Journeys that make a difference

Travel changes you. Anyone who’s ever been to Africa knows that. It’s not just the landscapes or the wildlife. It’s the people. The conversations and the unexpected ways a journey can shift how you see the world.

At Roane Travel Design, we wanted our journeys to reflect those moments. Not only in the memories they create, but in the impact they leave behind. That’s why we founded Explore With Purpose, our nonprofit organization working directly with communities in Tanzania to support long-term projects in education, health, and conservation.

This allows us to design journeys that give you more than just a bucket-list adventure. It allows your travel to support the very communities that make these journeys meaningful in the first place.

Explore With Purpose 

Explore With Purpose is dedicated to connecting luxury travel with conservation and community empowerment in Africa. Their mission is to always be an extension of the voices from the local communities they support and make sure that each partnership they partake in is intentional and matches the shifting needs of the community. They believe that even small acts of kindness can have a significant impact on the world around us. This is the fundamental principle that drives Explore With Purpose.

A Journey That Starts with Water

In the village of Mairowa in northern Tanzania, access to clean water is a daily struggle. Families here have long relied on seasonal water sources, with many women and children walking several miles each day to collect water for drinking, cooking, and washing. During the dry season, those walks become longer and the water becomes less reliable and often unsafe. Through Explore With Purpose, and led by our clients Derek and Brooke DeBoer, we have helped support the installation of a water pipeline and borehole, bringing clean, accessible water closer to home. This allows children to spend more time in school instead of walking for water. It improves hygiene. It reduces illness. And it restores time and dignity to the everyday routines of the families who live there.

Supporting Education

In remote communities like Ololosokwan, schools often operate with limited infrastructure. Classrooms are overcrowded, teachers share accommodation or travel long distances, and boarding students sometimes sleep in conditions that were never designed for long‑term use. Explore With Purpose has focused on strengthening the foundations that make quality education possible.

This has included building new classrooms in Mairowa, supporting the construction of safe, stable teacher housing in Ololosokwan, and completing a new boys’ dormitory to replace a severely overcrowded one. Earlier dormitory structures have also received essential repairs to make them safer and more functional.

Beyond buildings, Explore With Purpose also supports programs like Msichana Mwimbi, which provides menstrual health education and training for girls at Irkisongo Secondary School. This crucial initiative is aimed at ending period poverty and breaking the cultural stigmas surrounding menstruation in rural Tanzania.

Together, these projects give students a better environment to learn in, and teachers the support they need to thrive within their communities.

Explore with Purpose 4 Kids

As our education projects grew, so did the interest from families travelling with us, especially their children. That’s how Explore With Purpose 4 Kids came to life. The program invites children around the world to engage with the places we support. Whether they’ve travelled through Tanzania or are participating from home, children can raise funds, host small events, or lend their creativity to support their peers in Tanzania’s rural communities.

A Different Kind of Luxury

When we design an itinerary, we start with what matters to you. For some travellers, that’s a front-row seat to the Great Migration. For others, it’s a chance to visit a community project.

Travelling with purpose doesn’t mean giving up comfort or adventure. Many of our lodge partners already invest deeply in their surrounding communities, through education initiatives, conservation efforts, and employment opportunities. When you stay with them, you’re part of that ecosystem of support, whether or not you see it firsthand.

If you’re interested in weaving purpose into your next African adventure, we’d love to show you how. Learn more about Explore With Purpose by visiting www.explorewpurpose.com