Children of UK and Ireland travel agents in Covid-19 lockdown will be connected via a pen pal scheme to a charity supporting girls in Morocco.
The Education for All charity is backed by the Intrepid Group’s not-for-profit foundation.
The Intrepid Pen Pal Programme aims to connect agents’ children with the EFA in the north African country and youngsters of staff working for Intrepid operations in destinations such as Myanmar, Egypt, Croatia and Peru.
The scheme encourages children and teenagers aged between 6 and 18 to make new friends by swapping online letters with each other, learn about different cultures, and discover how other countries are dealing with the pandemic.
The Intrepid Foundation has raised more than £115,000 for EFA in the past two years.
The charity ensures more than 90 girls from remote villages in the High Atlas region of Morocco can continue their education but they have been unable to attend school since the outbreak of the pandemic.
EFA has raised almost £5,000, including contributions from fundraising efforts on behalf of some Intrepid staff, to provide girls with IT equipment such as laptop tablets and internet connections so they can continue their studies.
The Intrepid team in Morocco have been organising the ground logistics to deliver the equipment to girls, some located in remote parts of the country.
EMEA managing director Zina Bencheikh said: “During these challenging times, we wanted to show our support to our agent friends, many of whom we know are working under demanding and high-pressure circumstances, as well as those affected in other ways by the pandemic, like many girls in Morocco.
“By launching the Intrepid Pen Pal Programme, our hope is that we can continue to stay connected even in isolation, and regardless of our geographical or economic circumstances.
“We want to create some positivity in the current climate by engaging with our agents and community partners through unique and light-hearted activities like the Pen Pal Programme that resonate in these difficult times and hopefully that suit individual, as well as business needs.”
The initiative is part of a series of events Intrepid will be running for agents over the coming weeks, via its Intrepid Loves Agents Facebook page www.facebook.com/groups/intrepidlovesagents