Zanzibar, the infamous archipelago off the Tanzanian coast, is a picture of luxury for international travelers who come to bask under the African sun. Yet not all of Zanzibar’s own residents are benefitting from the past decade’s explosive development in tourism. Sometimes just a stone’s throw from posh resorts are people living in poverty, with few opportunities to capitalize on the economic benefits.

This is a common refrain in tourism destinations around the world. Businesses move in, encouraged by governments that crave foreign investment, and those businesses use local resources to sustain themselves. Too often, the economic benefits don’t trickle down to the local community.

But in Zanzibar, one school for disadvantaged youth is bucking the system, using entrepreneurship to get involved in the tourism industry.

Just outside urban Zanzibar Town stands a small concrete school with a sprawling garden. This is the Prospective Learning and Charitable Institution, and its garden is the jewel of the school’s environmental club and a symbol of empowerment.

Club members sell their vegetables at the local market and, more recently, to select resorts and hotels. Proceeds help the charity school educate disadvantaged students from rural Zanzibar, making them more employable.

PLCI’s visionary founder, 25-year-old Shafii “Gasica” Haji, hatched his idea for the school when he was only 17. PLCI offers the usual classes in English, science and math, as well as German and Spanish. Haji plans to add other language courses in the future, to better help his students get jobs in the tourism industry.

Of the school’s 237 students, those who are able will pay tuition, which helps provide subsidies for others. Homeless students are even permitted to sleep at the school.

Haji’s overall goal is that PLCI becomes a self-financing institution, and he’s making headway on that goal with the help of an organization called Sustainable East Africa — a locally supported initiative dedicated to finding solutions to Zanzibar’s social and ecological challenges. All of SEA’s programs are grassroots and locally driven, with little reliance on donor support.

In the case of PLCI, students proudly sell the work of their hands, the school is able to educate more students toward future careers, and local establishments are able to serve fresh organic herbs and vegetables and attract more tourists.

Getting the product to the table is the hard part, according to Nell Hamilton, the one-woman force behind SEA. Once the product is there, the tourism industry and tourist response is largely positive.

Haji says that creating personal connections has made the difference. PLCI invited hotels to a graduation ceremony and sent them home with a gift of basil and an explanation of what the school was trying to do. After seeing the school’s work and trying the product, several hotels contacted PLCI directly.

According to Hamilton, the more the Zanzibari tourism industry supports local initiatives like PLCI, the closer it gets to ensuring that the local community shares its success. “There’s a huge demand from tourists,” she says. “As clients, they’re the ones that drive [the industry].”

“At the basic level, sustainable tourism is about creating better places for local people,” says Heidi van der Watt, board member for the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. While the terms ecotourism, responsible tourism and sustainable tourism are often used interchangeably, the latter is the preferred term — holistically including benefits to local communities, economies and environments.

Interest in sustainable tourism is growing, and all aspects of the industry are in the nascent stages, including legislation and even product labeling. GSTC is working to create consistent standards of sustainability on a global scale.

In Tanzania, the group Responsible Tourism Tanzania is creating guidelines for sustainable tourism practices, establishing a legal framework and compiling a list of best practices, along with a voluntary accreditation program — all of which will allow hotels to be evaluated for sustainability.

As is common in tourist destinations, most local communities rarely see more than a fraction of tourist dollars spent in their backyards, according to Hamilton. By buying from the environmental club, Zanzibari hotels are proving that tourism can have a positive impact on their surrounding communities, both environmentally and socially.

“It’s transforming the outlook of the students,” Hamilton adds. “Not only is it the first time they’ve earned money from their hard work, but it enables them to envision a future in which their ability to improve their lives is in their own hands.”

South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya are each making strides toward regulating tourism sustainability. For more information, visit: Eco-Tourism Society of Kenya, South Africa National Department of Tourism and Responsible Tourism Tanzania.