Planet Why - The Hope Hotel
Planet Why - The Hope Hotel, is an innovative solution to a question faced by all non-profits - How to make their work self sustainable? How to free themselves from the external factors that determine the inflow of donations and concentrate solely on the good work that the non-profit was setup to do.
Planet why is a guesthouse the proceeds of which will support and enable Project Why’s mission to continue in the long term thus ensuring its transition from charity to sustainability. Planet why is also a children centre aimed at creating a enabling environment to provide short and long term shelter to vulnerable persons. It will also provide support to the local community through education, training and employment. The approach is one of inclusive development where all members of society, even the most marginalised ones can contribute to the well being of society. It is also hoped that the dovetailing of hospitality and development can be a model to replicate.
For the past 10 years Project Why, a not-for-profit organisation has been engaged in imparting education to over 800 children and running a day care for special needs children as well as a women centre. Though the programmes ran efficiently and successfully they were faced with two critical issues: the vulnerability of the funding model based on yearly cycles that can never provide stability and the extreme vulnerability of the special needs children who need life long support.