Travelling is no longer an exclusive activity, but still not everyone has access to it. That is the reason why the social enterprise Difftravel was created – to provide transport services and tourism opportunities for people with various disabilities or reduced mobility. And to do it in a way that will leave them with fond memories long after the trip – a sort of emotional therapy.

It all started with small trips around Latvia, but now Difftravel organises trips to European countries as well, and plans to develop it more and more. Santa Beitāne, the company’s CEO, emphasises that this is a slow-growing but sustainable business niche with great potential. “This will be our third season, but we haven’t really stopped over the winter either – we’ve been going to warmer places. In the autumn, when the local season ended, we went to Germany, we had Christmas in Prague, then we visited Cyprus and at the end of April we were in Switzerland. And then the local season starts again,” says Santa.

Difftravel differs from a regular tour operator because it adapts the trip plan to its clients needs – knowing that these travellers will not be able to move quickly and will each have their own specific needs, travelling in small groups (no larger than 30 people) and making sure that everyone is comfortable throughout the trip.

“Difftravel is part of Mobilizing, a social enterprise that offers driving lessons for people with hearing impairments. The desire to help people who are deprived of something because of their health was rooted in my childhood, when I had to undergo treatment for a pulmonary tuberculosis infection and spent a long time in various sanatoriums and medical institutions,” says Santa Beitāne.

But how did the idea for such a special tour company come about? “I wanted to do this for a very, very long time. I think it was 2008 or 2010, but there was absolutely no infrastructure for it in Latvia at that time, and I couldn’t do it alone. The support organisation for people with disabilities “Apeirons” has done a lot in terms of accessibility, a lot has been achieved and improved, and the general perception is slowly changing. However, compared to other European countries, there is still a lot to do. There, for example, accessibility is available even very, very high up in the mountains, where the conditions are supposedly difficult. We still have room for improvement here in Latvia, but we can also see improvements,” says Santa Beitāne.

The choice of trip routes and destinations in Latvia is therefore based on the principle of roughly defining the destination and then assessing which attractions, places of interest or interesting businesses are available along the way. After that, it is a matter of contacting and checking whether, for example, a wheelchair user will be able to get to the chosen point and enjoy the offer. The websites of municipalities and tourist centres are also a good help.

Travelling to other countries is much more complicated. It all starts with booking hotels, which is a lot of work as availability is not always sufficient. “The word ‘accessible room’ does not mean that everything is really adapted. Many people think that if a wheelchair can fit through the door, it’s accessible for disabled people. So you have to get in touch and ask for details: do the toilet have handrails, does the shower have a grab bar, how wide is the door, how high is the bed…,” says Santa. Reservations often need to be changed, and transport availability needs to be thought of right away. For example, when organising a trip to Switzerland, Santa left earlier so that she could bring the bus all the way across Germany to Switzerland and leave it at the airport. Then she flew back to Latvia and joined the group so that she could have the journey from the airport in her own vehicle.

To find the best routes, the Difftravel manager also sometimes does research trips. Artificial intelligence is also a good help, as it can roughly create a route by suggesting stops at a glance: “It does not prepare the precise information. It just provides me some clues, but then I need to check everything.”

Most of the time Santa organises everything on her own, but she gets a lot of help from Aivars Krūzmētra, a board member of the People with disabilities’ Association “Aizvējš”. “I also have Aivars. He has a very sharp mind, he has a disability himself, but his mind – hats off! I make a plan, give it to him and ask him to check and get back to me if anything is wrong! He looks at everything very carefully, notices what I’ve forgotten,” says Santa, grateful for the help.

Without grant support, social entrepreneurship would struggle to survive, as the cost of providing a trip is higher than for a normal tour operator. One of the reason is because the trips are organised in relatively small groups. “It’s not a 40 or 50-seater bus, where all the costs are then spread out,” explains Santa.

She is determined to get another bus in the near future, which has already been reserved. A second driver is also needed to expand the operation. “At the moment I use family members, whom I don’t pay anything, but how long can I do that? This is just a solution for now, I need a second driver who will be paid as an employee,” says the Difftravel manager.

It’s already in the future plans, and Santa is very clear. “I definitely want to develop the specialised vehicle service. Where is the problem? At the moment, if more people with disabilities come to Latvia – even athletes or participants in major events – no one can provide [them with adequate transport]. For example, I was recently asked – can you transport 100 wheelchair tennis players to Valmiera? I would like to do that, I want to develop this specialised vehicle service. And then the next stage – when I’m done with this, I really want to set up a campsite for people with disabilities to host international events. I will not give that up. As long as there is no war in Latvia, I will do it!” Santa Beitāne is determined.

Children who are restless, moving a lot, have poor attention spans, are shy or have low motivation to learn often need help in learning as well as interacting with others. Barboleta balance platforms can be integrated into learning process and are available as a method for professionals as well as an app for families. The method ensures that children have the opportunity to learn by engaging their motor coordination and balance.

“We calculated that if parents have bought this balance platform and it has been used for at least one year, then this activity with “professional” costs 80 cents per day. This is how children can learn multiplication table, foreign languages or reading,” says Baiba Blomniece – Jurāne, the author of the idea.

Moreover, although the method was originally developed for children, demand has grown rapidly and it is now also used for adults, both in rehabilitation centres and retirement homes.

Baiba Blomniece – Jurāne came up with the idea to develop this method and the balance board after thinking about the impact of movement coordination and balance on child’s development and communication. Gradually integrating what she read in various studies and trying out a practical method in her own experience, Baiba started to use it in her work and other specialists became interested in the method. This is how the idea from her own practise grew to a social enterprise.

“Working as a clinical psychologist and educational psychologist in schools, I look for ways to make it easier for children to learn. I was also a special educator and provided help with learning. I started to involve motor coordination. I had studied many types of therapies and realised that we could stimulate the brain with movement,” says Baiba, recalling the creation of the method.

Initially, the team consisted of three specialists, who were taking the appointments for children also from other schools. That was a costly service for parents, says the founder. But the results were good, it helped children learn better. “We realised that parents were even taking out loans to pay for these classes. We felt uncomfortable as we were trying to help but at the same time it took so much from the families, so we decided to look for a solution and found out about social entrepreneurship. Our aim was to generate enough revenue through the sale of balance platforms to be able to help children in need. We succeeded in doing this, we established both a development centre and a kindergarten,” says Baiba Blomniece – Jurāne.

Thanks to Altum grant in social entrepreneurship, both the development centre and the “Barboleta” Smart Platform that works in conjunction with the app have been created.  To make this innovative tool accessible to a wider audience, a Barboleta shop was set up. The app has been designed to make it easier for families and parents to use it at home instead of a lesson with a special educator, thus saving money.

Specialists, teachers, speech therapists and psychologists have training about the method, what it is based on and how to create tasks for the pupils so that the specialists can integrate and use their own materials. “I am teaching the technical part on how to use the balance platforms, and then each expert can use them according to their profession. If it’s a physiotherapist, they use them according to their needs, an occupational therapist, a social educator according to their own requirements. I don’t know everything, I just know what to do with the balance platform,” explains Baiba.

The social enterprise had gradually grown to 30 employees, a development centre and a kindergarten based on the Barboleta method. Baiba Blomniece – Jurāne was its founder, but now she was ready for changes. “Since 1^st of November last year, I am working alone in the social enterprise, as I decided to focus exclusively on the development of the balance platform methodology,” says Baiba.

The establishment of the social enterprise has allowed us to help more children, to offer the method to a wider range of people, and currently around 400 teachers from different schools across Latvia are using the Barboleta platform in their work with children.

“Now that I am concentrating only on balance platforms, the goal is to develop the app, to develop wider accessibility so that more and more people can apply the method. At the moment the app is created for children aged 3 to 9-10, but I plan to expand it. All profits will be invested in creating an accessible product for a wider range of customers,” concludes Baiba Blomniece – Jurāne, optimistic about the future.

The social enterprise “Dzīves oāze” offers a wide range of services to help seniors with dementia, people with mental disabilities, as well as families and especially fathers. For several years now, it has been run by Jānis Broks, who joined the care centre, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, in 2019. Since then, work has been completely reorganised and restructured, staff has been carefully selected, and attitudes towards clients have changed.

Intensive work is currently being done to develop the family assistant service and support groups for fathers. “I am particularly interested in this. I have developed and run a programme for another organisation before, and this is the second year we have been setting these groups,” says Jānis, proud of his work.

The support groups for fathers are organised in a series of eight sessions, which aim to educate and equip fathers with new skills, as well as to support them with practical tasks, encouraging them to believe in themselves. For some, the group provides support during divorce, helping them to learn how to organise their time, how to cooperate with the child’s mother and how to maintain the relationship with the child. Within the group, fathers learn to share and talk about different difficulties and solutions. “They open up and when there is a break between the sessions, they start discussing not only fishing and cars, but also children and issues they can solve. The programme is very simple on the one hand, but on the other hand it is built in such a way that the fathers discover their own resource, share their knowledge with each other,” says Jānis.

But the longest running of the centre’s two activities is a day centre for adults with dementia and a group flat for people with mental disabilities.

Day centre clients receive developmental and recreational activities, care during the day and they can return home in the evening. Clients who are attending the day centre have different levels of dementia, and for some it is their only chance to socialise. “On the other hand, it is also an opportunity for family members to stay socially active, as their loved ones are looked after, cared for and receive support that help them to remain functional,” says the company’s CEO. Currently, the centre can accommodate 20-25 people per day.

A group apartment is for people who have the capacity to take care of themselves but have difficulty living on their own because of mental disabilities. “Our job is to keep them active and social, not to let them get lazy,” explains Jānis Broks. They need help with things like budgeting, reminders, support and encouragement. Currently, 16 people live in the group flat, all of whom receive a pension, but many are also able to work. “A group flat is like one step. There are people who will always stay in a group flat, but there are many who are just initially either afraid or discouraged, or lacking the skills to be independent – we can help them get back on their feet. One of the most important things is that they find a job, that they stick to it and that it is a supportive environment. So, we look for employers who are open and willing to accept that this is a person with a disability,” says Jānis. So far, however, there are not many such opportunities on the Latvian labour market.

As for the day-to-day management of the centre, each service has its own team dedicated to one area, currently 15 people are employed.

The first year after joining the company was very hard and intense, but almost immediately the centre became a social enterprise. This seemed natural, as Jānis had previously been interested in this type of business. “It was on my radar and very much in line with how I see and do it. Initially, I didn’t even think about applying for grants and funding, it was more of an ideological, philosophical direction,” says Jānis Broks.

Social care has also been close to his heart for a long time. A psychologist by training, he also worked in schools, but when he found himself in a crisis centre, he immediately felt at home. “And at some point, I realised that I could work not just with one person at a time, but with a team. That’s when I started to think of myself as a manager,” says Jānis.

As for the future, he stresses that social services are always underfunded, and their providers are closely linked to local authorities. But “Dzīves oāze” aims to become more independent in this respect. “We want to develop the service ourselves and reach out to potential clients, because this is a very big problem, but very few people talk about it.”

Canisterapy, Montessori pedagogy, warm grain classes, audiologist and even a bed with vibroacoustic massage. Support House “Brīvupes” in Latgale brings all this together in one place, providing rehabilitation services and development-enhancing activities for children from different social groups, as well as their parents. The idea behind such a wide offer is simple – to bring the children to a pleasant place where they can participate in various activities in a familiar environment, changing only the specialists who work with them.

There’s also a guesthouse-like lounge, that you can book on Booking.com, for mums and dads to relax while their child is in class, or simply to recharge for a fresh start.

Ingrīda Supe, the manager of the social enterprise, admits that she would like the offer to be even wider, because each new case complements the previous one, allowing them to provide more and more comprehensive help to everyone who has found their way to “Brīvupes” in their particular situation. Thus, an audiologist has already come to “Brīvupes”, and now a music therapist is also being sought.

The plan is to develop support for parents who are often simply very tired from everyday stressful situations. With that in mind, for example, a specific bed has just been purchased, which, based on the principles of vibroacoustic massage, helps to relax and regain balance. Adults have a variety of workshops and masterclasses to participate such as gong meditation, there is enough of space for events and interest groups to share experiences, support each other and realise that they are not alone in their child’s problems. Ingrīda is also currently conducting a study on the benefits for parents of helping their child to develop.

But it all started with canisterapy, or more precisely – Samoyeds. 15 years ago, it was love at first sight for Ingrīda – when she saw a dog of this breed, she knew immediately that if she ever had a dog in her life, it would be one like this. For the next seven years, Ingrīda spent dreaming and researching everything she could about the breed. And the more she read, the more she realised that for a dog to be happy, it also needs a job. Samoyeds proved to be suitable for canisterapy, and the idea clicked – it resonated with Ingrīda’s own feelings that a dog should not be selfishly kept to herself but shared to help others.

Now Dora is eight years old, she actively participates in the classes, helping children together with Ingrīda, and has welcomed a colleague – Sani, who now works at “Brīvupes”.

Nothing happens according to the same pattern – each clients’ problem is very different, solutions and approaches are different too, so Ingrīda is always learning, finding something new. She has also gained experience – in helping children with autism spectrum disorders, selective mutism, etc.

Ingrīda has a teaching background and has worked in a library for a long time. After learning canisterapy, she gradually became a full-time worker in her own enterprise and does not regret this choice for a moment. In addition, her previous education has now proved to be a very useful basis for further studies – she has also studied Montessori pedagogy and is currently studying social rehabilitation.

She came up with the idea of starting her own business when she realised that she needed a base, and her family home turned out to be ideal for this purpose, as well as cleaning up and restoring another “corner” of Latgale.

When asked about her plans for the future, Ingrīda says: “Ideas come naturally, the main thing is to let them mature.”

Working in a health centre as a canisterapy specialist would certainly be easier than building your own business from scratch – it takes courage, and in this case it could not be undertaken by someone who is just crunching numbers. She has travelled to Cēsis and Alūksne to work as a specialist, and it would have been more cost-effective for her to build her own business in the city, but the peaceful environment is also important in “Brīvupes”, which is healing in itself, and it would have been impossible to create one in a more populated area. This is also one of the reasons for the social enterprise status, as there are no equivalent services elsewhere in the region.

 “I work with a sense of mission, purpose and overarching goal. This place has a social purpose – so parents can get services closer to where they live. Our people deserve a place like this, so they don’t have to travel a hundred kilometres, spend a whole day on the road. They deserve it to be closer!

I even had a situation where two children came in and said quietly: “You know what I like best? When you come in here, it smells like this!” Then I realised that I have done everything to make sure that the children here are healed not only by the classes, but also by the environment.”

The social enterprise status gave a good start for setting up the support house, filling it with content, which was important to Ingrīda – so that the children would immediately have materials to work with. But now Ingrīda also appreciates being part of the social enterprise community in another way – it is very satisfying to know that she can work with others who are involved in business for different social causes. “It immediately feels like it’s your own!” Ingrīda emphasises and admits that, of course, a social enterprise has to be able to make a profit, but without such a social cause she would not be able to work. Also, the example of other companies helps to overcome difficulties, because you can see that someone has managed with a similar goal, continues to work and has proved that it can be sustainable.