Find below important information about SENE. Click on a box to toggle open the content. See also resource information pages about Tanzania, climbs, safaris, eco-adventures, and Zanzibar. If you have any questions not answered here, please feel free to contact us.
COVID-19
• What is SENE doing to keep clients safe from Covid-19?
about SENE trips
We are a Tanzanian-owned and operated company helping our clients enjoy the beauty and excitement of our country and helping invest in the people of Tanzania. We established small branch offices in the U.S. in 2007 and France in 2013 to accommodate growing demand for our services and to better communicate with our clients in North America and Europe.
For prices of our Kilimanjaro climbs, animal safaris, biking, running, and Zanzibar adventures please see our sample itineraries.
Our Kilimanjaro climbs, bicycle rides, and running trips are normally fixed itineraries, but we are happy to create a custom adventure to your specifications and schedule.
- Check made out to Summit Expeditions & Nomadic Experience mailed to our U.S. office.
- Credit or Debit Card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover) by phone or online. Payments by credit card incur a 3.5% transaction processing fee.
- Wire Transfer to our account in the U.S.
- Wire Transfer to our U.S. dollar account in Tanzania.
Payment method details are sent along with your invoice once you are registered for a SENE trip.
His Mbahe Village guest cottages have this literally built into them, with local materials, local craftsmen doing the construction, many salvaged and re-purposed pieces from Zanzibar, and the organic garden and other environmentally sensitive practices at the cottages.
Clients should book their own international flights to and from Tanzania. We can offer flight recommendations and travel agents with expertise in flights to Africa.
Helping Out
It is far better for the local economy and for the self-esteem and self-determination of individual Tanzanians to receive fair payment for goods and services provided rather than a handout or donation.
If you still feel the need to donate, please consider the following.
Clothing and Gear. SENE porters receive fair wages above the average paid by most climbing companies, and we work hard to provide them with proper clothing, footwear, and gear on the mountain. However, the lack of usable quality warm clothing and quality gear can provide a challenge for properly outfitting all employees. Many climbers have mountain equipment and clothing from their trek that they will not use again and wish to donate those items to the porters and guides on the trip. If you would like to offer items, feel free to give them to an individual at the end of your trek, or we can collect your items and make them available to the crew for each climb on which they work. We at SENE, the porters, and guides thank you.
Mbahe Primary School. During your Mbahe Village tour you may pass by the Mbahe Primary School. If school is in session, you will get to see a typical Tanzanian primary school in action. Many of our guests quickly notice the overcrowded classrooms and scarcity of basic infrastructure and equipment at the school. This often prompts a desire to help out in some way. If you feel a need to assist the school we suggest that you make a financial donation to the school or to a scholarship fund to help send students to secondary school through SENE owner Simon Mtuy’s non-profit community development organization, Hope Through Opportunity – Tanzania.
Getting Donations to Tanzania. For those who wish to send donations to Tanzania, please be aware that international shipping is extremely expensive and items will incur a customs duty. Large quantities of donated items brought in your own luggage may also incur a duty. All shipping costs and customs duties are the donor’s responsibility. A certified letter listing: 1) Donor organization or individual; 2) Recipient organization in Tanzania; and 3) Itemized donations with their value; may enable duties to be waived or reduced. That decision is by the individual Tanzanian customs officer assessing the donations.
Short volunteer stints of a few days are difficult to find and often more of a burden than a help to the recipient organization. There are, however, many longer-term volunteer opportunities from two weeks to two years. Please note that SENE does not endorse any of the organizations listed below and takes no responsibility for any experience you have with them. The names and websites are listed as a convenience. We encourage you to thoroughly investigate these and other volunteer opportunities yourself.
International Organizations (partial list) that place volunteers in Tanzania:
Cross-Cultural Solutions
Global Volunteers
World Endeavors
Earthwatch Institute
Local Tanzanian Organizations (partial list) with which individuals can make volunteer arrangements directly:
Amani Childrens Home in Moshi is a long-established home for street children founded several years ago by a young American college graduate.
Light in Africa is an orphanage in rural Arusha started in 2000 by a woman from the UK seeking to help children impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. They take care of children from tiny infants to teenagers, including many with severe disabilities. Information about Light in Africa can be found by contacting Asante Sana Tanzania.
United African Alliance Community Center was founded by a former Black Panther, Pete O’Neal, who left the U.S. decades ago and ended up in Tanzania, where he established a local community development, arts, and education center on the outskirts of Arusha. He has mellowed with age, though still politically liberal.
Local Organizations in Your Home Country. Some volunteers in Tanzania work through their church or other community organization, which may sponsor them to volunteer at schools, health clinics, or in community development projects. The sponsorship may occur after volunteers establish their own ties to a group in Tanzania, but often a church or other organization has connections to particular schools or communities in Tanzania, where they place volunteers.
