The Partnership
Over the past 40 years, Newmarket Holidays has built a reputation for providing escorted tours, resort-based stays, river cruises and cruise holidays that combine exceptional value for money and the highest standards of customer care. Whether you’re planning a holiday close to home or in one of the world’s far-flung corners, Newmarket Holidays are there to help you get the very most out of your visit, lifting the veil on the wonders of your destination, and ensuring that your time away is as enjoyable and carefree as possible.
Their mission is to enrich lives and improve wellbeing through travel and Just a Drop is proud to partner with Newmarket Holidays to make this mission a reality – working together on safe water and sanitation projects that have a real, tangible, and sustainable impact across the world.
Los Calpules School, Nicaragua
In 2023, Newmarket Holidays embarked on a mission to transform lives by supporting Just a Drop to construct a latrine block at Los Calpules school in Nicaragua, South America.
Across Nicaragua, latrine and handwashing facilities are limited, which leads to open defecation and increases the risk of disease. In addition to this, only 6% of schools have gender-specific toilets – this prevents girls from having the privacy they need when on their periods and causes them to drop out of school.
Indeed, before Newmarket Holidays supported the project, the school’s latrines were in such a state of disrepair that they were unusable. They were full with waste and likely to break at any moment, meaning that the children had nowhere to go to the toilet while at school.
This made it very difficult to maintain proper hygiene standards at Los Calpules and led to students having to miss school due to illness. They also did not have proper hand-washing facilities, making it even harder to maintain hygiene standards.
To change this, in March 2023, Newmarket Holidays held a virtual cycle race to fundraise for the project. Around 50 employees, including chief executive, Niel Alobaidi, spent a day on exercise bikes in the office to cycle 297 miles – equivalent to the width of Nicaragua and raising over £5000.
The team didn’t stop there, they constructed a Wishing Well to donate loose change and the Newmarket Holidays staff ran challenges, bake sales and Christmas events.
In May 2024, the team held another fundraising event, which involved rowing the length of Central America’s longest lake in a virtual rowing race. They rowed 100 miles on two machines, raising another £2,000 for Just a Drop.
This community doesn’t have access to clean water and this affects them in a number of ways: children drop out of school a lot earlier and they can’t attract good quality teachers. This project has been purely funded by the staff and their teams, with each team rowing 50 miles.
– Niel Alobaidi, CEO
Thanks to Newmarket Holidays, Los Calpules School is now thriving and the impact of the project is clear:
- The children and staff at the school now have proper, functioning latrines
- Sanitation has improved, through the new hand washing station encouraging positive hygiene behaviours
- Children can attend school more regularly as they are no longer sick from poor hygiene
- Children now have increased access to privacy and dignity due to gender-segregated latrine blocks
Daha Village, India
In 2025, Newmarket Holidays are partnering with Distinct Destinations to bring access to safe water and sanitation to the community of Daha in India. With the support of the partnership, Just a Drop will work in Daha Village to:
- Build one water tank with 40,000L Capacity
- Build one check dam
- Build 5 model toilets
- Build one well and solar pump
- Build tap stands at each home (x68)
- Run a programme of WASH and MHM training
- Build a water supply at the local school
- Renovation of school sanitation block
A check dam is a structure built across a stream, channel, or river to slow down the flow of water and help in water conservation. These dams are primarily used for water management in agricultural areas, particularly in regions that experience erratic rainfall or are prone to drought.
The project will enable the 323 community members in Daha to have sufficient water to drink, cook, wash and clean with. This means that:
- Open defecation decreases, improving the cleanliness of the village and reducing disease
- Girls will be able to spend time at school and no longer need to tend to the sick or collect water
- Hygiene and MHM training enforces good hygiene behaviours and breaks down taboos
- Incomes increase as illness and doctor’s bills reduce
We look forward to bringing you more update on the project soon!
