Experience South Africa while making a difference while you are there. Spend a week working with a local animal rescue society.
Keen Footwear, along with National Geographic Society and i-to-i Volunteer Vacations, is sponsoring a South Africa Volunteer Vacation Sweepstakes.
Grand Prize:
Roundtrip coach class air transportation, provided by South African Airways, for one (1) between a major U.S. gateway city and Cape Town South Africa to volunteer with animals in Cape Town, South Africa. Shared dormitory room in volunteer house for a minimum of one (1) week and up …
Peru is a land that is full of nature’s beauty. While most people come to Peru to see the “Lost City of the Incas,” there’s much more to see beyond Machu Picchu. The country is also known for its culture, food, vast rainforest, temples, and a variety of wild life that roams the land. There are many mountains and deserts that provide a gorgeous backdrop. For natural wonders, Colca Canyon and Cotahuasi Canyon are the two deepest canyons in the world. The Cordillera Blanca mountain …
We continue to explore the shifting values in our society, following our previous post on The Citizen Consumer. Decades of increasingly making “consumption our way of life” that was spurred on by government and corporations have led us to believe that we can seek “our spiritual satisfaction or our ego satisfaction” in consumption. Now, the glass ball is starting to crack. There is a confluence of events — economic collapse, overwhelming environmental challenges, and a growing digital democracy that is enabling a new social wealth — that is shaping …
Answering President Obama’s national call to community service, two leading hotels in Washington, D.C., are running a fabulous promotion that combines service with saving money.
Beginning July 1 and running through Sept. 7, The Savoy Suites Hotel and its sister property, The Carlyle Suites Hotel, are offering their “Serve America & Stay in D.C.” package, which gives you a 50% discount of your room bill per night (excluding taxes) for every 5 hours of community volunteer service completed with any legitimate community organization of your choosing OR the hotel can …
Television is a good barometer of society. With a rising social conscience and the call to do good by the likes of President Obama and celebrities like Bono, there inevitably will be a show on this topic. “The Philanthropist” premiered Wednesday night on NBC. It’s not about some rich guy sitting around a conference table listening to different charity requests and doling out checks. It’s 21st century philanthropy — giving by getting involved, not by giving from afar.
Teddy Rist, the wealthy businessman hero of “The Philanthropist” confided that he didn’t …
A survey just released by University of California San Diego Extension showed Americans’ interest in voluntourism climbed by 21% from a year ago. About 69% of Americans surveyed have participated in donating money or time to a global cause, up from the 48% in their spring 2008 poll.
“More and more people in all stages of life are thinking of becoming global ‘voluntourists,’” says Bob Benson, director of the Center for Global Volunteer Service at UC San Diego Extension. “People are looking to volunteer their time in meaningful ways that …
Tracking Travelers Going Abroad via GPS
Travel safety is a big concern today. While the world is more connected than ever before, there are still parts of the world with limited communication access. So if you are concerned about a loved one trekking around the world, there is a gadget that will give you some peace of mind.
One concerned mother outfitted her son’s upcoming gap year trip across Australia, Thailand, and South Africa with a small GPS tracker to keep tabs on him from home. The 2″ thick (credit-card size) …
We came across this great article on travel philanthropy in Architectural Digest (April 2009) — an indication of how charity and goodwill are playing a growing role in people’s lives when these stories get featured in a design magazine.
Architect Bernard Wharton and his family went on a two-week safari vacation in Kenya’s Masai Mara with Micato Safari, a luxury tour company known to include philanthropic visits in their tours. Wanting to get a balanced view of Africa, they opted to do a daylong philanthropic visit to Mukuru, …
