Volunteer Vacationers to return to Peru

• Source: Dallas Morning News

Dallas, TX (May 8, 2012) Volunteers Beth Karbe, Krystal Nix, Carol Barron, and Judy Keathley traveled with Globe Aware, a nonprofit organization that coordinates 17 unique volunteer programs in 15 countries worldwide, to San Pedro de Casta, Peru. While there, the group of volunteers began work on a badly needed irrigation system for community use. They now plan to return in order to offer the village a professionally executed solution to their water crisis.

Water is hard to come by in this secluded village high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. While it is only 50 miles from the Peruvian capitol of Lima, the journey usually takes over 5 hours due to the rocky terrain and single lane road. Globe Aware specializes in short term voluntourism, trips usually one week in duration. In that week all four women fell in love with the spirited people of San Pedro de Casta, especially the children. The ladies worked closely with the school and quickly realized the detrimental effect the lack of water has had on the village.

Kimberly Haley Coleman, Founder and Executive Director of Globe Aware comments on the impact a volunteer can make in one week, “we think of this more as like lighting a lamp. If a volunteer has an experience of helping someone side-by-side as part of a community you've lit that lamp of wanting to give back and wanting to volunteer and serving and knowing that joy.” Haley Coleman continues, “Volunteer Vacations are an ideal way to both encourage service while offering the benefit of international travel to small communities in the developing world. This experience exposes individuals to the beauties and challenges faced by others and also serves as a culturally immersive exercise”

Upon return to Florida: Beth, Krystal, Carol, and Judy decided to continue their work for the 999 residents of San Pedro de Casta. They organized and held the “Bring Water to San Pedro” fundraiser in Gainesville, Fl where over $20,000 was raised to fund an engineering team to excavate and build a proper irrigation system for the people of San Pedro de Casta.

The trip made an immeasurable impact on Beth Karbe’s view as well as the impetus to reevaluate her goals in San Pedro de Casta:

“This is a crucial need in San Pedro, since water is very scarce. The irrigation trench was essential, but despite spending hours digging every day and working very hard, we honestly didn’t get very far. The ground was bone dry and full of rock, and the 3 foot deep trench needs to run eight tenths of a mile! The new plan would not involve hand digging, nor dependence on infrequent volunteers, but construction by an engineering company with real machinery and big boy prowess.  I am committed, I will go back.  I will stay on this.  And honestly I won't rest until it's done. This has been quite literally my life's purpose for 9 months and it will continue to be until the water flows.”

Work for this new irrigation system is planned for Summer 2012. If you would like to contribute to the Bring Water to San Pedro cause please visit :  https://www.facebook.com/BringWater/app_101393123286933

About Globe Aware (R) 

Globe Aware(R) is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit charity that mobilizes short term volunteer programs around the world. These adventures in service focus on promoting cultural awareness and sustainability and are often compared to a mini "peace corps" experience. All volunteers are accompanied by a bilingual volunteer coordinator to assist the volunteer throughout their program. The program fee and the airfare to get there are fully tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Globe Aware is a member of International Volunteer Programs Association, Volunteers for Prosperity, the Building Bridges Coalition, was recommended for United Nations Consultative Status for Social and Economic Council, and administers the President's Volunteer Service Awards. Additionally, Globe Aware offsets its carbon emissions with Carbonfund.org, the country's leading carbon offset organization. Our carbon footprint is estimated at less than 70 tons annually, and we have chosen to support carbon-reducing projects in renewable energy to offset the CO2 that is produced in running our offices worldwide, from powering our offices to the transportation used to get to and from our work sites. This commitment places Globe Aware as an environmental leader in the volunteer abroad community and demonstrates proactive steps being taken in the fight against global climate change.  

If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Globe Aware’s founder and Executive Director, Kimberly Haley-Coleman, please call Vaughn Hancock at 214-824-4562 or e-mail Vaughn@globeaware.com

New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Ghana with Globe Aware,

Happy Birthday to the Peace Corps, Student Volunteers from New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Ghana, A profile of Globe Aware, and a short doc on New Orleans.

New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Ghana with Globe Aware,

Happy Birthday to the Peace Corps, Student Volunteers from New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Ghana, A profile of Globe Aware, and a short doc on New Orleans.

International Herald Tribune features Globe Aware

Globe Aware was featured in a June, 2011 spotlight in the International Herald Tribune:

The rise of volunteer tourism: Globe Aware featured in global edition of the New York Times

• Source: New York Times

On Friday, September 17, 2010, Globe Aware was featured in the global edition of the New York Times. Below is the article, including an interview with Catherine McMillan, Globe Aware’s vice president of volunteer communications.

The rise of volunteer tourism: Travelers help out while having fun

In today’s interconnected world, being environmentally responsible has evolved from fringe advocacy to mainstream behavior. Many travelers are also more aware of helping those less fortunate than themselves.

One emerging trend is volunteer tourism, or voluntourism, as it is known. Altruistic visitors partake in such projects as helping in orphanages or schools, teaching English or doing repairs and working on community projects.

According to the International Ecotourism Society, voluntourism is taking shape as one of the fastest-growing markets in tourism today.

Globe Aware, a nonprofit organization based in Texas, organizes volunteer programs all over the world. ‘‘Our mission is twofold — to promote sustainability through volunteer work projects and to promote cultural understanding,’’ explains Catherine McMillan, Globe Aware’s vice president of volunteer communications. The organization specializes in connecting short-term volunteers with communities that have a variety of needs.

‘‘It isn’t just work,’’ she says. ‘‘As we say here, ‘Have fun and help people.’’’ This type of travel is very different from the normal tourist experience, adds McMillan. ‘‘You get a much deeper, nuanced experience of the culture of the place you are visiting,’’ she points out. ‘‘You create real relationships with the locals.’’ Volunteers experience both the beauties and the challenges that local people face, she adds. In Cambodia, for example, Globe Aware projects range from working with schools and Buddhist monasteries to building and distributing wheelchairs to land-mine victims.

One volunteer, who came to Globe Aware through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, had a condition in which he lost control of the movement in his legs. ‘‘He had experimental surgery and regained mobility, but his wish was to help give the gift of mobility to others,’’ says McMillan. ‘‘He went with his parents to Cambodia last year and built wheelchairs.’’ The 2010 Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference, held Sept. 8-10 in Portland, Oregon, featured Bruce Poon Tip as keynote speaker.

Poon Tip is the founder of Gap Adventures, an adventure travel company that promotes sustainable tourism. ‘‘We love changing people’s lives through travel,’’ said Poon Tip, ‘‘and ESTC is a perfect forum to help us advance that goal.’’ He explains that the company has proven through initiatives like its voluntourism projects that sustainability and travel needn’t be mutually exclusive.

Smart travel that respects local ecosystems, economies and communities not only provides a more exciting experience for travelers, but also is simply the right thing to do, says Poon Tip.

Hong Kong-based Kit Sinclair, an occupational therapist and ambassador for the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, frequently offers her expertise when she travels. ‘‘When I visit a city, I often offer to provide lectures, meet with students, visit hospitals or clinics, and discuss with staff about their work and their patients,’’ says Sinclair, who has done this throughout China and other parts of Asia.

While visiting Chiang Mai in Thailand a few years ago, Sinclair had a memorable adventure, ‘‘eating a local dish of worms/larvae at a roadside restaurant, heading into the hills for the most fantastic massage at a local hot springs and enjoying the company of local health care professionals, learning their culture, understanding their concerns and having a great time.’’ Another volunteer tourism organization, with offices in Bangkok and Luang Prabang, North by North-East Travel, specializes in trips to Southeast Asia. The company says it ‘‘provides meaningful volunteer work by aiming to empower communities through the transfer of vocational skills and leadership abilities, so they can benefit directly from tourism.’’ North by North-East has facilitated a number of projects in both Thailand and Laos, from educational ones to providing tsunami relief. Responsible tourism, it says, is not imposing one’s culture on others or conforming totally to a local culture. It is about a respectful and equal exchange of values.

Before jumping on the voluntourism bandwagon, says Globe Aware’s McMillan, travelers should make sure that the organization they are working with is legitimate and that they understand how donations are used for the benefit of the community.

‘‘Just handing out funds creates dependency, and you don’t want to do that,’’ McMillan points out. ‘‘Potential volunteers should be able to ask for references from past volunteer participants.’’ For Sinclair, the occupational therapist, the rewards of service ‘‘are in increased knowledge of the region and its health care needs, in sharing global perspectives with my local counterparts and in getting to know some really fantastic people.’’

Condé Nast Traveler: Globe Aware in Ghana