For our project , the presence of Rebecca was a godsend. Since 2012, Rebecca and her Zanzibarian husband are the owners of our hotel, Panga Chumvi. They live in Stone Town but Rebecca divides her time between Stone Town and Matemwe. They have two adult sons , the eldest lives in London, the youngest is still looking to settle down.
She worked in London as a sound director in the film industry, later on she gave training to minorities, especially women and migrants, and most preferably to female migrants.
She continues with this commitment here in Zanzibar. It's great that they mainly recruit people from the village. The employees do not come from expensive hotel schools from the mainland as is the case in other tourist resorts in Zanzibar.
She continues with this commitment here in Zanzibar. It's great that they mainly recruit people from the village. The employees do not come from expensive hotel schools from the mainland as is the case in other tourist resorts in Zanzibar.
Rebecca is trying to run the hotel in the most sustainable way as possible, the water in the kitchen and the rooms for instance, is heated by solar water heaters. This requires a lot of engagement because these devices need a lot of maintenance. With her professional knowledge, organizational skills and commitment she is invaluable to the organization SEA (Sustainable East Africa), where she works as a volunteer. In this way she will make from Panga Chumvi (and Matemwe) a second center (next to Stonetown) of art, culture and sustainable development. Also, Matemwe is home now to the Creative Water Festival. In this village there is an agreement between hotels and the local community to clean the beaches and the village every day. On our walk along the beach we have indeed seen that it is not always obvious to get rid of the waste from the villages and the garbage that is drifted ashore. We cannot imagine that a government is not responsible for waste treatment. Only in the historical tourist triangle of Stonetown the government guarantees the cleaning. Elsewhere, the small private initiatives are mostly run by volunteers, who sometimes pick up the waste door-to-door and sort it afterwards. Also here, SEA gives support. The people are well aware that recycling is necessary. The bottles go to Aida and Hamad also gets his share, the plastic bottles are already re-used by the population.