Communities rally to showcase Inner Islands to Children of The President’s Village

In spite of their good intention, which was to showcase the Islands to the children, the management of the Residential Care Home, the National Council for Children, NCC, did not have much funding and had to rely on the good will of individuals and businesses.
“Once the tickets were booked, which was complimentary for the 26 children and at a discounted rate for our 17 staff, we took the leap of faith,” said San Finesse, the Deputy Manager of the facility.
The first trip on board the Cat Cocos ferry, took the children to Praslin Island and another 15 minutes was spent on board Cat Rose, again at special rates, as the team of 43, decided to furtively visit neighbouring La Digue Island.

The kind hearted an generous nature of the Diguois did not disappoint the group, as upon arriving on the second most populated Island of Seychelles, a good Samaritan, offered to take the whole delegation around the Island in his pickup truck.
The main coordinator of the team, Finesse says they spent half a day on La Digue, stopping at the most important sites such as Anse Source d’Argent and the popular beach of Grand Anse.

He adds that this was a real eye opener for the children, all of which were living full time at the Residential Care Home and hailed from different districts on Mahe.

From the jetty of Praslin, the children were waited upon by the well reputed Mason’s Travel, which drove them to their residences, which was in the form of private dwellings provided for them by families such as the Finesse, Bedier and Philoe family.

With no time to spare on their 3 day getaway, the team relied on boats such as Barracuda, to take them to the Curieuse National Park, where they were given a tour of the Island before hopping off again for a spin round St Pierre and back to Praslin.

“The trip to Curieuse was very exciting for the kids as they got to see giant land tortoises, but the sea was too rough to swim,” complained Finesse.

If the sea was not in their favour, on Praslin, the children and staff of The President’s Village were not disappointed as restaurants and hoteliers such as La Goulue, La Pirogue, Paradise Sun, Vacanze, Oasis and individuals such as the Green family, pitched in to offer lunches, dinners and many other treats.

One young man, who owned a large enough vehicle, was always at hand when all other avenues failed to take the precious children and their chaperones to locations they were seeing for the first time; from Anse Lazio to Grand Anse district.
“If there is one thing we could do different it will be to spend more time in all the locations we visited, but we cannot complain as the children have been charmed by the Islands and hope to return, ” says Finesse.

After the trip, the children must have learned a most valuable lesson that chivalry is not dead in Seychelles, as there were many times when individuals came forward to lend their vehicles or any other help to them.