SEO Travel, a Leeds-based digital marketing agency, has been able to fund the rebuilding of a school in the small village of Bupsa in Nepal and ensure that 135 local children are still able to access schooling.
The school was badly damaged by the earthquake in Nepal last year, and children and teachers became increasingly worried about using it, to the point where access to education for children in this remote area was going to be taken away.
However, SEO Travel made the decision in 2021 to donate 100% of its profits to charity, with the goal of giving £1,000,000 by 2031.
Half of the money given away at the end of 2022 was given to Moving Mountains Trust, an international charity operating in Kenya, Tanzania and Nepal that empowers communities to create positive change in their own lives and focuses on long-term development. This includes education that starts from early years and continues right through to adulthood.
April 2023 marked 2 years into SEO Travel's '100% giving' endeavour, and the company has now donated £74,590 from its work over the first two years of this initiative.
The school is now complete and the donation covered the repairs so the children continue to get their education, and the teachers feel safe and comfortable enough to remain in their roles and continue with their fantastic work.
The building was painted a jovial shade of yellow to highlight just how much this means to them.
The money helped the 135 children enrolled there, 9 teachers, and a remote town to have a sustainable way of educating its population who might not otherwise have gone to school or would have had to travel a huge distance.
Tom McLoughlin, founder of SEO Travel, explains: "When we launched our 100% initiative in 2021, it seemed like an outlandish idea and a big claim to suggest we could give away £1m over 10 years. 2 years on, we’re more bullish than ever that we can both hit and surpass that outlandish goal. We also believe that it is only setting the foundation for what we can do beyond that. We’re learning many valuable lessons along the way, both in terms of business structure and in how best to make an impact. And that’s what this is all about, impact."
Tom is keen to highlight that this is actually a very sound business move and would encourage others to adopt the same model: "I think it’s clear that consumers are becoming more and more aware of the impact of what they do and the decisions they make and so companies that align their approach with good choices for the wider world will benefit."
