The call to rise before dawn is an expectation that is synonymous with the spirit of safari, and for those who have experienced it, there are few mornings as magical as when you find yourself floating above the very same sunrise that was non-existent an hour prior.
As the darkness of the morning welcomes you, your eyes can’t help but make out the burst of flames, gently dancing on the horizon, igniting oval shaped silhouettes in the distance. Your dream is starting to turn into a reality; you’re about to experience hot air ballooning in East Africa. The closer you get, the more you start to see their burners roaring, their baskets lifting, and by the time the sun spills its gold across the plains, you find yourself high up, watching from a vantage point usually reserved for birds. If you’re in Tanzania, you’re most likely flying with Serengeti Balloon Safaris, Asilia’s preferred partner when it comes to airborne adventures of this kind.
Their service is exceptional and the memories they create through experiences last a lifetime, but that isn’t the only reason we have partnered with them; we don’t select our partners based on operational excellence alone. What really counts is their impact ethos. Much like Asilia, Serengeti Balloon Safaris are strong believers in harnessing safari goers’ love of the wilderness for the benefit of the people who call these wild places home. A great example of how synergy can create opportunity. Both Serengeti Balloon Safaris and Asilia are focused on supporting initiatives that are already working alongside communities to bring about change.
Every time a guest takes to the skies and experiences the beauty of the Serengeti from above, a measurable difference is being made on the ground. While you tick off a bucket list experience, our impact partnership generates donations that are used to purchase reusable menstrual kits for Tanzanian girls and women.
In many parts of Tanzania, a lack of awareness about the female body and how it functions acts as a barrier to respectful, dignified healthcare. As a result, many girls don’t receive the education – neither from their elders, nor at school – that unpacks what the menstrual cycle is. Often when they get their period, not only do they not know what’s happening, but they don’t have access to basic menstrual products, nor the knowledge to manage a period safely. They improvise pads from torn-up strips of cloth, but this doesn’t give them the confidence that they won’t bleed through, which results in many girls missing days of school each month.
Mwandamo Women CIC is on a mission to transform women’s health through holistic education and compassionate care, and much of their work focuses on dismantling the stigma, fear, and shame around periods. Their Binti Imara – ‘strong daughters’ – programme focuses on girls and young women navigating puberty and early adulthood. Menstrual products are a key part of this and each kit they provide includes three pairs of underwear, a large bar of laundry soap, eight pads, eight pad holders, a Ziplock bag for used pads, and a discreet drawstring bag to keep it all in. The kits are made by TATU KiliPads, a women-led social enterprise whose projects help bring about meaningful socio-economic change.
Perhaps more important than the kit itself is the knowledge and support that comes with it. Mwandamo never hands over a menstrual product without first creating space for the conversation around it. Sitting with girls in a circle, they create a safe, intimate setting for questions to be asked, experiences shared, and honest conversation to unfold. Girls leave with a kit, as well as an understanding of their own bodies and the confidence to talk about them.
Long after the circle has closed, participants can still benefit from Mzunguko Salama, Mwandamo’s free Swahili-language cycle-tracking app. By using separate passcodes, multiple users can access the app on a single mobile phone so girls who don’t have one can share with friends, or with their mothers. The app not only allows them to track their cycle, but it also sends reminders and educational messages.
You can start to see how a single balloon flight becomes a trigger for a whole chain of positivity. An Asilia guest takes to the sky; Serengeti Balloon Safaris sets aside 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings; Mwandamo turns it into a kit and an educational space within a Binti Imara circle; and KiliPads employs women to stitch the ingredients for a safer, more dignified cycle.
Our impact partnership with Serengeti Balloon Safaris started in July 2026. In that month alone, enough funds were generated for 58 kits for Mwandamo to distribute. With the knowledge and means to manage their periods safely and with dignity, girls are much less likely to miss days of school each month. The longer they stay in school, the greater their chances of writing exams, earning good grades and shaping their own future.
The fate of Tanzania’s wild places is bound together with that of its people. As Hannah Strand, one of Mwandamo’s founders, puts it: “A woman who can access family planning information, a girl who stays in school an extra year because she isn’t missing a week of it every month – each of them ends up with a little more room to shape her own future and the size of her own family. Multiply that across a community living alongside a national park or a migration route, and the pressure on that land eases too.”
Written by Robyn Ghaui
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