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Globe Aware featured as “feel-good” volunteer vacation provider

11 May 2010
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Helping Hands: Globe Aware’s Volunteer Vacations in Cambodia

Giving back isn' t just for grownups. Here, T+L' s pick of feel-good volunteer vacations to share with the whole family.

By Nicolai HartvigCambodia-volunteer-vacationsCambodia is a remarkable destination to take a volunteer vacation. This South East Asian country' s natural, spectacular beauty and vibrant communities and people amaze Globe Aware volunteer vacationers.

 

1 Help an Elephant
Lampang, Thailand
WHY GO Elephants never forget, or so the saying goes.
Sadly, many of Thailand' s gentle giants are likely to have painful memories. Caught in the wild, they' re often mistreated by their caretakers, who put them to work with adventure-trekking companies or performance troupes, or remove their tusks to sell as ivory on the black market.
THE TRIP The Thai Elephant Conservation Center (from Bt3,500 per person, plus tip for mahout) in Lampang province welcomes volunteers.
Activities depend on your choice of program: you may find yourself bathing a baby elephant, learning the skills of a mahout' a fully fledged elephant handler' or, if you stay overnight, guiding your elephant into the wilderness and leaving him at his favorite spot for the night while you retire to one of three wood-and-thatch houses. The center cares for around 50 elephants and has an on-site hospital, which program fees subsidize. T+L Tip: For your own relaxing soak, try the nearby San Kamphaeng hot springs.

2 Build Wheelchairs
Siem Reap, Cambodia
WHY GO Cambodia' s tourism industry may be flourishing thanks to the draws of the Angkor era, but the vast majority of locals still live in poverty following years of civil war and repression under the Khmer Rouge. A week of volunteering will go a long way toward helping people in need, including children and adults injured by landmines.
THE TRIP Week-long programs from Globe Aware (globeaware.org; US$1,200 per person excluding airfare) run in Siem Reap once or twice a month, from Saturday to Saturday. Itineraries are flexible, but volunteers can expect a plethora of activities: think putting together wheelchairs and hand-delivering them to landmine victims, working with local street children and teaching English to Buddhist novice monks. Cultural-awareness and cookery classes are also on offer, as well as built-in downtime' essential for checking out Siem Reap' s unmissable attractions, from the ruins at Angkor Wat to the stylish boutiques that have sprung up in the city center.
 
3 Teach English
Bangkok, Thailand
WHY GOThailand' s dynamic capital is one of Asia' s most popular tourist hubs, yet it' s not without problems of its own. Young people from around the country arrive looking for big-city opportunities, but are often greeted with harsh realities, like poverty and overcrowding. Teaching English to underprivileged communities is one way to help.
THE TRIP Staying in family-sized rooms provided by Cross Cultural Solutions (from US$2,784 for two weeks, excluding flights), volunteers work in local schools, community hubs and day-care centers. Children can help out as teacher' s aides' or simply play with and inspire confidence in other kids, especially those with disabilities who tend to be stigmatized in Thai society. After school, volunteers can soak up the local color, exploring Bangkok' s myriad temples, bazaars and food markets. They can also take their turn at being students, with Thai"cooking and language classes.
 
4 Spy on a Rhino
Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Borneo
WHY GO The Sumatran rhino is one of the world' s most endangered species, with only 200 or so left. Not only are their habitats imperilled by deforestation and climate change, but poachers hunt their horns, prized in traditional Chinese medicine. Understanding these shy, solitary creatures, and their threatened environments, is the key to helping them survive.
THE TRIP On-the-ground info gathered on a trip with Hands Up Holidays (from US$3,750, excluding flights) will help protect these animals from extinction. An all-inclusive 15-day package has you and your family collecting invaluable survey data in Borneo' s Tabin Wildlife Reserve, home to an estimated 50 Sumatran rhinos, over three days. The rest of the time is spent on an action-packed jungle adventure, from white-water rafting in Kiulu to proboscis-monkey spotting in Sukau to a trek to the Lipad mud volcano. Jungle training and water sports also figure on the itinerary.
At night, you' ll be staying in three-star hotels, a jungle lodge and an island chalet. You' ll even get a chance to sleep under the stars, in open-air hammocks at a rainforest camp.
 
5 Journey with Nomads
Terelj National Park, Mongolia
WHY GO Mongolian nomads travel the steppes their entire lives, herding livestock across sweeping grasslands and setting up gers, or yurts, their unique itinerant homes; the fireplace at their heart symbolizes the link to their ancestors. Following them on their journey offers an insight into a dying way of life, steeped in tradition and a reverence for nature. Meantime, hosts are happy to learn a little English' or a new ball game' on the way.
THE TRIP Projects Abroad (US$3,045 for two weeks, discounts for children aged 15 or under) organizes tailored two-week"minimum trips in Mongolia' s Terelj National Park. Between travels on horse- or camel-back, volunteers may find themselves tending to animals, cooking Mongolian food from scratch, drinking traditional airaag, or fermented mare' s milk (kids can try the non-alcoholic kind), and even engaging in the odd bout of local wrestling. The remote locations and range of physical tasks on this trip make it better for smaller families with older children. Be prepared to soak in the silence and beauty of the vast, empty landscapes' and to receive your own Mongolian name.
 
If you would like more information about taking a volunteer vacation to Cambodia,China, India, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal or you are interested in voluntourism in South East Asia, please visit Globe Aware’s Destinations Gallery for program and trip descriptions, dates and Minimum Contribution Fees.

Top Five Items to Add to your Volunteer Vacation Packing List

21 April 2010
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Top Five Items to Add to your Volunteer Vacation Packing List

Preparing for your upcoming volunteer vacation shouldn' t be a chore and your luggage need not be so full that it is ripping at the seams! With just a little planning, preparing a vacation packing list for your upcoming volunteer experience will make packing a breeze!

Of course, your specific packing list will ultimately depend on what country you will be visiting, but Catherine McMillan, with Globe Aware, a nonprofit leader in the world of volunteer vacations, names the top five items to add to any Volunteer Vacation Packing List:

1.       Number one essential to add to your packing list, advises McMillan, is a copy of your passport and extra credit/debit cards stored in a different location from your primary ones.  If for whatever reason you lose your wallet you will still have a photocopy of the passport and a back-up way to get your hands on cash. It' s also a good idea to email yourself a copy of these scanned documents in the event you lose access to your luggage.

2.       Your packing list should include a refillable water bottle.  Plastic water bottle waste is becoming a huge issue. Do your part by using your own washable and refillable water bottle.

3.       Does your packing list include sun block? It should! Even in a cold environment or a high altitude location you need protection. Ideally the sun block should be sweat/water resistant.

4.       Umbrellas or rain ponchos are a common item volunteer vacation travelers tend to leave off their packing list. Especially in tropic regions, chances of at least some rain are very high. Don' t dampen your volunteer vacation by getting stuck out in the rain unprotected.

5.       Flash lights are also commonly left off of many volunteer vacationers' packing list.  Flash lights don' t take up a lot of room in your luggage and can really help you out, especially if you are working in a community where electricity might go out. Also, don' t forget some extra batteries!

The above items should be on any volunteer travelers' packing list. To get specifics on other items needed for your particular volunteer vacation location, visit Globe Aware' s website at www. Globeaware.org or call 1-877-588-4562.

What a vacation!

14 March 2010
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BY ANNETTE ARNOLD

When Tom Shumate decided to take a vacation this year he didn’t want to go to Disney World or on a cruise.

He wanted to go on a “volunteer vacation.”
He found on the Internet a group called Globe Aware, a nonprofit organization which offers volunteer vacations in Peru, Costa Rica, Thailand, Cuba, Nepal, Brazil and India. These 1-2 weeks in service focus on cultural-awareness.

So Shumate got in touch with the group and took a 10-day vacation to Peru.

I wanted the vacation to be more of an experience-type thing and I wanted to help out the kids who are there,” shumate said.

Shumated helped special needs kids who were in an orphanage in Peru.

The 19-year-old 2002 Chesterton High School graduate still beams when he talks about his experiences there with all the children.

“I was working with the children from 6 a.m .to 8 p.m. every day and would play with the kids,” shumate said. “Many of them taught me sign language. About 70 of them were deaf.”

The children at the orphanage ranged in ages ffrom infants to age 16.

“It was very hard to leave there when my trip was over,” Shumate said. “I bonded with many of the older boys and got along with the girls as well. The kids really made this trip enjoyable.”

The kids made it so much fun that Shumate didn’t mind the 17-hour flight to Peru.

“My parents were a little nervous before I left on the trip but now they are happy that I had a good time and know I was there doing something good.”

Shumate hopes to return there and do another volunteer vacation through Globe Aware. When he went the first time he took soccer and tennis balls with him because the kids there don’t have too much as far as sporting equipment.

“Seeing the kids and how happy they were made it all worth cominghere and makes up for what the trip costs,” Shumate said. “People from all over take these trips and volunteer their time in different countries.”

Shumate said people are welcome to check out the Web Site at www.globeaware.org. The group is always looking for people to either attend the trips and they also are looking for donations. “THey are in need of sunscreen and all types of sports equipment,” Shumate said.

When Shumate does go back he will be a volunteer coordinator for a few months while there. He eventually wants to be a policeman.

More Americans Take Volunteer Vacations

1 March 2010
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By GIGI STONE

When you think of teenagers on spring break, visions of Daytona Beach or Cancun may come to mind â€" not necessarily a trip to Cambodia.
But that’s where Kate McNamara, a 16-year-old New Yorker, went on vacation with her family, volunteering to teach children English and build wheelchairs for land mine victims.
“It wasn’t that long and it was a small group of people … but it made just such a huge difference, ” she says. “It was one of the most rewarding things that I think that I’ve ever done.”
Her mother, Elizabeth McNamara adds, “In a world that needs so much, just to a little bit to make a difference in someone’s life is a very positive experience.”

Watch Gigi Stone’s report on “volunteer vacations” Saturday on “World News.”

Check your local listings for air time.
More Americans are choosing to go on philanthropic vacations â€" along with their extra time and money. Globe Aware, the nonprofit group that organized the McNamaras’ Cambodia trip, says enrollment has gone up 40 percent every year since the organization started in 2001.
Last year, more than 65,000 Americans traveled overseas to take part in volunteer vacations, estimates Stefanie Rubin, director of the International Volunteer Programs Association. Organizers say there was a surge of renewed interest after 9/11 and the Asian tsunami in 2004.
“I think it’s got people thinking about the world: ‘What’s out there? What real need is out there?’ And how they can connect and be a part of this beautiful world we’re in?” says Kimberly Haley-Coleman, the executive director of Globe Aware. “I suspect that there is a growing contingent of people who feel that writing a check to an organization doesn’t feel as significant as donating their time. Both are important.”
It’s not just overseas: After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of volunteers flocked to the Gulf region to help rebuild.

More companies are joining in as well by organizing charitable activities for their employees.

Home Depot provides resources for its workers to help build affordable housing and playgrounds in New Orleans and around the country. Last year, more than 40,000 of the company’s employees took part in one or more of these volunteer projects on their day off.
“Once you do one [a volunteer project] and you see those children over there … it gets your heart and you can’t stop,” says Seth Owen, a Home Depot employee who helped build a playground for Hiram Elementary School in Atlanta.
The company admits that such ventures benefit the company’s bottom line. It gets free advertising by using Home Depot products, and establishes business contacts in the various communities.
“We have to be good philanthropists, good citizens and strategic investors in our community,” says Kevin Martinez, the vice president of community affairs at Home Depot.

Sidebar: Interested in a Volunteer Vacation?
If you’re interested in taking a volunteer vacation, there are some things to keep in mind:
If your company isn’t paying for it, the cost of a one-week volunteer vacation usually starts at around $1,000. But there is a silver lining: It is tax deductible.
The online travel agency Travelocity recently announced a Travel for Good program to make information about volunteer vacations more easily available.
Make sure you’re traveling with a nonprofit not a commercial organization, because they’re required to account for how money is being used.
Check that you’re with a company that provides emergency medical insurance. Companies are joining in as well by organizing charitable activities for their employees.

She Turns Vacations Into Voluntours

1 March 2010
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SMU Alumni Magazine

They help Buddhist monks teach poor children in Thailand, make
wheelchairs for victims of Vietnam-era landmines in Laos, and build
stoves to save families from respiratory illness in Peru.

And during their trips abroad, Globe Aware volunteers also find time to
be tourists.
Kimberly Haley-Coleman (M.A., art history, ¹97) founded in 2000 the
Dallas-based nonprofit Globe Aware, which also sponsors weeklong
volunteer vacations in Costa Rica, Cuba, Nepal, Brazil, Vietnam, and
Cambodia. As its executive director, she runs the nonpolitical,
nonreligious organization with two principles in mind.

³We promote cultural awareness, which means we work to appreciate both
the real beauty and challenges of a culture,² she says. ³And we promote
sustainability, which means we train people using local resources; we
don¹t create dependence.²

Globe Aware grew out of Haley-Coleman¹s experiences as an international
businesswoman and volunteer. The Dallas native, who also earned an
M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas and a B.A. from Emory
University, has worked for companies including Infotriever in Canada,
CNBC.com, and the Capstone Japan Fund, where she often has focused on
strategic partnerships and development. During business trips and
between job changes she squeezed in international volunteering with
organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Volunteers for Peace,
which usually require commitments of at least several weeks.

³I always came back thinking there had to be a better way for busy
Americans, who have almost the least vacation time among developed
nations but are the world¹s most generous volunteers and donors,²
Haley-Coleman says. Through her travels, she built a network of
like-minded volunteers­ many of who now serve on Globe Aware¹s board
­and together they launched their first weeklong program in Thailand.

Today Haley-Coleman, who devoted herself to the organization full time
in 2003, spends time in Dallas communicating with coordinators in the
field and re-evaluating and developing programs, such as this year¹s new
trips to Romania, China, and Africa. She seeks out communities that are
safe and culturally interesting, and with needs they want groups of
volunteers to address.

Community service was a significant part of her life, says
Haley-Coleman, as was SMU. Her parents, aunts and uncles, cousins,
grandparents, and great-grandparents are all alumni of the University,
where she recalls hours spent analyzing art with University
Distinguished Professor Emerita Alessandra Comini and Associate
Professor Randall Griffin. ³They helped reinforce my passion for truly
examining and appreciating cultures.²

Learn more at globeaware.org.

­ Sarah Hanan

Volunteer Vacationing, See the World and Make a Difference

1 March 2010
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If you are looking to take a different type of vacation this year consider a volunteer vacation. Volunteer vacations give you the opportunity to see a different part of the world and make a small difference by contributing to a specific project while you are away. Each trip can last anywhere from a week to several weeks and range from working with scientists on research projects to building schools in Guatemala to maintaining forest trails.

Besides benefiting the project that you volunteer with you will benefit from the well deserved downtime and an experience that you cannot get from a regular vacation. Here are four well known organizations that have been matching up travelers with worthwhile projects for years.

Globe Aware

This non profit organization sets up volunteer vacations to nine countries in Central and South America and Asia. Globe Aware sets up their vacations in one week intervals and the work projects range from working with Buddhists monks in Thailand to teaching English to Peruvian children in an isolated mountain village. The trips allow plenty of time for after work exploring and sightseeing and because most of the locations are in residential rather than in tourist locations you are able to immerse yourself in the culture.

 

 

North Texas volunteers see personal rewards

1 March 2010
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GUATEMALA CITY — Instead of heading to the beaches of Mexico or the capitals of Europe this summer, thousands of Americans are going abroad to reap the rewards of compassion.

“I heard from everyone how life-changing it is, and I wanted to see for myself,” said Shelley Foran, 15, as a busload of young people from Park Cities Baptist Church bounced across the rutted road leading to a gritty Guatemalan home for abandoned and delinquent boys.

More than 50,000 American volunteers work in foreign countries every year, helping others and learning about themselves. Half go with faith-based groups; many go on their vacations. While not all the experiences are life-changing, international service can reward volunteers, the people they help and the ailing image of the United States.

 

 

Dallas mother and empty-nester Betty Sanders, 58, went to Guatemala City for three months to work with disabled orphans and elderly women abandoned by their families.

“I’m old enough to know that I wasn’t going to change the world, but I did feel like before I left there was going to be some contribution I’d made,” she said. “I’ve had a very good life. I have a wonderful family, a truly wonderful daughter and great friends. I’ve been very, very fortunate throughout my life. I just wanted to do something to give back.”

Dallas Jesuit School graduate Nathan Castillo was a bilingual teaching assistant in San Antonio when he joined the Peace Corps last year and found himself supervising primary school sanitation projects in Guatemala’s western highlands.

“The kids were sick so often they couldn’t go to school,” Mr. Castillo, 25, said. “Now it’s a whole different dynamic. There’s an ambiance of hope and happiness.”

Interest in volunteer vacations has spawned more than 60 travel agencies arranging opportunities for Americans to work in poor overseas communities. Kimberly Haley-Coleman runs Globe Aware in Dallas, sending customers to Cambodia, Peru, Cuba and nine other countries.

JIM LANDERS / Staff

JIM LANDERS / Staff

Park Cities Baptist Church volunteers Brenna Burns, Laurel Folmar and Meredith Leach sing with boys at the San Gabriel y Elisa Martinez Home for Boys in Guatemala.

“You live at high altitude, sleep in uncomfortable beds, take cold showers,” Ms. Haley-Coleman said, describing the experiences of volunteers in Peru. “The locals get adobe stoves [built by the volunteers] that clear the smoke from their homes. But the volunteers get more out of it.”

They have to pay for the experience. The Park Cities young people, with their families and their church, paid about $1,800 apiece to spend a week with orphans in Guatemala. Globe Aware charges about $1,000 for room, meals and work projects, and customers have to pay airfare as well. Cross-Cultural Solutions, the group that Ms. Sanders chose for her trip to Guatemala, charges about $2,000 for a two-week package and $250 a week after that.

Such charges are tax-deductible as charitable contributions.

In need of attention

Ms. Foran and her church group went to see Guatemalan boys in need of some gentle attention. The government-run San Gabriel y Elisa Martinez Home for Boys houses 80 kids ages 9 to 18. Among them are mentally challenged 9-year-olds who were abandoned on the streets, a 13-year-old severely abused boy with only a couple of teeth who disarmed and shot at a police officer, and a 17-year-old loner who made a pact with the devil and used to cut himself with a knife.

The boys live in three dorms and are locked in every night at 6 p.m. A 15-foot-tall green cinderblock wall surrounds the campus.

“It is a misnomer to call it an orphanage, but it’s a better word than children’s warehouse,” said Jeff Byrd, associate pastor of Park Cities Baptist.

The Guatemalan boys surrounded the church group when they arrived, and there was much hugging and handshaking. Next came songs of faith, and the boys joined in. Three of the Park Cities girls read from Genesis. The Guatemalan boys were split into groups. Two groups studied Bible passages, while the others played kickball. Then they traded places.

“It was a lot more than I expected, a lot more kids with special needs. It’s fun, though,” said Jeff Perkins, 16, who will be a sophomore this fall at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas.

Focus on teens

Buckner International, a Dallas-based, Christian service organization with orphanages in several countries, coordinates the visits. Buckner arranges visits by more than 500 volunteers a year to both its own Guatemalan orphanages and those of the government. Many of the volunteers are from North Texas and belong to church groups that come every year. They’re concentrating at the moment on older teens who hope to make the transition out of the homes and into society.

“Some of the girls at 15 have only a second-grade education, and they won’t be able to do much unless we strengthen their life skills,” said Leslie Chace, director of Buckner International’s Latin American work. “Dallas Baptist University comes to teach some skills to these kids.”

Plunging into Guatemala’s poor neighborhoods and bleak institutions takes verve and courage. Volunteers with Cross-Cultural Solutions work at a clinic where gun-toting gang members chased a wounded rival into the emergency room. Other volunteers spend mornings with disabled children confined to wheelchairs — in some cases because their muscles atrophied when no one ever taught them to walk. The volunteers also try to cheer old women who have lost their memories.

They teach a smattering of English to disturbed children raised in a squalid neighborhood surrounding a massive landfill that has swallowed trash pickers alive and feeds flocks of vultures. “It’s not a traditional education,” said Eva Morales, director of the Casita Amarilla School for Abused Children and Women. “Our students come for the support they get from the teachers, not for the curriculum.”

‘Extraordinary’ rewards

Working in these places changed Ms. Sanders.

“The rewards were extraordinary. They all evolved from simple human-to-human contact and interaction,” she said. “I came back feeling like I had made small contributions to lots of different lives along the way.”

Addison financial strategist Steve Miller was invited to Guatemala in 1981, in the midst of a 35-year civil war, to see about investments. He came back determined to bring dentists and doctors to beaten-down villagers. About 120 teams have since visited under the auspices of HELPS International, performing surgeries, dental work and other care valued at more than $100 million, Mr. Miller said.

“We get a lot of young people [as volunteers] who are looking for purpose in their life,” Mr. Miller said. “We’ve all been told if we own the Lexus or the Mercedes we are going to be happy, and of course that’s not the way it works. The people who go down and get involved in a mission, it revolutionizes their life.”

Some in Washington, D.C., also want to help. President Bush has asked Congress to double the size of the Peace Corps from 7,700 to 15,000 volunteers willing to spend 27 months abroad. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., have introduced legislation that would fund 10,000 Global Service Fellowships for volunteers willing to spend six months overseas.

Republicans and Democrats alike are reaching back to the idealism of President John F. Kennedy to urge Americans to volunteer for peaceful international service.

Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, charged by Mr. Bush with improving American public diplomacy, praises volunteers for “a diplomacy of deeds rather than words.”

When the Peace Corps was formed in 1961, Mr. Kennedy hoped to send 100,000 volunteers abroad each year so that, after 10 years, a million Americans would have the experience and knowledge to form a constituency for foreign affairs.

The Peace Corps never numbered more than 20,000 volunteers in the field. But today’s efforts from faith-based organizations, individual volunteers working with travel agencies, compan ies that sponsor volunteer work among their employees and other nongovernmental groups are swelling the numbers of Americans abroad.

Many of these groups, guided by Mr. Kennedy’s vision, have joined a coalition aiming to boost the number of volunteers working overseas to 100,000 by 2010.

“What if they had built the Peace Corps up to those numbers?” asked Steve Rosenthal, founder of Cross-Cultural Solutions and head of the Building Bridges Coalition that is working to double the number of international volunteers. “By 9/11, we would have had more than 3 million people in the United States who had been volunteers abroad, many in Muslim countries, people who learned to speak Arabic. … The opportunity lost is massive.

“We’ve got a spiraling-down global image, and the anti-American sentiment out there is really important,” he said. “The international volunteer is one of the single greatest things we can do about it.”

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vacationing like Brangelina

1 March 2010
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Volunteers with the group Globe Aware are digging a trench to lay a water pipe in Costa Rica.Sarah McCall / Globe Aware

As the industry grapples with how to make money without compromising the results of the volunteer work, one thing is clear: more and more private citizens are ready to roll up their sleeves and lend a hand. “I was just so sick of just donating a gift at the end of the year,” says Yates of his decision to spend a week volunteering in Costa Rica. “I worked my butt off.”Getting in touch with your inner Angelina Jolie is easier than it used to be. The so-called voluntourism industry, which sends travelers around the globe for a mix of volunteer work and sightseeing, is generating almost as much praise and criticism as the goodwill ambassador herself. Are volunteer vacations–which have become so mainstream that CheapTickets recently started letting online customers book volunteer activities along with their vacations–merely overpriced guilt trips with an impact as fleeting as the feel-good factor? Or do they offer individuals a real chance to change the world, one summer jaunt at a time?

Voluntourism trips are shorter, more entertaining versions of the kind of international work long sponsored by the likes of church missions and the Peace Corps. During trips that can be as short as a day and usually don’t last longer than three weeks, work–which is often physically intensive–is punctuated by excursions to each destination’s artistic, historical or recreational highlights. Ambassadors for Children volunteers, for example, who range from teenagers to retirees, pay $2,025 for 11 days in South Africa (airfare and lodging included), spending about a week with children infected with or orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Plus, they get a daylong safari as well as a tour of the Robben Island prison that held Nelson Mandela for 18 years. In Thailand, Globe Aware charges $1,090, not including airfare, for a week split between teaching English to impoverished schoolchildren and visiting floating markets or trekking through temple ruins. These kinds of blended experiences are key to the multifaceted cultural education that tour operators are aiming for. “You don’t walk away from the destination only with this snapshot in your mind of ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s this wretched, horrid poverty,'” says Voluntourism.org founder David Clemmons. “You see there are other sides.”One big draw for tourists is the camaraderie. “You’re meeting kindred spirits,” says Adam Yates, 25, an advertising sales executive in Los Angeles, who in June went horseback riding and hiking in a national park during his Globe Aware trip to clear trails and teach English in Costa Rica. And companies are eager to tap into the growing number of itinerant Samaritans like Yates. With leading market-research firm Euromonitor International touting this niche’s growth potential, particularly among single travelers, Voluntourism.org’s newsletter now boasts nearly 1,900 trade subscribers, up from a mere 30 in March 2005. Lonely Planet published its first volunteer-travel guidebook in June–which was good timing, considering that a recent Travelocity poll found that almost twice as many vacationers (11%) planned to volunteer this year as in 2006.As Earthwatch and other industry veterans well know, make-a-difference sojourns often attract repeat customers. “It’s lifechanging,” says Barbara Jenkel, 68, of her 2005 caravan with Relief Riders International through India’s Rajasthan Desert. On the 15-day trip, which included a night in a 257-year-old fort, the retiree from Chappaqua, N.Y., helped set up medical camps and distribute books to schools and goats to poor families. She found the experience so inspiring that she’s going back in October. Volunteer vacations also channel tourism dollars to places that aren’t usually featured in glossy travel brochures and don’t have the infrastructure to support three-star, let alone four- or five-star, hotels. For scenic places desperately in need of economic development, “this kind of tourism is an easier sell,” says Kristin Lamoureux, director of the International Institute for Tourism Studies at George Washington University.But some critics say transient volunteering is more suited to making participants feel like do-gooders than to doing good. “If you’re going to work with children in an orphanage, [how will they] understand what you’re trying to do when you don’t speak their language and you don’t stay long enough to form a relationship?” asks Tricia Barnett, director of Tourism Concern, an industry watchdog based in the U.K. “What does it mean to the child?”Sally Brown, founder of Ambassadors for Children, counters that every bit helps. “If a kid can be held for a couple of days,” she says, “you’re able to make a small difference.” Other tour operators stress that voluntourism really does have lasting impact because, despite rapid turnover among individual volunteers, trip organizers develop long-term relationships with community partners. On one of her first group trips to El Salvador in 2001, explains Nancy Rivard, who founded Airline Ambassadors to expand on relief work she began as a flight attendant for American Airlines, volunteers helped 150 families acquire land and rebuild homes devastated by earthquakes. They were scheduled to open a vocational-training center near those homes during the last week of July and stock it with sewing machines carried to hilly El Salvador in volunteers’ suitcases. “We’re creating a way to empower local people,” Rivard says.Sarah McCall, a Peace Corps veteran who since March has led six Globe Aware trips in Costa Rica and Peru, recalls how her groups constructed mud-and-brick stoves for 24 Peruvian families in San Pedro de Casta to save fuel and keep harmful smoke out of adobe homes. The project was the brainchild of municipal officials. “We never go in and say that we had this idea, and we want to do this,” McCall explains. Instead, she and other leaders check in with the locals to see what the community needs, then dispatch volunteers to do the legwork. Voluntourism supporters are quick to point out indirect benefits too. “Americans don’t have the best reputation in the world right now,” says Doug Cutchins, director of social commitment at Grinnell College and co-author of Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others. “For Americans to get out and represent a different side of America … I think that has a tremendously positive benefit.”

But critics like Barnett warn that ill-prepared or poorly directed volunteers can produce more harm than good. Voluntourists have gone to her complaining about groups that repeated projects already finished by earlier crews or did work considered at odds with the local people’s desires. With new companies entering a sector that is still largely unregulated, tour operators sometimes take advantage of even the best-intentioned volunteers, Barnett explains. “It’s a new form of colonialism, really,” she says. “The market is geared toward profit rather than the needs of the communities.” Tourism Concern is developing a code of ethical conduct for the international volunteering sector and is gathering information from volunteers, tour companies and the communities they work in. Barnett plans to begin auditing U.K. firms but knows of no such initiatives in the U.S.

As the industry grapples with how to make money without compromising the results of the volunteer work, one thing is clear: more and more private citizens are ready to roll up their sleeves and lend a hand. “I was just so sick of just donating a gift at the end of the year,” says Yates of his decision to spend a week volunteering in Costa Rica. “I worked my butt off.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giving back 7 Surprising Reasons to Volunteer

28 February 2010
Globe Aware
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Categories: Globe Aware news

There are lots of things we want to do and should do, yet never seem to find the time to actually do. Volunteering shouldn’t be one of those things. Why? Besides providing much-needed help to people or organizations that need it most, volunteering can open the door to new business opportunities, friends, skills, and appreciation for the everyday things you take for granted. Most of all, it can make you happy.

“There’s no better feeling than knowing you had a hand in improving someone’s life,” says Brae Hanson, managing broker of Starck, REALTORS®, in Barrington, Ill., and an avid volunteer.

So before you say you don’t have the time or energy to take on a volunteering task, consider these seven reasons why you should start giving back now.

Reason #1: It Will Boost Your Visibility (for Free)

Volunteer to benefit your business? That doesn’t sound very altruistic. And while that probably shouldn’t be the primary reason to volunteer, it’s certainly a nice perk.

“Real estate professionals always want to be doing more selling and prospecting, but many don’t realize they can do both of those things while giving back to the community,” says Robert Rosenthal, a spokesperson for VolunteerMatch, a San Francisco nonprofit that matches volunteers with charitable groups.

Cappy MacPherson, a salesperson with Watson Realty Corp, Hidden Hills, Jacksonville, Fla., says volunteering is one of her best â€" and lowest cost â€" marketing tools. Instead of spending money to get her name out in the community, she gains exposure by volunteering with local charities, including HabiJax, the Jacksonville Habitat for Humanity branch.

At ever volunteer job, she wears T-shirts promoting previous volunteer events, along with a name tag that identifies her real estate business.

The strategy acts as a conversation starter and gets her name circulating in the community. Since 2006 it’s landed her four buyers and generated leads for two potential listings. “These are six prospects I would never have had,” she says. “It’s a wonderful way to market without breaking the bank.”

Reason #2: You’ll Sharpen Your Business Skills

With so many volunteer opportunities out there, you can select the ones that will help you improve certain business skills.

For example, Hanson, of Barrington, Ill., has perfected her marketing skills through 20-plus years of fundraising and promoting charities. Volunteering also has forced her to refine her time-management skills and has given her more financial know-how.

“I’ve never been fond of reading financial statements, but I’ve gotten better at budgeting and understanding profit and loss statements just from reviewing them for charities,” she says.

MacPherson, meanwhile, has improved her knowledge of home-improvement tasks â€" knowledge that comes in very handy when working with buyers and sellers. Through her Habitat for Humanity work, she’s learned the finer points of painting, roofing, and caulking, as well as an understanding of how buildings come together properly.

“I’m now able to see subtle problems in houses and know when to suggest further inspections,” she says.

Reason #3: It Doesn’t Require a Huge Time Commitment

If you read the stories of this year’s five Good Neighbor Award winners, you’ll be taken aback by how much time they devote to their causes. For a rookie volunteer, it can be downright intimidating. But such a large time commitment isn’t necessary.

Start small by volunteering for a one-time event or scheduling just a couple hours per week. Check out volunteer opportunities in your ZIP code by searching on Web sites such as VolunteerMatch. Each listing includes the estimated time contribution required, so you can be choosey about which jobs you take on.

Another option: Take a volunteer “vacation” to a developing nation or to a city in the United States to build a new school, restore the environment, or help on a medical mission. You can learn more about volunteer vacations at Web sites such as GlobeAware or CharityGuide.org.

Or, volunteer from the comfort of your own home. Instead of watching an hour of TV at night, log in an hour of virtual help to an organization of your choice. Learn about virtual volunteer opportunities at ServiceLeader.org.

Once you find a volunteer job that you really enjoy, making time for it will come naturally, Hanson says. “When something is important to you, you find the drive to get it done.”

Reason #4: Make Meaningful Community Connections

Weekly Rotary Club meetings put Lisa L. Bass, president and broker of California Commercial Corp. in Brentwood, Calif., and president of her local Rotary Club, in touch with local businesspeople and city council representatives.

Through in-person conversations and club projects, she built meaningful relationships in her community that could never have been made via e-mail or phone. Some recent Rotary activities have included donating dictionaries to local school kids and providing wheelchairs to people in Mexico.

When fellow Rotary Club members have commercial real estate needs, Bass is their go-to person. But she says the biggest benefit of volunteering is the pick-me-up she gets from doing good things. “The meetings give me purpose that I look forward to, especially when I’ve had a difficult week,” says Bass.

In today’s high-tech age, “it’s hard to feel connected on a deeply meaningful level,” says Rosenthal, from VolunteerMatch. “Volunteering is an opportunity to connect with others who share a similar cause.”

Reason #5: It’s Time to Expand Your Professional Horizons

In the early 1990s, Saul Klein, E-Pro®, GRI, owned a real estate brokerage, property management firm, and a financial-planning business, yet he was becoming increasingly interested in finding a new avenue for his real estate skills.

At the same time, through his volunteer work with the San Diego Association of REALTORS®, including a post as president of the group, he uncovered a zeal for emerging real estate technologies. He used his newfound passion as a launching pad for the next chapter of his career.

Klein now educates other real estate professionals on how to use technology, does speaking engagements around the country, has written real estate courses and books on technology, and is a founder of InternetCrusade, a San Diego company that manages the e-Pro® designation for the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

“Volunteering really has paid me back,” Klein says. “I love being able to take a message to people that I believe is valuable and that will make differences in their lives. It’s very rewarding when people tell me my advice is valuable.”

Volunteering can do the same for you; perhaps it will open the door to a new business niche or help you uncover a new path for your real estate career. You also can use volunteer opportunities to learn about a business specialty. For example, if you specialize in waterfront properties and you want to learn more about the issues that local residents face, volunteer with a beach clean-up organization. Or, if your aim is to develop a niche selling green property, consider volunteering at an environmental awareness group. There, you can learn more about the movement and meet prospects interested in environmentally sound homes.

Reason #6: You’ll Appreciate What You Have

Life seems tough when you don’t have an iPhone or you can’t afford to hit Starbucks every morning. But when you see firsthand how families live without heat, electricity, or indoor plumbing, you might feel a little better about your present situation.

Sean Waters, a salesperson with Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty Boston, Mass., says he’s witnessed such living conditions for the first time during a “magical and enriching” volunteer vacation to Cuzco, Peru withGlobe Aware, earlier this year. There, he rehabbed an orphanage and taught children English and baseball.

Despite lacking many comforts that Americans take for granted, Waters was amazed to see that Peruvians live happy lives with an intense love for and focus on family and friends. That realization sparked changes in Waters’ life when he returned home. He now makes more of an effort to spend quality time with his loved ones. “We work so hard, yet we’re lacking so much in terms of having time for each other,” says Waters.

The trip also served as a business motivator. Waters recognized that he needs to ramp up production to finance more service trips (next up is India) and to visit out-of-state relatives.
The other business benefit: Waters says the experience broadened his world view and will help him better connect with some of his sophisticated, well-traveled clients. At the very least, travel talk beats the weather as a topic for chit-chat.

Reason #7: You’ll Feel So Good About It

A growing body of research links volunteering with better health. One study, The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research, by the Corporation for National and Community Service, says volunteering improves longevity, lowers depression rates, and reduces the rates of heart disease.

Indeed, many volunteers cite a phenomenon commonly called, “helper’s high,” in which they gain feelings of exhilaration and energy from volunteering. MacPherson says she likens the feeling she gets from volunteering to the endorphin rush after a workout.

Hanson agrees. She says her post-volunteering highs frequently last five days and translate into greater enthusiasm for her work and life in general.

“Happier people live longer, and happier people are going to sell more real estate than grumpy ones,” MacPherson says.

The research evidence pleases, but doesn’t surprise, Rosenthal. “You don’t need scientific validation for people to know that the world needs them,” he says.

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