Jolinaiko Eco Tours - Experience West Africa!

The Jolinaiko Eco Village

With our tours, we try to give our visitors an Africa experience they will never forget, and at the same time contribute as much as we can to the local communities we visit. But for a long time Apollo Panou, the founder of Jolinaiko Eco Tours, has been dreaming of making a bigger impact with his travel business.

Apollo's dream

Apollo's dream is to create a place where tourists and volunteers can experience the real rural African village life by staying in the middle of it and taking part in the daily activities and traditions. And where, at the same time, the villagers can benefit and generate an income by offering extraordinary community experiences to their visitors. A place where visitor and villager can meet, exchange, learn from and inspire each other in a respectful and friendly way.

He wants to make an average, normal African village feel special, and contribute to the quality of life and generate a feeling of pride in its inhabitants.

Part of the dream is a guestlodge in the village, the "Jolinaiko Eco Lodge", a place where visitors can stay for a longer time and which generates work and income for the village.

At this moment, his dream is no longer just a dream. It is taking shape in the village of Atsiekpoe, 'Home of the Cashew Tree', a normal and therefore very special village on the beautiful green banks of the Volta River in the Volta Region.

Experience the Jolinaiko Eco Village yourself

Experience real African rural village life yourself by booking a trip with Jolinaiko Eco Tours. You can read all about the Atsiekpoe experience here.

If you are interested in volunteering in the primary and junior secondary school of Atsiekpoe-Vume, please see our volunteering section.

“ We received a warm welcome. People carried our luggage on their head to our house, everybody greeted us with 'Woez' and people were smiling. Children were running after us screaming 'yevu, yevu!'.

It is a lovely place to live. Living with the sun. The villages are not really developed and isolated from the 'civilized world' (no electricity, mud houses, cooking on a fire etc.). Still the villages are rich in what they have. You don't need electricity, because there is a breeze from the river and water is close by. We thought it was wonderful to walk outside and see the goats and chickens walking freely. The people live from the natural resources like fish and cassava. They make baskets out of plants and eat mangoes when it is the mango season. On Sundays you see everybody in their beautiful traditional clothes going to church. Although the villages are little, they have five churches! God plays an important role in these communities.

We hope that you will enjoy the people and the nature as much as we did. Yevu, woez! ”

Annemarie van Alphen & Irene Poortinga ,
The Netherlands. sankofa

Annemarie and Irene lived in Atsiekpoe-Vume for 3 months and teached at the local primary school.

Teaching in Atsiekpoe-Vume is a unique experience. If you have a teaching background and are interested in spending some time doing voluntary work, please see our volunteering pages.