Reality Tours and Travel ♥ Dharavi and No Nasties t-shirts!

Welcome, welcome!  Be our guest!  This holiday season we’ve extended a warm invite to some fantastic organisations to share a guest post here on the No Nasties blog.  Some posts will be from people we work with directly, others from those who inspire us with their own work in the fair trade and organic arena - and all are guaranteed to ring your jingle bells!  So get comfy, snuggle closer to that fireplace/AC unit and enjoy today’s post from the wonderful people at Reality Tours and Travel.

Reality Tours and Travel is a social tour operator who aims to break down the negative attitudes many people have towards slums and the residents. Our signature Dharavi tour shows the industrial and residential areas of one of Asia’s biggest slums and tries to give our customers an understanding of the “realities” of this area. We show and explain the enormous economical power of Dharavi and the strong sense of its community. Besides that we also offer Market, Bicycle, Mumbai by Night, Public Transport and Village tours.

Eighty percent of our profits go towards our sister NGO Reality Gives that runs and supports several projects in education as well as environment, health and livelihoods improvement for the communities of Dharavi.  Besides many other projects we run a Community Centre, a Youth Empowerment Program as well as an English Language Support Program at Municipal schools. Since Reality Gives was founded in 2009 we had a direct impact on the underprivileged lives of 1500 residents.  In 2012-13 we plan to provide resources and opportunities to 750 slum dwellers through powerful programs run by us or our connection projects.

You might think now that this is all great but why do you read that on the No Nasties blog? Because No Nasties plays a big part in creating that change for our communities by adding their fair trade, organic and too-soft-to-believe-it tees to our merchandise line. Besides our tours we also offer products to our customers that represent our vision of creating a change in the world. We give 100% of the profits from the merchandise sales back to Reality Gives.

Our “I ♥ Dharavi” t-shirt produced by No Nasties is a bestseller in our Reception Centre in Dharavi. The heart doesn’t just symbolize the devotion and love we dedicate to our work in Dharavi but also the shape of Dharavi itself. Situated between the Western and Central railway lines the area looks like a heart from the bird’s eye perspective. Also it is located in the middle of Mumbai, conveniently reachable from everywhere in the city.

But that’s not all that connects us to the incredible team of No Nasties. Apu, who has tried to get us all in his Ultimate Frisbee team for more than a year now (with limited success by the way) and co-founder Diti designed the website www.realitygives.org. Additionally, Apu has been a member of the Reality Gives advisory board for half a year and enlightens us regularly with his creative and professional input for all areas of our work.

No Nasties has become a very important partner for the Reality Group. Our team loves the perfect-fit and eco-friendly shirts that feel especially good on the skin even after a long hot day in Dharavi. And also our customers are often surprised how soft and light the shirts and the prints feel. 

It’s also never too late to explore the “real” Mumbai with us. Find out more on www.realitytoursandtravel.com.

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Thanks, Reality!  We ♥ what you guys do.