What we offer
Overview
Advocacy and campaigning organizations, activist movements and other non-profit civil society organizations frequently aim at raising public awareness, promoting creative events and raising funds for their and/or their partners’ work. An increasingly efficient way of showcasing activities and policies is to invite influential supporters to learn about the challenges and successful interventions first-hand on the ground. Topics that some of our regular customers are involved with include HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, maternal and child health, gender mainstreaming, education, water and sanitation, governance, human rights, and trade and investment.
Eos Visions supports these organizations to create, design and implement tailor-made advocacy or donor travel experiences. We work with planners, policy advisors and advocates on the educational content, identify and liaise with in-country partners, and ensure an impeccable delivery of all on-the-ground logistics and services. This combination of knowledge, experience and logistical expertise provides our customers with the freedom to focus attention on other responsibilities.
Some of our regular customers include:
We have also hosted delegations from Aegis Trust, Aid for Africa, DATA, Fit am Ball, One Good Deed, One Hill at a Time and Survivor Corps. These delegations frequently consist of influential politicians and businessmen, civil society and student leaders, or world-known celebrities. Among many others, we have hosted Bono, Bob Geldof, Bobby Shriver, Scarlett Johansson, Charlize Theron, Rosario Dawson, Thandie Newton, Dylan McDermott, Eve Ensler, Christy Turlington, Naomi Klein, Cindy McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mary Eisenhower, Bill Frist, Tom Daschle and various members of parliament from the UK and Germany.
Features
Every organization has a different approach and philosophy when it comes to its advocacy and donor travel experiences. As a comprehensive destination manager, we can handle all on-the-ground services that might be desirable and also advise on the educational content of the programs. Specific features include:
Travel logistics:
- Suitable 3, 4 and 5 star hotels with special negotiated group rates
- Up-to-date selection of the best local restaurants
- High-quality transport providers offering anything from comfortable SUVs and minivans to modern buses and coaches
- Private security services
- Appropriate conference facilities, and efficient organization and management of events
- Mix of knowledgeable and experienced local and international multilingual guides and tour managers
- Efficient back-office support also after normal business hours
Educational content:
- In-house policy knowledge and research in a range of fields
- Strategic local alliances – ranging from top government authorities to academic leaders, embassies, development agencies, non-profit organizations and local businesses – willing to interact with our customers through guest presentations, meetings, lectures and site visits
Cultural activities:
- All tourism highlights that East Africa has to offer, including safaris, gorilla treks, cultural activities and events, and historical site visits
- Special theme-based city introductions, e.g. along the lines of history and contemporary politics
- Special theme-based excursions looking at development issues (e.g. in Rwanda’s Millennium Village), income-generating projects (e.g. SIDAREC in Kenya’s Kibera slum), challenges of historically marginalized people (e.g. the Batwa in Rwanda), gender mainstreaming, or coffee, tea, sugar and palm oil harvesting and processing
- Pre- or post-trip extensions
Case studies
ONE – Listening & Learning Tour:
ONE is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support smart and effective policies and programs that are saving lives, helping to put kids in school and improving futures. Co-founded by U2-singer Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African activists and policymakers.
In March 2010, ONE board members and supporters embarked on a four-country listening and learning tour that included a visit to Kenya. The delegation met with grassroots leaders to hear about what is working to help advance economic and social progress on the African continent and what the obstacles are to development. A special focus was placed on governance, with other interest areas including trade, investment, health, agriculture and education. Eos Visions was responsible for the delegation management and the logistics that, due to the celebrity status of some of the participants, included additional private security measures.
World Pulse – The Heartbeat of East Africa:
World Pulse is a global media and communication network devoted to bringing women a global voice. Apart from the production of a print and web magazine, World Pulse hosts an interactive community newswire called PulseWire where women can speak for themselves to the world and connect to solve global problems. Using internet cafes and cell phones from rural villages to urban cities, women from 179 countries use the network to speak out and connect.
In February 2011, World Pulse organized an advocacy trip to Kenya and Rwanda whereby a select group of guest delegates celebrated African women who are shaping the future. Their local programs are boldly tackling tough issues such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, water access and education. The purpose of the trip was to begin to truly understand the depth of these problems, to learn how to help provide profound solutions, and to form sustainable alliances. Eos Visions advised on the program content, liaised with the local partners, managed the delegation in both countries and provided all logistics.
V-Day – City of Joy Opening Celebration:
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works. In 2010 alone, over 5,400 V-Day benefit events took place in the US and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. A key chapter in its campaigning work was the creation of the City of Joy, a revolutionary new community for women survivors of gender violence in Bukavu in the DR Congo.
In February 2011, V-Day organized an advocacy trip to celebrate the opening of the City of Joy and to raise awareness about the ongoing atrocities committed especially against women in eastern DR Congo. The event brought together grassroots activists, global goodwill ambassadors, key media representatives, political leaders and other stakeholders with residents and staff of the City of Joy to create a sustainable path towards the health and empowerment of Congolese women. Eos Visions was responsible for the delegation management and the logistics of this very complicated endeavor that involved operations in Burundi, Rwanda and especially the eastern DR Congo.
