I’ve been doing a lot of online hol­i­day shop­ping and recently picked up some nice travel gifts at Magellan’s Travel Sup­plies. When my items arrived, the box also con­tained a flyer about Magellan’s part­ner­ship with a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion called SEE Inter­na­tional.

Accord­ing to the orga­ni­za­tion, 75 per­cent of the world’s 37 mil­lion cases of blind­ness are actu­ally treat­able, mak­ing the loss of sight a human­i­tar­ian emergency.

SEE Inter­na­tional puts together teams of vol­un­teer oph­thal­mol­o­gists to go where their help is needed, includ­ing places like Thai­land, Mex­ico, Bangladesh, Viet­nam, and Zimbabwe.

Since 1974 SEE’s eye sur­geons have per­formed more than 360,000 sight-storing procedures.

Magellan’s has been a cor­po­rate part­ner of SEE Inter­na­tional for over 20 years, pro­vid­ing travel kits for sur­geons as well as adver­tis­ing out­reach to its customers.

Expe­di­tions to the fol­low­ing coun­tries are sched­uled for 2010: Swazi­land, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Ghana, The Gam­bia, Nige­ria, Namibia, and Kenya.

Dona­tions are tax deductible and may be made online via a secure server. Visit See International’s web­site or call 1-(805)963‑3303 and men­tion that you heard about the orga­ni­za­tion from Magellan’s Travel Supplies.

Sur­gi­cal Eye Expe­di­tions (SEE) Inter­na­tional is a 501©(3) non­profit orga­ni­za­tion. Tax ID #31–1682275.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of Maa­sai woman and child cour­tesy of iStockPhoto.com

I really like what Aber­crom­bie & Kent is doing with its orga­ni­za­tion, Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy. The tour pack­ager that’s known for high-end expe­di­tions to the far cor­ners of the globe is now offer­ing indi­vid­u­als the chance to be part of the solu­tion to a local prob­lem in a far-off location.

As the hol­i­day sea­son approaches, Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy is remindng every­one that dona­tions make fan­tas­tic gifts for friends and fam­ily who have everything.

“This year the focus is on what money can­not buy—shared expe­ri­ences and trea­sured mem­o­ries,” says Aber­crom­bie & Kent Vice Chair­man Jorie But­ler Kent, who guides Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy. “Our guests are look­ing for more mean­ing­ful ways to cel­e­brate with their fam­i­lies and asked us to cre­ate a Gift Pro­gram that makes it easy to donate to projects mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in places they have visited.”

With the help of A&K’s 62 world­wide offices, Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy has iden­ti­fied grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions, spear­headed by ded­i­cated local experts in con­ser­va­tion, edu­ca­tion, com­mu­nity devel­op­ment, and pub­lic health.

These are inspir­ing gifts designed to honor a friend or fam­ily mem­ber.  Dona­tions range from $10 for a sim­ple HIV test to help pre­vent the trans­mis­sion of AIDS to an unborn child to $500 for a field trip for Maa­sai chil­dren who have never been on safari.

Here are three pro­grams being offered right now. Visit Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy to read about all dona­tion pro­grams through­out the world.

HIV Test­ing in Uganda
Uganda Bwindi Com­mu­nity Hospital
—$10 helps assess the HIV sta­tus of a local res­i­dent with a sim­ple field test.

Restore a Nat­ural Land­mark 
in Morocco
Morocco—Protection of the Palmeraie—
$50 plants a tree to help restore the del­i­cate ecosys­tem in this thousand-year-old date palm grove, a Mar­rakech landmark.

A Safari Field Trip
Kenya — Friends of Conservation—
$500 gives 20 Maa­sai chil­dren the chance to dis­cover their nat­ural her­itage and learn the value of pro­tect­ing wildlife with a field trip to the Masai Mara National Reserve.

Dona­tions can be made online through Aber­crom­bie & Kent Philanthropy’s secure web­site www.akphilanthropy.org with 100 per­cent of all dona­tions going directly to the project selected.  Gift cer­tifi­cates will be deliv­ered to the recipient(s) elec­tron­i­cally or printed and mailed.

To make a dona­tion as a family—or in honor of a loved one—go to www.akphilanthropy.org. One hun­dred per­cent of your char­i­ta­ble gift to Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy goes directly to sup­port local projects world­wide. Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy is estab­lished in the United States as a 501©(3) not-for-profit orga­ni­za­tion. Your char­i­ta­ble gift is tax deductible as pro­vided by law.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Okay, British Air­ways won’t take you to Africa for free, but with a new pro­mo­tion they’ve announced with part­ner credit card Chase Visa, they will give you 100,000 bonus miles that can be used to travel to many amaz­ing African  gate­ways, including:

Egypt (Cairo, Hurghada, and Sharm el Sheikh)
Kenya (Nairobi)
Mau­ri­tius
Morocco (Mar­rakech)
Namibia (Wind­hoek)
South Africa (Cape Town, Dur­ban, Johan­nes­burg, Port Eliz­a­beth)
Tan­za­nia (Dar Es Salaam)
Uganda (Entebbe)
Zam­bia (Liv­ing­stone, Lusaka)
Zim­babwe (Harare)

So how do you get this prac­ti­cally free trip to Africa? By sign­ing up for an unprece­dented bonus mile deal: earn 100,000 miles with a new British Air­ways Visa Sig­na­ture Card from Chase.

Card Ben­e­fits

• receive 50,000 miles after your first purchase
• spend $2,000 within three months of open­ing your card and receive an addi­tional 50,000 miles
• earn 1.25 miles for each $1 spent
• earn 2.5 miles for money spent on BA purchases
• spend $30,000 in a cal­en­dar year and you’ll receive a 2-for-1 com­pan­ion award certificate
• $50 off a British Air­ways flight if booked before Decem­ber 31, 2009 (for travel before the end of 2010)

This promo is espe­cially entic­ing since British Air­ways offers what they call “House­hold Accounts.” This means you can com­bine miles with any­one liv­ing at the same address. That makes man­ag­ing miles SO much eas­ier! You’ll retain your own Exec­u­tive Club mem­ber­ship but your mileage bal­ances will be combined.

You may use British Air­ways miles on any OneWorld air­line, including:

Amer­i­can Air­lines
Cathay Pacific
Finnair
Iberia
Japan Air­lines
LAN
Malev
Quan­tas
Royal Jordanian

Other British Air­ways part­ners also include:

Aer Lin­gus
Alaskan Air­lines
Brus­sels Air­lines
Caribbean Air­lines
Mexicana

This British Airways/Chase Visa promo is def­i­nitely some­thing to look into, espe­cially if you’ll be trav­el­ing to Africa in the com­ing years. I know that’s how I’ll spend my miles! Apply for the card now.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

A vari­ety of 2009 travel awards have been announced recently and &Beyond’s Kichwa Tembo in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve is rack­ing up the accolades.

Travel + Leisure hon­ored Kichwa Tembo with a World’s Best Award for 2009 and Condé Nast Trav­eler added the lodge to its Gold List of the World’s Best Places to Stay.

So what’s spe­cial about Kichwa Tembo? It’s located right on the path of the annual Great Migra­tion on a pri­vate con­ces­sion leased from Maa­sai land­lords in the exclu­sive west­ern Mara. The Migra­tion trav­els through here from June through Octo­ber, but the ani­mal view­ing is excel­lent all year long.

Kichwa Tembo actu­ally con­sists of two dis­tinct camps: the more inti­mate and upscale Bateleur Camp and Kichwa Tembo Masai Mara Tented Camp.

Bateleur Camp is mod­eled after the clas­sic safaris of the 20s and 30s. There are two camps of just nine tented suites each, all ser­viced by per­sonal but­lers. Pri­vate decks over­look the sweep­ing Masai Mara plains.

Kichwa Tembo Masai Mara Tented Camp com­prises 40 Hem­ing­way style ensuite safari tents (28 clas­sic safari tents and 12 lux­ury tents). The camp offers both a for­est and a savanna expe­ri­ence with out­looks either across the mag­nif­i­cent grass­lands or Sabaringo River. A huge infin­ity pool with breath­tak­ing views pro­vides not only a refresh­ing dip but also some of the best game sight­ings in the Mara.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit &Beyond or call 1-(888) 882‑3742.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of &Beyond