Friends indeed: Travel & tourism industry-linked charitable causes worthy of your consideration
Here are travel & tourism industry-related fundraisers and charitable causes worth considering by virtue of the fact that “Good Tourism” Friends & Partners are involved. (This page will be updated when the latest causes brought to “GT’s” attention are added to the top. Older fundraisers or campaigns may no longer be open or in operation. Please do your own due diligence before offering anything to anyone.)
Holidays for the visually impaired: Seable runs crowdfunding campaign
November 2022: “Seable is the only multi-award winning tour operator in the United Kingdom to create assisted, active, and tailored holidays for the visually impaired. We strive to create accessible holidays that improve independence, inclusion, and wellbeing, offering individual opportunities to increase confidence, learn new skills, and make lifelong friends.”
Continue reading this “GT” ‘sponsor message’, which was offered free-of-charge to assist Seable in their crowdfunding campaign that ends during December 2022.
The word on the STREETS …
October 2021: “In 2021, the world continues to face the dire challenges of the coronavirus pandemic,” writes Neal F Bermas, founder of the Hoi An-based hospitality training social enterprise STREETS International. “During this period STREETS has been forced to temporarily suspend operation. Rising to the challenge, the small remaining STREETS team has created an emergency fund to support STREETS graduates, and others from similar hospitality and culinary training programs …” The STREETS Emergency Fund has provided emergency support for “nearly 500 recipients” in Vietnam. Supporters can also purchase cookbooks and merchandise from STREETS’ shop.
Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project update
June 2021: The Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project in Myanmar is doing what it can, without tourism, to protect the critically-endangered dolphins and to help local people in the Ayeyarwady Dolphin Protected Area. Please consider making a donation via the Project website. A donation of USD 50 can buy one piglet for a family, USD 20 one carbon-reducing cookstove, or USD 15 for general support to local families for lost tourism income. For more information, read Project co-founder Paul Eshoo’s “GT” Insight from January 2020 which he updated in June 2021.
Elephant ER update
November 2020: Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund of “GT” Insight Partner Work for Wild Life International reports that the Elephant Healthcare Emergency Lifeline Fund has expanded its reach and services. Launched in April 2020 to help keep elephant vets on the job in Thailand, the Fund is now also helping elephant camps in India, Laos, and Nepal. And, in addition to supporting elephant healthcare in these places, the Fund is paying mahout wages and securing supplies of elephant food.
Tourism In Need. Indeed.
October 2020: As we learned about in an inspiring “GT” Insight written by the co-founders of Tourism In Need, purpose-driven tourism businesses are fighting to survive as the COVID-related crisis bites in Southeast Asia. “GT” Friends Robert Powell and Ameer Virani have curated a list of donation-worthy organisations, including a couple already listed on this page. Like this page, Tourism In Need links directly to the fundraisers; there are no commissions or referral fees involved.
Hotels joining hands near Angkor
August 2020: Three hotels have joined with NGO partners to feed people in and around the tourism town of Siem Reap, Cambodia. “The need is sadly only increasing,” “GT” Friend Christian de Boer said. “In Siem Reap Province, 90% of the population have to pay back high-interest bank loans. No incomes for several months means they are reduced to selling their property — motorbike, car or even their homes! — to pay it back, let alone the fact that they aren’t able to eat properly everyday.”
All of the following causes were added to the “Friends indeed” section of the weekly “Good news in tourism” posts prior to August 2020 and during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis and accompanying economic disaster:
Reach out to help a Southeast Asian tour guide
Khiri Reach, the charitable arm of “GT” Partner Khiri Travel, has set up a fund to support freelance tour guides. Khiri Reach boss Nia Klatte said: “We want to support a group of people who are among the very hardest hit by the current crisis: our freelance guides. Unfortunately, in Southeast Asia, the government safety nets are extremely minimal if they exist at all for freelancers. And while some domestic tourism is coming back, it will take months or years for tourism activities to return to ‘normal’.”
Fill empty stomachs in Uganda
“GT” Insight Partner Second Look Worldwide is endorsing a fundraiser organised by “GT” Friend James Nadiope, who said: “Since Uganda went into quarantine with total lockdown followed by curfew, many families where we work go empty stomach with no food to eat. I would like to appeal to all well-wishers for financial donations to help these vulnerable families.”
There’s an elephant in the room (emergency room)
Many Asian elephants and their mahouts in Thailand and elsewhere are in deep trouble. That’s why Hollis Burbank-Hammarlund, founder & director of “GT” Insight Partner Work for Wild Life International, would ask that you contribute to the Elephant Healthcare Emergency Lifeline Fund, which helps keep veterinarians on the job delivering emergency veterinary care to elephants that need it most … when they need it most.
Better a ranger in a forest than a pangolin in a pot
Forest patrols by Wildlife Alliance rangers in Botum Sakor National Park in southwest Cambodia may have to be suspended. The rangers’ equipment, food and wages are provided in entirety by the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) and Cardamom Tented Camp both of which depend on tourism. And there is no tourism. An emergency fundraising page is live. [“GT” Friends Willem Niemeijer and John Roberts are associated with the fundraiser via Cardamom and GTAEF respectively.
Hospitality for hospital staff
Not a fundraiser as such, but a great idea for accommodation providers: “GT” Friend Rachel Sherwood is organising well-deserved holidays for healthcare workers at the front lines of the COVID-19 fight. Operation Recuperation is collecting pledges from accommodation providers and second home owners from all over the world.