranteed market price for their produce which will help them increase their income and improve lives for their families and the community.Our 5 year plan • Reach 150,000 pupils in village schools in Uganda • Use mobile money to safely pay our farmers. This also means our food drivers will not have to carry large amounts of money on them. • Use technology to create a bracelet that will be paired with a receiver in the schools. It will be programmed to activate at lunchtime. When a child gets their lunch, the child presses it and this is recorded. This information will feed into our system to determine how many children have received lunch each day. The child’s name will be recorded and new names added to the database. We will, therefore, be able to measure the impact of the program. • To expand this program to other countries like southern Sudan to provide solutions that are scalable and impactful.

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