• In Kenya, the Foundation supports the restoration and expansion of an artisan centre for people with diverse physical abilities
• In Turkey, 50 women from rural areas will receive entrepreneurship training to become weaving artisans and offer their products to visitors
• The TUI Colourful Cultures Programme protects cultural heritage and empowers creatives in tourism destinations all over the world

Berlin, 12th December 2022. The TUI Care Foundation has launched a new strategy, which leads the way in protecting the natural environment and empowering lives in travel destinations. As part of this, the TUI Colourful Cultures Programme empowers artists and artisans to access new income opportunities and promote their cultural heritage through tourism. The programme kicks off with the launch of two TUI Colourful Cultures projects in Kenya and Turkey. 

In Kenya the Foundation has teamed up with the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya to empower the Bombolulu Workshops and Cultural Centre in Mombasa, which provides training and employment opportunities for people with different abilities. The workshops focus on the creation of traditional jewellery, textile designs inspired by African cultures, wood carvings, leather work and the production of mobility aids like wheelchairs and tricycles. The cultural centre has eight African homesteads depicting the traditional architecture and way of life of different communities in Kenya. The new project supports the centre with funding to substantially upgrade and extend its facilities. This will allow the Bombolulu team to host more than 200 dancing events and activities, and welcome over 1,000 visitors and local schoolchildren. The project will also connect the centre to the local tourism industry in order to create better awareness for its activities. Visitors will not only be able to visit the workshop but will also have the chance to purchase products made by the artisans at the Bombolulu store. This will therefore also help to increase market opportunities and protect Kenyan cultural heritage. The activities highlight the core value of Bombolulu’s objective: to prove that disability is not inability.

Another TUI Colourful Cultures project has been launched in Turkey. In partnership with Fethiye Lycia Women's Cooperative, the project supports local female weavers with training and marketing strategies to revive the weaving method 'Dastar'. This traditional weaving method was previously long forgotten – but has now received an official Geographical Indication and acts as an important cultural element in the villages where the project will take place. It dates back thousands of years and, in contrast to more recent popular textile products, has survived by keeping its originality and is still in production. The people in the villages keep ‘the dastar’ weaving alive as an inheritance from ancestors and ‘the dastar’ has succeeded in keeping up with this changing world and maintains an important place in their culture.

The reinterpretation of this traditional weaving technique with a new perspective and the development of products suitable for today's trends will make this method more sustainable and help secure the livelihoods of the women involved in the villages Yeşiluzumlu and Incirkoy in the Fethiye region.