Globe-trotting Amy Scarth launches volunteer travel company at Shute - and offers a free trip for two

African adventures are being masterminded from a village near Axminster.

Volunteer travel firm, Big Beyond, has been set up at Shute by 32-year-old globe-trotter Amy Scarth.

And as part of its launch she is running a competition, offering a trip for two to Africa.

Amy’s ambition is to connect people and nature in underprivileged corners of the globe and to inspire individuals to make a difference – “to do something amazing and to experience what lies beyond their current lifestyles”.

She said her company offered volunteers a unique opportunity.

“It doesn’t don’t just enable people to travel to incredible places to make a difference – it also helps them to gain relevant and challenging work experience that really stands out,” she said.

“It is based around gratifying the increasing demand for genuine hands-on volunteer travel opportunities, as well as the growing need for self-development and a desire to share skills and experience a quality interaction with local communities.

“Whilst the placements benefit the individual on a personal and professional level, they also help communities with their capacity to save endangered wildlife.

“All Big Beyond sites are located next to conservation areas - national parks - and volunteers are integrated into the local communities, working across a range of projects aimed at tackling conservation and development goals.”

Volunteer programmes on offer include working with a women’s empowerment group in the Hamer tribe of Ethiopia, organising a cultural music festival with the Batwa tribe in Uganda and working in a rural school to promote wildlife conservation in Malawi.

Big Beyond will be exhibiting at The Telegraph Adventure Travel Show, at Olympia, London, this weekend (January 28 and 29) when visitors have the chance to enter the competition to win a free volunteer experience to Africa for two people, a gorilla trekking experience in Uganda and other prizes.

They can also enter the contest on lone at: www.bigbeyond.org/competition

*Amy, who lives in Shute, is an experienced travel and tourism analyst and has been involved in numerous consultancy projects for some of the industry’s leading global organisations.

She has travelled and volunteered vastly and it was her time spent volunteering with local community-based organisations in Uganda that inspired her to develop the concept for Big Beyond.

More information about Big Beyond is available the company’s website: www.bigbeyond.org