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COOL TRAVEL MAIL'S
TRAVEL TIPS
Tips & Adice for the Seasoned and Armchair Traveler Alike!
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http://www.CoolTravelMail.com
May 8, 2007
My sister-in-law has a set of vacation photographs from
Guatemala that doesn't include a single shot of a beach, a
resort hotel or a tourist attraction.
Instead, it showed the cot she slept on, the impoverished
village she stayed in, and the people she helped as part of
a dental mission.
They also showed something I don't always see when flipping
though somebody else’s travel pictures: Smiles of true
satisfaction.
This week's edition includes:
* VACATIONS FOR VOLUNTEERS
* MARKETING FOR DO-GOODERS
* DEDUCTIONS AND DORMITORIES
P.S. If you're interested you can now post comments on this
and recent issues on our forum at... Travel Tips Forum
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VACATIONS FOR VOLUNTEERS
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Travel can make people happy on many levels.
You have immediate pleasure, of course: hours of sunny
relaxation, the thrill of a para-sail ride, a great meal at
dinner or a perfect margarita at sunset.
You also have the once-in-a-lifetime experiences that stay
with you forever. You see Michelangelo's stature of David;
you stand in St. Peter's Square; you walk through the ruins
of the Parthenon or Machu Piccu.
But some people come back with something on a deeper level.
They return feeling that they've actually made a positive
difference for a group of people in need, an ecosystem under
fire or a landscape devastated by a natural disaster.
Volunteer vacations have grown in popularity over the years,
giving people ways to combine travel with charity work.
Proponents say these trips give participants a renewed sense
of energy. They can gain enriching experiences, memories,
and friendships that last a lifetime. More often than not,
you are immersed in a local culture, meeting local people
and sharing their lives.
At a minimum, you can spend money on vacationing without
feeling guilty.
A lot of Websites give you a good starting place for looking
into this option. One of my favorites is the section offered
by CharityGuide.Org.
( http://charityguide.org/volunteer/vacations.htm )
It's a one-stop shop for a listing of volunteer vacations
divided by topic. If you’re interested in helping children,
for example, it links you to sites where you can sign on to
build a school in a developing nation or devote some
much-needed attention to children in a Romanian orphanage.
If animals are your passion, you can connect with groups
offering trips where you help track endangered rhinos in
Borneo or study how motor boats affect manatee behavior in
Florida.
Global Volunteers ( www.globalvolunteers.org ) is a mainstay
of the movement, and offers a huge selection of volunteer
vacations.
Their worldwide network covers volunteer opportunities in 20
countries on six continents with projects including village
construction, childcare, teaching, environment, healthcare,
and legal services.
Action Without Borders (www.idealist.org) is a membership
website that provides details about volunteering
opportunities throughout the world.
There are 51,000 nonprofit and community organizations in
165 countries listed, and you can search or browse by name,
location or mission. Membership is free and you can choose
to receive personal e-mail updates of options that suit your
requirements or even post a volunteer profile so appropriate
organizations can find you. There are links to volunteer
programs abroad and family volunteering ideas.
Habitat for Humanity ( www.habitat.org) has a Global Village
program that offers a meaningful way to contribute by
volunteering to help build houses for people who need them.
The projects range from the construction of new and
temporary individual homes and communal buildings for people
in need. deserving communities. Locations range from
disadvantaged neighborhoods in American cities to small
towns in places ranging from Madagascar to Nicaragua.
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MARKETING FOR DO-GOODERS
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Some trips marketed as volunteer vacations are little more
than commercial package trips with some "save the world"
flavoring to help sell the product.
Reef Conservation International ( http://www.reefci.com ),
for example, offers "fun" trips to a "diving paradise" on a
Caribbean island off the coast of Belize, overnight
accommodations at comfortable vacation lodges, diving
lessons, and year-round tropical temperatures.
It takes a little bit of reading to figure out that the
"volunteer" work you're paying to do is basically counting a
variety of sea creatures for environmental surveys, and that
some of the biggest help you’re providing is spending money
on the trip to help the group cut the overhead cost of its
surveys.
There's nothing wrong with any of that, and it sounds like a
wonderful vacation. In fact, if you're going to be spending
two or three thousand dollars on a trip and are feeling a
little guilty about it, this kind of "feel good" frosting
might be just the thing to push away those psychological
dark clouds.
It's just not digging a well for a drought-plagued village.
It's all about expectations and knowing what you're getting
yourself into. Here are some other things you should know:
* Be realistic
Throw out your ideas of saving the world, it isn't going to
happen and you will be a happier and better volunteer for
accepting it.
Volunteering makes a difference on a very small scale
initially. Cherish whatever you’re able to do: Help get a
church built, improve a soccer field, vaccinate a child.
These victories are tiny, but they mean a lot to the people
involved.
And, they form the foundation of major social and economic
improvements. In a long-term view, a volunteer-built house
might help just one family immediately, but this house will
be a home for hundreds of people in its functional lifespan.
And it could serve as an anchor that strengthens a blighted
neighborhood or impoverished village.
Similarly, a vaccinated child will not continue spreading
the disease. Viewed that way, your help could eventually
save untold lives.
* Time commitment
Volunteer opportunities are serious commitments, and not
something you sign up for on a whim. The time commitment can
range from a weekend to a year or more, with the average
being two to three weeks.
Many organizations allow volunteers to continue even after
they were scheduled to leave.
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DEDUCTIONS AND DORMITORIES
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* All ages welcome
Many volunteer organizations focus on youth, but there are
as many who attract volunteers from across the age spectrum.
The maturity, experience and skills of older volunteers are
often appreciated more by these organizations than those
operating in the for-profit, corporate world.
* Pay to work
It runs against your capitalist intuition: Organizations
make you pay for the opportunity to do work.
Very few volunteer vacations come without a price tag. Rarer
still are those that pay you for your labor.
It‘s because there‘s a bigger picture involved here. Most
organizations that offer volunteer vacations do not have the
funding to pay their staff, train new volunteers, and keep
the programs they are involved with going. The funding
brought in from volunteers allow the organizations to
continue their work.
* Tax deductible airfare
In addition to whatever fee is associated with your
activity, most organizations require volunteers to purchase
their own transportation. Most of the time this involves
airfare.
The good news here is that most expenses related to these
vacations are tax deductible. The IRS generally requires
documentation of full, eight-hour workdays for a recognized
Non-profit organization. Check with your tax people before
booking your trip.
* Check your insurance
Volunteer organizations rarely provide health insurance,
although some of the larger ones do have coverage for
emergency medical evacuations.
Check your policy to make sure it covers travel outside your
home country, and look for policy exceptions that could get
you in trouble while helping others in some far-flung corner
of the globe.
* Affordable accommodations
Room and board is usually included in whatever fee you are
asked to pay. Just w good a deal this is, however, varies
drastically. Some volunteers stay in the homes of locals.
Others stay in tents or dormitories or churches. Don’t
expect gourmet fare, but you are likely to get a good taste
of truly local cooking.
* Family values
Most organizations allow you to sign up as a husband and
wife, or with a group of adults. Opportunities abound for
young people, but few exist for families with young
children.
Almost no groups allow you to bring pets.
Well, that's it for this week, group. Thanks again for
reading, and please keep those comments, complaints and
questions coming in.
You can send me an e-mail message at: Email Pierce
Until next week, thanks for reading.
Your Tipmeister,
Pierce
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