Why You Should Travel with Your Kids
- Source: Perrault magazine
Travel abroad with young children? Are you NUTS? All the crying, nagging, and the money!! They won’t even remember it.
Why on EARTH would I do that to myself? What will they eat over there? Fried monkey eyeballs? No thanks! I get these responses all the time. I have been traveling with my children since they were infants all over the world. -- all over Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe, Russia, China, Africa.
Here are my two cents. First: young children are often more portable than older children. They still think you know something and they actually want to be with you. Second, until age 2, they can ride in your lap for usually 10% of the cost of a normal ticket. Third: with all the ipads/iphones electronic gadgets, keeping them happy with videos, games and more is much easier today on a plane than it was even 10 years ago. Fourth: You're right, they may not remember all of it, but YOU will. Are •your* memories worth anything? Life is short, you never know what could happen. Take the chance while you can. Additionally you'd be surprised what they *do* absorb. Young globetrotters don't take for granted what Perreault Magazine - 80 - language, music, dress or food is the norm.
They pick up on languages much faster than you do. Their palate is developing: at this stage and their capacity for learning, of course, is fertile.
Fifth: Interestingly they have fresh fruit, veggies, rice, and chicken, freshly prepared and usually not processed all over the world. Sixth: Traveling with a child is the greatest ice breaker there ever was. With the exception of a few Western Countries, most countries view children as a loveable, non-political human with whom to interact rather than as an irritant. Many more people will stop to talk with you simply because you have a child with you. Not too different in some ways than walking a puppy in the park.
Safety: I know some are worried that to travel with a young human is to dangle bait in front of human traffickers. But it’s all about common sense and where you go.
This topic deserves a whole chapter, but the sum of it is, staying safe abroad is usually not much more complicated than staying at home, it just takes knowing the danger zones. Seventh: because you will love it. Seeing your kids react to roaring lions on safari, or learning the joys of giving while building an adobe stove in Peru, or seeing food delivered by mini trains at Japanese restaurants in Tokyo is quadruple the fun. Bon Voyage! JOURNEYS 4 GOOD: CAMBODIA Journeys for Good is an original television series about transformative travel which inspires and uplifts. Each episode profiles a group of voluntourists, who travel the world to make a difference and reach across cultures to connect in a meaningful way. They go far beyond the tourist track to experience the heart and soul of a place, as was the case in 2012 when Journeys for Good traveled to Cambodia.
Voluntourism combines the adventure of travel with the purity of true charitable work.
Emmy award winning husband and wife production team Joanie and Steve Wynn have traveled the world together, producing stories that touch the heart.
Their mission is simple- they believe that engaging in a service project working alongside locals creates a unique opportunity for understanding and exchange, that volunteer traveler helps young people develop self-confidence, empathy and leadership skills, and that by sharing in sweat equity a deeper connection is forged between the volunteers and the communities visited.
Inspired by an earlier visit to Tanzania, the Wynn’s decided to develop Journeys for Good as a vehicle to spread the message of the importance of volunteer travel and to focus awareness on important underlying humanitarian issues and challenges facing communities globally.
In 2012, the Wynns embarked on another volunteer trip with their son Ryan. This Journey took them to Cambodia with the non-profit volunteer operator Globe Aware (www.globeaware.org). On this journey, the Wynns and a group of dedicated volunteers built wheelchairs for landmine victims, taught English to local school kids and worked on several short-term construction projects.
The result "Journeys for Good: "CAMBODIA" is the pilot for a series that the Wynns are currently developing for public television. After its original airing in 2013, the film garnered two regional Emmy awards, including best cultural/ historical program. Journeys for Good celebrates the everyday heroes who connect to the world in a meaningful way through voluntourism.
View half hour program on Vimeo HERE
Alumna Returns Service to Community
- Source: THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
Hockaday travel program connects with alumna Kimberly Haley-Coleman’s organization Globe Aware
By Megan Philips
Features Editor
THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL
When alumna Kimberly Haley-Coleman ‘88 was a Hockaday student, she was involved in many local community service projects from candy stripping at hospitals to working in women’s shelters. Today, she is giving Hockaday the opportunity she never had: to do community service abroad.
Haley-Coleman found interest in other cultures and languages from a young age, and her five years at Hockaday “helped wet [her] appetite for learning about and understanding other cultures,” Haley-Coleman said.
After graduating, Haley-Coleman continued her education in international cultures and held many jobs that required her international relations skills. She received her masters in French and Art History and got her MBA in international business.
“It was all related to other cultures from the earliest I can remember, and Hockaday was certainly an integral piece of that,” Haley-Coleman said.
From this foundation, Haley-Coleman founded Globe Aware in 2000.
This past summer, 13 Hockaday Upper School students traveled to Peru, in connection with Globe Aware, to expand their learning about other cultures through hands-on service while visiting two communities, San Pedro and Cuzco.
Junior Allie Charlton, one of the students who traveled with the program, found the organization’s guidance crucial to her trip experience.
“[Globe Aware] had a lot of connections within the cities because people had gone there before us, people were waiting for us to help. If we had just gone to Peru and said
‘Oh, we are going to go help this place” no one there would have known us. It was nice because they already had an established organization there that we could help without intruding,” Charlton said.
According to Haley-Coleman, around 15 to 25 percent of those who participate in Globe Aware programs outside of their school community are teenagers.
“I think it’s critical that in order to be a really involved, successful person, I feel it almost requires that one be a globally aware citizen. It helps find resolutions, on a global scale, to conflicts that are important, whether it’s political peace or bringing groups and different nationalities together to find a solution to problems that we all face,” Haley-Coleman said, “But it’s also a huge source of joy for someone for their whole life, to have those wonderful moments of cultural understanding.”
Community Service Director Laura Day felt that students learned similar valuable lessons from their experiences with Peruvian culture.
“I think the girls learned what you really need to be happy. I think we learned about material possessions and what people, in general, need to be happy, because we saw people who didn’t have anything who were having happy and wonderful lives,” Day said.
The Peru trip, still in connection with Globe Aware, is offered again in Hockaday’s travel program for next year. For Haley-Coleman, this recurring trip connects the school community in which she formed the foundations of her passion for international cultures, and the organization she founded to facilitate this passion for others.
“It’s such a wonderful, full circle feeling of kind of a bit alpha-omega to get a chance to come back to a place that was so instrumental in shaping my life,” Haley-Coleman said. “It’s such a wonderful feeling. I’m so grateful.”
Other projects Globe Aware is organizing include assembling wheelchairs in Cambodia, building adobe stoves in rural Peru, installing concrete floors in single-mother households in Guatemala and working with elephants in Thailand.
Students who are interested in getting involved with Globe Aware besides through a travel program can apply for internships. Globe Aware will find ways to help based on the applicant’s interests and strengths.
“We are really open to creating various internships and volunteer opportunities that can be done either at home or in our offices as well. We try and structure it based on something that the student is already interested in,” Haley-Coleman said.
Contact Haley-Coleman at kimberly_haleycoleman@yahoo.com to learn more about the internship opportunities. F
Megan Philips
Features Editor
Globe Aware Costa Rica featured in CNN
- Source: CNN
Costa Rica's 'connection to nature'
CNN's Holly Firfer takes you on a beautiful getaway to the tiny nation of Costa Rica with the help of Globe Aware.
Helps Students Become 'Globe Aware'
- Source: Park Cities People
By Karley Kiker
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR
September 2014
By the time she was blowing out the candles on her 30th birthday cake, Hockaday alumna Kimberly Haley-Coleman had already earned an MBA in international business, worked as the VP of business development for a Houston-based aerospace company, and done more international traveling, connecting, communicating, and strategizing than most ambassadors.
And yet, would you believe it? Her mission to take on the world was just getting started.
"I grew up traveling with my grandmother and family," Haley-Coleman recalled
Years later, after accepting career opportunities that required globe-trotting, "I would find myself abroad over the weekends, and I'd done so much tourism growing up that it lost its intrigue." A long-time lover of volunteerism with a background in nonprofits, Haley-Coleman attempted to start volunteering in countries where she was already traveling for business purposes - emphasis on attempted. Due to her short-term availability, “Nobody wanted me.” But she wanted them - the people living beyond the tourist checkpoints, that is. And so she founded Globe Aware, a nonprofit that's been sending volunteers to countries all around the world for short-term service projects since 2000.
No matter the project emphasis, the purpose of each Globe Aware trip is twofold: to offer aid without changing culture, and to teach sustainable skills.
"If you're able to give two-and-a-half years, you will learn much more about that culture," said Haley-Coleman, who has traveled to 75 countries. "It's not that [Globe Aware] is the only way or the best way- it's a way that's accessible to people who otherwise aren't able to do this ." Take high school students, for example - in particular, the kind who really want to help, but only have a few weeks of summer to spare.
"This was really the first time I'd done anything like this," incoming Hockaday freshman Amelia Brown said of her recent Globe Aware trip to Peru, from which she returned in early June. "We have so much and we live with so many luxuries [in America] - they live with so little but they're all still really happy. Everyone basically relies on each other." Sophomore Ashna Kumar came away from the service trip with similar impressions.
While she has volunteered locally by tutoring and visiting hospitals, projects such as installing pipelines in Peru and renovating a boarding house proved to be completely eye-opening experiences for the Hockadaisy.
"I really appreciated all the stuff that we have at Hockaday and in Dallas, and all the accommodations we have here," Ashna said. "I never realized that there are people actually living in huts. I obviously knew that, but we just have it so great here." There's a difference between knowing facts and statistics about third world countries, and experiencing the poverty and the need firsthand. The latter incites a revelation that Haley-Coleman, who graduated from Hockaday in 1988, can still relate to.
"Going to a school like Hockaday - even living in Dallas - it's hard to understand the level of privilege that we experience," Haley-Coleman said. "People go into [Globe Aware trips] thinking they might save someone or help someone.
Really, we're working side-by-side with individuals in the community." Not to mention, with each other. Despite the fact that Ashna didn't initially know any of the other Hockaday students who served alongside her in Peru, "We all became really close over the two weeks we were there. We bonded in a different way than we would have at school."
Film on Globe Aware up for Three Emmys
- Source: PBS
Celebrate with us!
We are excited to announce that the PBS documentary on Globe Aware's Cambodia program has received three Emmy Award nominations.
Produced by the good folks at Journeys for Good, the documentary is nominated for Best Cultural Program, Best Camera and Best Editing.
In December 2012, award-winning husband and wife production team, Steve and Joanie Wynn, embarked on a volunteer adventure to Cambodia with non-profit Globe Aware. They documented the experience for their public television series, “Journeys for Good”, developed with KQED-TV and their San Francisco Bay Area production company, Bayside Entertainment.
Award winners will be announced June 15 - stay tuned!
TODAY SHOW: Places to Reinvent Yourself
- Source: TODAY SHOW
Reflections from Journeys of the Heart
- Source: Concrete Pictures
"Journeys of the Heart" is an inspirational television series that documents the challenges, successes and failures of adventuresome volunteers, who travel to Cusco, Peru to care for deaf orphans. - Concrete Pictures
Click on each name to read reflections from our volunteers during this documentary.
Globe Aware in Cosmo
- Source: Cosmopolitan
Globe Aware's volunteer vacations were featured in a article in the March edition of Cosmopolitan:
lndulge the do-gooder within by taking a 10- or 14 day service expedition in the Caribbean through Discover Corps. You'll work with other volunteers to improve local communities and get a chance to explore the D.R.'s diversity, from the natural (waterfalls and forests) to the historical (colonial Santo Domingo). Another resource for volunteer vacations is Globe Aware (globeaware.org), which has destinations across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.
Voluntourism Travel Tips,
- Source: Globe Aware
Travel Tip: Alternative Spring (and Summer) Breaks
Volunteering is always a worthwhile way to spend a vacation, but when it comes to students, it often comes down to budget and time.
Every year, I have to give a shout out to the American Hiking Society, which hosts working spring breaks in national and state parks around the country. The great thing is that it’s totally affordable—about $225 for a hiking membership, food and accommodations or camping for the week.
Globe Aware connects volunteers with programs everywhere from Brazil to Romania. What I like about these guys is that it includes cultural experiences, and there are one-week options—many of the other volunteer vacation providers have two-week minimums.
The Dallas-based Institute for Field Research Expeditions has programs all over the globe. You pay by the week, which includes meals and accommodation, and—perhaps most important—an on-the-ground contact and emergency support.
And there’s Global Volunteers, which not only has international programs, but also has volunteer opportunities right here in the U.S. on Native American reservations. And all because it’s a non-profit, your service fees, airfare and other travel expenses are tax deductible.
Q & A with Globe Aware
- Source: Voluntales
![Volunteer Vacations]()
QandA with Volunteer Vacation provider Globe Aware
Kimberly Haley-Coleman takes time out of her busy schedule to tell Voluntales about Globe Aware.
Can you tell us a little about your organization? What does Globe Aware aim to achieve? Why is volunteering important?
We seek to promote cultural awareness and sustainability by mobilizing small teams of volunteers to carry out humanitarian assistance projects the communities have requested in 17 countries around the world. First, it just makes the world a better place and it makes one happy to give of oneself. It also affords the local communities a way to learn about the world outside their own borders, an opportunity for cultural exchange for all involved. It’s a chance to connect, participate and participate in meaningful projects.
In what ways does Globe Aware differ from other organizations offering volunteering vacations?
We have small teams going for only one week, Saturday to Saturday. We usually work on short term *concrete* projects that you can finish in a week, like assembling wheelchairs, building adobe lorena stoves, schools, houses, installing water filtration systems, etc. Many of our peer organizations won’t put money toward such projects as they believe it only builds dependency. Our aim is to build capacity.
What have been some of your biggest challenges and successes? Or the greatest challenges for your volunteers?
One of our greatest is a doctor in Florida who came on a program and was so inspired that she led a mass fundraising campaign to install water filtrations for a huge number of villages. There are so many examples, really a Globe Aware experience is a way to light that lamp for passion for what happens when you give of yourself in this unique way.
What are the most popular destinations for your volunteers?
Peru, Costa Rica
What type of professional background are you looking for? Can anyone participate? Can non-US citizens/residents travel with you?
Anyone, no skills required at all. Yes we have had many non-US citizens, and in fact are also a registered Canadian charity. We’ve had volunteers as young as 2 who came with their parents and helped with forming mud for the stoves, for example
Do volunteers have to pay to participate, and if so, what does this payment support?
Yes, the pay goes toward project materials, coordinator salary, accommodations, food, in country transportation, medical insurance, any local expertise contracted, etc. A more full list of what’s included is on our site in the FAQs section.
In general, what do people gain from volunteering with your organization?
I’d say we must be close to 100% feeling that they got more than they give. Its true because you learn from the locals. Its an exchange, not a situation where volunteers are flying in as superman to save the day. They already know how to address many of their challenges. We are working side by side with different communities as equals on projects that are important to them. Not much greater satisfaction in this world!
In general, what are the key questions potential volunteers should ask about a host organization?
Where is your money going, will I have a bilingual staff member with me the whole time; who will take care of me in the event of an emergency. Just as important is what NOT to ask – if you ask for an exact schedule, you’re off track. Most cultures that support volunteer programs like this are not bound by clocks and calendars the way many Westerners are.
Thank you to Kimberly and to Globe Aware!
Voluntourism films inspire others
- Source: Marin Independent Journal
California couple hopes their voluntourism films inspire others
A LITTLE MORE than three years ago, Steve and Joanie Wynn were looking to get out of a rut. Their video production company, Bayside Entertainment, was in a slump along with the rest of the economy.
So when Joanie Wynn stumbled upon Roadmonkey Adventure Philanthropy, a fledgling business started by a former New York Times war correspondent, she thought, here's a chance to do something different — document six women volunteering at a school for AIDS orphans in Tanzania while also enjoying a trip abroad and scaling Mount Kilimanjaro.
The experience was "life-changing." The Muir Beach couple returned with a lot more than a sense of adventure and some great footage; they discovered a new purpose and passion.
"We both traveled extensively before and to Africa before on various projects," says Joanie Wynn, who worked in Hollywood for clients such as Disney, Sony and Dreamworks. "But we were amazed by the transformation by the people who were on the trip, and we came back and thought, wow — these are the stories we really want to tell."
They launched Journey for Good (http://journeys4good.com), a website that lists voluntourism opportunities in hopes of inspiring others to participate. Their documentary, "A Journey for Good: Tanzania," which aired on public TV stations around the country, garnered four Emmy nominations and two Telly Awards. Now they're in talks with KQED to turn "Journeys for Good" into a series.
"Travel programs resonate with our audiences" says Scott Dwyer, KQED's director of programming. "'A Journey for Good' was the first travel show I've seen that expanded the definition what a vacation can be when you include 'doing good' at the same time. I think the producers are on to something."
The Wynns and their 9-year-old son, Ryan, a third-grader at Willow Creek Academy in Sausalito, left for Cambodia on Dec. 26 with Global Aware to document their second voluntourism trip together. (Last spring, Steve Wynn traveled with a group of women who built a playground at a school in Nicaragua.) This time, the family is joining others in building wheelchairs for land mine victims, teach English to Buddhist monks and a well at a home for the disabled.
Their focus is not only on the projects, but also on the people who volunteer — what motivated them, how it changed them.
"Our goal is to show people that this is a great way to travel differently," she says. "You can still go and experience a different culture, a different country and have an even richer and deeper experience by working side-by-side with local people."
Working with locals is an entirely different experience than arriving in a village or community to donate books or schoolbags, she says.
The Wynns got close to the teachers, students and local laborers as well as the bibi — the Swahili word for grandmother — who started the school as they built desks, refurbished classrooms and installed a water filtration system among other improvements together.
"We felt so honored to be invited into her home and share lunch each day," Joanie Wynn, 48, says. "Those are experiences you don't get to do just by being a tourist."
"The connection was not just with the people we were serving but the people we were following," Steve Wynn, 52, says. "It was really neat to see how they changed and how their view of the world changed. You could see the potential ripple effect."
Neither had done extensive volunteering before, although Steve Wynn, a Marin native and longtime cameraman who has worked with the Discovery, History and Travel channels, has been a Muir Beach volunteer firefighter since 2009 and the chief for the past year.
Voluntourism has been one of the fastest growing forms of travel, according to volunTourism.org, which follows the industry. Last year, global guidelines were developed for the first time to help voluntourism organizations focus on sustainable projects, community needs and responsibility.
That's important to the Wynns, too, who only establish relationships with nonprofit groups that embrace that philosophy for their series.
"It's really important that the trips that we do and the trips that we cover, to go with well-vetted organizations who have been around for a while, who focus on sustainable projects and that really have good in-country relationships with nonprofit organizations so you know that it's a good project that will actually benefit the local people," she says.
So far the Wynns have had to raise the money for the series themselves. "It's still a passion project," she says.
But the stories need to be told, they believe.
"If more people do the smaller projects, bit by bit, it can make a bigger impact," says Steve Wynn.
The Best Places for Everything
- Source: The Best Places for Everything
Travel writer Peter S. Greenberg offers some warm praise for Globe Aware in his latest book, The Best Places for Everything: The Ultimate Insider's Guide to the Greatest Experiences Around the World.
On the Chapter titled "Voluntourism", Greenberg lists some of the great organizations that offer amazing volunteer vacation experiences. “Globe Aware offers 1-week volunteer vacations that combine hands-on experiences with cultural activities. To get the most for your travel dollar, look for destinations like Mexico, Laos and Cambodia where you can get accommodations, meals, excursions and volunteer activities for about $1200 a week. Projects vary, but in Cambodia you might teach English at a Buddhist school or get involved with a children’s center in Luang Prabang. www.globeaware.org”
Greenberg, CBS News Travel Editor reporting regularly on The Early Show, its replacement CBS This Morning, and the CBS Evening News, is best known as the Travel Editor for NBC's Today, CNBC and MSNBC from 1995 until 2009, says he wrote The Best Places for Everything because he is “constantly being asked by just about everyone to name my choices for best, and the travel categories are almost endless. After resisting for many years (partly because I didn’t think I could give it the completeness it needed,) I’ve now been able to compile the Best Places for Everything. Its based on my personal travel history of comparison and constant points of reference, relevance, and long-term value. In this book, I answer the question of “best” with a caveat: It’s not done in an arbitrary way, but by personal experience, measured by relative terms, not absolute or impossible ones.
“I was at an editor’s conference, and an Indiana newspaper’s travel editor said: ‘We feel that if we don’t have something nice to say about a place, we just won’t say it.’ I couldn’t believe a professional journalist would make such a statement! I immediately stood up and challenged him. ‘If that’s your philosophy, you should resign,’ I said. ‘You’re being irresponsible to your readers. What you are describing is a newspaper that is an advertising vehicle for the travel industry, and as such it has no credibility.’ There is no room in travel journalism for quid pro quo approaching to reporting. From that moment, I’ve kept a running file of my own bad travel experiences (compiled in his book titled Don’t Go There about all sorts of places and companies he does NOT recommend).
Greenberg has visited every U.S. state multiple times and 151 of 196 countries around the world. “With each trip, my list of where not to go grows. I know I will be accused of being unfairly subjective and that I have somehow violated the spirit of travel journalism by not being a promoter of travel. Well guess what? I have never worked for the travel industry. I report on it - - good(and sometimes very good), bad, and yes, quote often ugly. Travel writing is not being part of a popularity contest. Like all other reporting, it’s about presenting—not promoting—facts that allow people to make reasonably intelligent, independent decisions about choices available to them.”
- Everyday Ways to Give Back
- GlobeAware in Cuernava
- Improve Your Relationship
- A life-changing experience
- Your travel queries answered
- Volunteer Vacationers to return to Peru
- New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Ghana with Globe Aware,
- New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in Ghana with Globe Aware,
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