Jungle Bay Resort & Spa

How Jungle Bay Makes a Difference to Community: Jungle Bay was a founding partner of "Open Books, Open Minds -- Leave a Book Behind". A literacy project to help bring books to the primary school students in the southeast of Dominica. In the past 2 years Jungle Bay family (owners, staff & guests) have generously contributed over $150,000 ec dollars as a seed grant to begin the development of a community operated facility for indigent children with severe disabilities from Dominica's southeast. We recently broke ground and are completing the foundation of the new House of Hope. Jungle Bay recognizes that air travel to Dominica puts a stress on the environment. The resort and the community is committed to preservation of 55 acres at Jungle Bay + hundreds of surrounding acres of jungle which border the resort including Morne Trois Pitons National Park - UNESCO World Heritage Site. This community effort to continue preservation of the rainforest does not require tree-planing so in lieu of an official carbon offsetting program, Jungle Bay and the community encourage guests to consider supporting the Jungle Bay Community Fund in any way that they can. Jungle Bay provided financial benefits and helped the people of Dominica's southeast develop a range of transferable construction skills in a timely manner when local residents were forced to transition after the decline of the banana trade. Glenda bring supplies to school Jungle Bay employs 59 full-time employees, which is important as it encourages capacity building and economic growth of the immediate surrounding communities. Owners Sam & Glenda helped found an NGO - the South East Tourism Development Committee (SETDC) whose mission is to help develop local capacity for economic opportunities Jungle Bay brings to the area as well as to help ensure environmental protection of the area; through the development of trails, tour guide training, working with schools and young people with respect to conservation issues and working in partnership for the development of the turtle conservation and turtle watching as a tourism attraction. In January 2006, Jungle Bay Resort and Spa launched the Southeast Entrepreneur Loan Fund (SELF), which allows 10-15 local entrepreneurs to borrow up to $12,000 EC for business activities such as organic produce, seafood, local arts/ crafts production and guiding of cultural tours and hikes that can contribute to the Jungle Bay services. Jungle Bay has established an on-site education program for staff to encourage a healthy growth academically in tourism. Since August 2005, Jungle Bay has committed to financing high school tuition fees for all students (200+) in the Carib Territory, the Caribbean's last remaining indigenous Amerindian peoples. With the generous help of guests Sue McMillan & John McDonald Jungle Bay has started a scholarship fund to assist students in financing their secondary education in Dominica.