YAANA Ventures’ walkathon to support eight Asian charities

Diver­si­fied sus­tain­able travel group YAANA Ven­tures will hold sim­ul­tan­eous walk­a­thons in 10 Asi­an des­tin­a­tions to boost eight loc­al charities.

The walk­a­thons will take place on Feb­ru­ary 1, 2026, in Nonthaburi and Khao Sok in Thai­l­and; Kandy, Sri Lanka; Sanur, Bali, Indone­sia; Vien­tiane, Laos; Yan­gon, Myan­mar; Cebu, the Phil­ip­pines; Ho Chi Minh City, Viet­nam; and Koh Kong and Phnom Penh in Cam­bod­ia.

Team effort

Khiri Travel offices in all eight of its oper­at­ing coun­tries will organ­ise loc­al walks. And VHG Hos­pit­al­ity Asia pro­jects Anurak Com­munity Lodge in Khao Sok, south­ern Thai­l­and, and Car­damom Ten­ted Camp in Koh Kong province, south­w­est Cam­bod­ia will organ­ise walks.

Man­age­ment, staff, and sup­pli­ers of six YAANA Ven­tures com­pan­ies — Khiri Travel, VHG Hos­pit­al­ity Asia, Car­damom Ten­ted Camp, Anurak Lodge, HMP, Khiri Cam­pus, and part­ners Nar­una Bey­ond Retreats—will raise funds on each walk.

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Outreach

The Khiri Reach char­it­able found­a­tion will deliv­er the funds raised to:

• Thanks Giv­ing Home in Nonthaburi, Thai­l­and, which sup­ports the elderly.
• The Forest Heal­ing Found­a­tion in Digana, Kandy in Sri Lanka, which pro­tects and restores forests.
• The Bali Chil­dren Found­a­tion, which sup­ports children’s education.
• Phoning Hos­pit­al in Vien­tiane, Laos, which sup­ports people with disabilities.
• The Ywar Thar Gyi Men­tal Hos­pit­al at Kandawgyi Lake in Yan­gon, Myan­mar, which sup­ports people with disabilities.
• CRST Pro­ject B — Bicycles for Edu­ca­tion in Cam­bod­ia, which donates bicycles to poor chil­dren upcoun­try to get to school.
• Zapa­t­era Ele­ment­ary School, which sup­ports deaf and hard-of-hear­ing ele­ment­ary school stu­dents in Cebu, Philippines.
• Sai­gonchil­dren in Ho Chi Minh City, which sup­ports children’s education.

The five-kilo­metre char­ity event is the second annu­al walk­a­thon organ­ised by YAANA Ven­tures and Khiri Reach. There were also fun­drais­ing ‘bikea­thons’ in Viet­nam in 2017 and 2019.

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Tourism as a force for good

Nat­alie van Ogtrop, Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Man­ager of YAANA Ven­tures, says the aim in 2026 is to deliv­er on a com­mit­ment to tour­ism as a force for good in loc­al communities.

“At YAANA, we use The Long Run’s 4Cs of com­munity, con­ser­va­tion, cul­ture, and respons­ible com­merce,” she said.

“This frame­work inspires us to cre­ate pro­jects such as the walk­a­thon, with the aim of giv­ing back to loc­al com­munit­ies and help­ing people who need sup­port, such as dis­ad­vant­aged children.”

Ms van Ogtrop added: “We are pleased that many sup­pli­ers who work with YAANA brands will be join­ing us on the day.”

YAANA Ven­tures expects more than 200 par­ti­cipants in the walk­a­thon regionally.

Fun­drais­ing walk­ing routes are diverse, ran­ging from big city nature parks and beach­side loc­a­tions to remote upcoun­try nation­al parks.

Join the walk

There is still time for travel industry mem­bers to join the walk and/or donate.

Dona­tions can be made to any of the char­it­ies via the Khiri Reach found­a­tion. To find out more, email [email protected].

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About YAANA Ventures

YAANA Ven­tures is an own­er, part­ner, and oper­at­or of sus­tain­able and entre­pren­eur­i­al travel and hos­pit­al­ity ven­tures in Asia.

The com­pany dis­tin­guishes itself by shar­ing real exper­i­ences that are groun­ded in the cul­tur­al rich­ness of the region.

It is a cham­pi­on of The Long Run’s 4Cs of respons­ible tour­ism: con­ser­va­tion, com­munity, cul­ture, and commerce.

YAANA imple­ments all its ven­tures based on these guid­ing regen­er­at­ive travel principles.

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About Khiri Reach

Khiri Reach is a char­it­able found­a­tion estab­lished in 2007 to help dis­ad­vant­aged people through com­munity devel­op­ment, con­ser­va­tion, envir­on­ment, and empower­ment projects.

It has set up pro­grammes in Thai­l­and, Laos, Viet­nam, Myan­mar, and Cam­bod­ia, with pro­jects com­ing in Indone­sia, the Mal­dives, and Sri Lanka.

The found­a­tion works dir­ectly with people in rur­al areas and city zones to improve their liv­ing conditions.

Khiri Reach iden­ti­fies bona fide pro­jects that need fund­ing, advises donors and volun­teers, and ensures that 100% of dona­tions go to bene­fi­ciary projects.

Khiri Travel cov­ers all over­heads whilst coordin­at­ing with loc­al non-gov­ern­ment­al organ­isa­tions (NGOs) and projects.

It also provides man­power as all staff are alloc­ated five paid work­ing days a year to ded­ic­ate to the Khiri Reach pro­jects they wish to lead.

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