Tue 8 Dec 2009
On Giving Back to Places We Visit – Recommended Charities
Posted by Kathie under International CharitiesComments Off
I gain so much from my travels. And I’m always grateful for how open people are in sharing their culture and experiences. While I can pay people for their services and tip generously or offer small gifts, it never seems like enough to me.
So before I go or when I return from a trip, I always look for a local charity or an international charity that has a project in the area.
Typically, this is an easy task. One of my favorite international charities is Heifer International. In addition to their gifts like a flock of chickens or a goat or a swarm of bees that can help people become more self-sufficient, they also have larger projects. You can choose a project to support. So last year, after our return from Kathmandu, we chose a project in Nepal to support.
I have often given to Doctors without Borders and Mercy Corps. They offer medical care in areas that otherwise have no care available as well as intervening in cases of natural disasters.
A favorite local charity of mine is the Ponheary Ly Foundation (PLF). It’s a charity started by a woman I know from the Fodors board to support education for Cambodian children. It buys school supplies and uniforms for children, augments the salaries of teachers, purchases bicycles so children can attend high school, even brings in a doctor to treat sick children.
Trying to find a charity after our trip to Burma was not as easy. As you may know, Burma has long blocked international charities from coming into the country. Indeed, in the aftermath of hurricane Nargis, they would not allow ships or planes to land carrying food, medicine and aid workers. We did eventually discover that Heifer has a project (Myanmar Agriculture and Livestock Development Project) based in Thailand that reaches into Burma to supply animals and economic development assistance to hill tribe people in Burma. While some projects are set up so you can find them directly, this one was not.
We met a woman in Bagan who had been sponsoring a child near Mandalay through Save the Children for ten years. She had traveled to Burma specifically to meet this child, a very moving experience. We also saw a building in a village on southern Inle Lake that said Save the Children on the sign, so this charity has managed to work inside this country that has traditionally been rejecting of outside help. The picture to the left is of a Save the Children building in Sankar Village, Myanmar.
Some people prefer to takes gifts of school supplies to local schools or medicine to local clinics. These are all ways to give back to people who have so generously shared their lives with us.