Third World Traveler: Four Ways to be a Responsible Tourist

By Erika Keaveney, Executive Director

My husband and I love to travel, particularly in the developing world, which gives us an affordable taste of some of the most breathtaking civilizations, ecosystems and cuisines on the planet—not to mention a welcome break from the cultural homogeneity of our home country.

But cheap travel is cheap for a reason.  Indeed, anyone who has ever stepped foot off of a plane into a developing country immediately understands that an inexpensive vacation will happen against a backdrop of heart-wrenching poverty, ceaseless peddling and begging, and that nagging worry that you might be making things worse through your presence.

I wrote this blog to share some general philosophies on travel in the developing world that I have developed over the years in the hopes of giving you a more enriching and more humane experience in your adventures.

#4 Go local.  Tourism represents a considerable portion of gross domestic product for many developing nations (in Cambodia, tourism is second only to textiles as a generator of hard currency) and your dollars have the potential to push the economy—and therefore the development process—along.  The problem?  Foreign investors, aware of cheap land and a booming tourism sector, are swooping in and opening sprawling beach-front resorts and moving the bulk of your tourist dollars offshore.  In the case of Jamaica, ocean front property is not part of the public domain and in many parts of the country, Jamaicans cannot go to their own beaches without paying a fee.  Though resorts may provide much-needed employment to locals, they compete with locally owned and operated hotels and do not reinvest their profits into the local economy.  Before you book, consider taking a few minutes to learn about the owners of your hotel.  Do they live in-country?  Do they express a commitment to sustainable, local development?  The same thing goes with restaurants and tour companies.  But don’t be fooled by the proprietor’s nationality: often times expats are more committed to sustainable economic development than émigrés!

#3 Don’t give to begging children.  I should open this point by saying that you should absolutely open your heart to these children – but think twice before opening your wallet.  Your dollar may make that child’s day easier, but it will not make her life easier.  Her parents may pull her from school to make her beg (cute children are much more successful beggars than their elderly parents) or worse, she may be part of an organized begging ring.  But don’t exonerate yourself of sympathy and become callous, like so many tourists do…consider buying her a meal if she is hungry, and putting aside the dollar you would have given her into your travel charity fund.  Every time your sympathies are aroused enough to open your wallet, set that money aside to donate to a charity that helps street children by supporting education and (for older children) skills training.

#2 Support local artisans.  Your vacation might be in July, but it is never too early to start your Christmas shopping.  Not only will you please your friends and family by bringing home one-of-a-kind exotic travel gifts, but you will encourage self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship and creativity while celebrating and preserving indigenous handicrafts.  This is guilt-free retail therapy at its finest – enjoy it!

#1 Don’t deny the humanity of the locals.  It is easy for a tourist to feel overwhelmed by the poverty and just block it out completely.  I was shocked during my recent trip to Cambodia when a table of college-aged tourists completely ignored a landmine victim who was selling books on Cambodian history.  Not even eye contact and a “no thank you” – they literally pretended that he did not exist.  This phenomenon is unfortunately all too common.  Tourists do fear—and rightfully so—that if they pay attention to one person that they will be flooded by others seeking similar acknowledgment, whether for a dollar or a sale.  But this reality is something that I personally feel is a part of third world travel.  You are in their country, enjoying all of its richness and beauty, and you must confront the poverty that makes your cheap travel possible.  What message do we send to the people in the countries we visit—about us, and our culture—when we deny the humanity of the local people?  Make eye contact, acknowledge their existence, and say “thanks but no thanks” (or better yet, consider buying a book—you might learn something about why such poverty exists).  It is true that many locals will see dollar signs when they look at you, but that is because comparatively speaking, you are extremely wealthy while their families are hungry.  To pretend this is not a truism is to close yourself off from what I consider to be the most significant and enlightening aspect of third world travel: realizing our common humanity set against a backdrop of tragic disparity in circumstances.

So get adventuring, and maybe even do some good along the way!  Here are a few recommended websites to help you plan your next third world odyssey:

http://www.kayak.com/explore/ allows you to check out a variety of destinations by entering your departure city and budget.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree has experienced travelers on standby to answer questions and give recommendations.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ is the global version of Yelp.  Don’t book a hotel without consulting it!

http://www.globalgiving.org/ is your one-stop shop for finding the recipient of your travel charity fund.

Erika and her husband Courtland at Volcano Pacaya in Guatemala

Angus Lawson Memorial Trust reports from Cambodia

After generously contributing nearly $27,000 this year to our Girls' Access to Education project in Banteay Meanchey, the Angus Lawson Memorial Trust headed to Cambodia to meet the girls in October. Here are just a few impressions they brought back:

Residential Homes – "We visited three residential homes for girls attending high school. Their ages range from 16-22 because many have only attended school sporadically and continually have to restart the year they didn’t complete. Girls in residential housing must live over 8km away from the school and each are given a bike so that they can travel home at the weekends. The roads in Cambodia can be very difficult to travel on - at one stage our 4x4 had to be towed by a tractor through a particularly flooded stretch.

The houses are rented from local families and cost around US$40. In some of the houses, the owners continued to live on the ground floor with the girls upstairs, in another of the houses the girls lived alone. We had some concerns with this but apparently the owners are normally connected to the school, and in the houses where the girls live alone, the project has good relations with the neighbours and asks them to keep an eye out for any problems. It should be noted that almost all of the girls are over 16 years of age and not as vulnerable as younger girls might be. The girls also receive regular visits from the CWCC Programme Officers and almost all have access to mobile phones.

The houses were basic but seemed to be kept very clean with the girls dividing the chores amongst themselves. There were no beds, with girls using mats on the floor, but this seems to be the same as what they would use in their family houses. Most had electricity although one was dependent on paraffin lamps. All of the girls we met seemed very happy, giggling teenagers who enjoyed their studies. The majority wanted to further their studies and become teachers, so they could return to their home villages and help their communities. Nursing was also a popular choice."

University Residential Home – "We also visited a residential home for eight girls attending the local university situated just 100 metres away. Six of the girls had scholarships to study Korean language and literature (Korea is one of Cambodia’s biggest development partners). The two other girls were studying finance and banking. The owners lived on the ground floor of the house. As with the girls we had met in Phnom Penh, the girls each received a stipend of US$2.50 a day along with funds for tutoring and textbooks.

The GATE programme is clearly performing very well, with a dropout rate for 2011 of 0%. We were very impressed by everything that we saw. Lotus Outreach clearly has a very dedicated team, committed to ensuring that they are doing the best they can for each of the girls. There is a very effective model for monitoring and evaluation and the programme is flexible enough to continually evolve to meet the emerging need. Therefore if there is an opportunity for the ALMT to continue its contribution to this work then we would wholeheartedly support it."

We at Lotus Outreach would like to thank the Angus Lawson Memorial Trust not only for its financial support of the GATE project, but for its enthusiastic engagement with us on every level. For instance, members of the Trust didn't just go see the beneficiaries they support - they stopped by our SMART and CTC projects, too! We are truly fortunate for to have such a fantastic partner, and we look forward to a new year together in 2012.

Boys back up the Girl Effect

This post was so good, we just had to borrow it. Julie Trell of Salesforce.com brought this report back from Uganda, which she shared on the blog of a fellow Girl Effect champion, 10x10. Above the video is Julie's narrative of what took place, and below the video is a transcript of one boy's argument in favor of educating girls.

Julie:

"Youth never ceases to surprise and I was reminded of this on a recent trip to a school in Uganda. I had a chance to visit Sr. Miriam Dugan Primary School in Kamwokya, a slum in Kampala, Uganda. I dropped in on a class where 70-100 students, crammed into desks, were practicing their debating skills.

The topic at hand was whether Africa should continue to receive foreign aid. I found myself very impressed with the students’ ability to articulate and debate the weighty issues at hand, and I decided to pose a question to further the discussion: What are your beliefs on the importance of girls education? One young boy stood up and eloquently presented the following:"



Student debater:

"Yes, yes, it's just a very good question. Because, you see, these girls are not what most people perceive them to be.
Now, there's one problem, the older generation, think like the way things were done is the way they are supposed to be done now. And in the future for ever and ever. But this is not the right mentality, because, these people are also brilliant. They can be of use to a country like Uganda. Which badly..and you see, there's something that I've realized, most girls at advanced levels they take science, which is very surprising for me. And you see, Uganda needs more scientists now. To find that we have only one female engineer in Uganda is very embarrassing to me. Very embarrassing.
But with education, you find that this thing is going to be solved. And Uganda is going to be as developed as America or any other country."

Is that impressive, or what?

Do your holiday shopping from our Facebook page!

Shop, and feel good!We owe you some thanks for practicing ShopAnthropy for Lotus Outreach. As you may remember, we trumpeted the arrival of the Nonprofit Shopping Mall widget with much ado this summer, and we're pleased to say that the contributions received since we published that blog on May 25 tripled the amount we received in the six months prior - so thank you!

The good news doesn't end there - shopping to earn free money for our causes in India and Cambodia just got easier. Now all you need to do is visit our Facebook page and look for the tab on the left side that reads "Donate by Shopping Here." You'll find it under our profile picture, between "Info" and "Photos."

Click on it, and - Presto! Before your eyes will appear a list of 40 hot retailers like Amazon.com, Target, Netflix and ProFlowers. We've got less than a month left in 2011, but it's the busiest shopping month of the year we want to double our earnings! Will you help us?

Just a click away from free donationsIf you think it's easier to install a widget that will track any and all  eligible purchases made on your computer, the procedure is simple. The downside? The shopping widget is only compatible with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Those of you who browse with Google Chrome can still earn charitable dollars through your online purchases, but you must either open a compatible web browser to shop with the widget, or stop by our Facebook page before visiting your favorite retailers.

The power of micro-philanthropy is in numbers, so be sure to tell your friends and family how easy it is to contribute to the cause that is close to your heart. Share this blog, write a post on Facebook, or talk, talk talk about why you love LO. Nothing inspires action like passion!

The Literacy Lightswitch

by Glenn Fawcett
Lotus Outreach Director of Field Operations

A Lettered WomanWhile we have always been aware of the importance of numeracy and literacy, during the course of interviews with dozens of Non-Formal Education students during my recent monitoring visit on November 17 and 18, I became aware that literacy does more than impact on self worth, and it does more than increase a girl’s capacity to identify and undertake further study and training toward better life options. For many of the women in NFE, attaining literacy is very much like switching the light on in a dark room.

On many occasions the students confirmed that learning reading and writing had a profound impact on their self-esteem as well as the way others regarded and treated them. For instance, before they could read, many tended to stay home rather than put trust in taxi drivers to know where they were and how much it cost to get there, or even to receive back correct change. As women they are already highly vulnerable; as women who can’t read or do math, even more so.

Being able to read road signs, read billboards with health advice, add and subtract and eventually, and interpret and sign simple contracts profoundly lessens a Cambodian woman’s dependence on others and and amplifies her sense of self reliance. The themes of autonomous decision-making and critical thinking were repeated to me again and again on the basis of the prompt, “How has literacy and numeracy changed your life?”

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that those choosing work in the entertainment or sex industries are easily persuaded due to having to trust others to find their way. Lack of money greatly restricts mobility and increases reliance on others to get around. Without mobility it’s very difficult to achieve even basic life objectives. NFE students often describe their developing literacy as coming out of a blankness where they could only rely on others, and into a clarity where they could analyze and decide for themselves based on available options. The class curriculum is geared to enable this type of development.

During the interviews the second important benefit of the NFE course that surfaced is in health care and disease prevention. For young women engaged with multiple partners, avoiding unplanned pregnancies and STDs is fundamental to their survival. Knowing about their bodies, especially where gynecological health is concerned, is of primary importance.

After establishing literacy and thereby sparking the development of critical thinking, the young women of NFE are assisted in creating a life-plan. The steps toward achieving it often include skills training to qualify them for jobs other than beer promotion, karaoke and massage – all of which are slippery slopes toward prostitution.