by GBP | Jan 21, 2015 | Cause, Connect, Travel
Build Your Future Tomorrow Center is one of those organizations that make you go, WOW, this is how it should be done. They provide a full range of services and support to communities affected by extreme poverty. BFT Center is dedicated to providing Cambodian people with the right intellectual and economic tools to be self sufficient. Their vision is built upon two beliefs: Knowledge is Hope & Peace is Development While we were in Siem Reap, we met with Mr. Sedtha Long, the founder of BFT and a survivor of the Khmer Rouge, one of the worst genocides in human history. Like most children at that time, he was taken from his family and enslaved, forced to work from 5am to midnight on very little to survive. After torturous years, and losing many of his family members he managed to escape to the Thai border, and start a life in the refugee camps. https://givebackpackers.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Build-Your-Future-Today-Center.-14-September-20131.mp4 Being one of the few educated survivors, he started development work in the camps, assisting many orphaned children. He started teaching in the camps, along with educating western volunteers about Cambodian culture & issues, something he continues to practice today. He also started bringing in Buddhist monks & nuns to help people deal with crisis issues and understand morality even in such demanding times. He even took on Thai kick-boxing, crossing the border to compete and earn money to bring back to the camps. Once the civil war was over and people were allowed to return to Cambodian cities, he realized his primary goal in life had been defined by the struggle inflicted on...
by GBP | Jan 21, 2015 | Cause, Connect
We have done a lot of philanthropic projects abroad because we believe in being more than tourists, we want to do more than just take photos and enjoy the sights, and our money and efforts can go a lot further, but Givebackpackers are GLOBAL, which means we volunteer right in our own communities in need too. Last Saturday Lindsay, Tiffany and Corinne were helping these teens from the Access Youth Academy program at the Mt Hope Community Garden in San Diego. Giving back starts at home. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XLiSDKxurA&w=560&h=315] Corinne Aparis is the Academic Coordinator at Access Youth Academy and joined in November 2013 after moving back from India where she was working with a non profit for 8 months. Originally from San Diego, she pursued her undergraduate degrees in English and International Development at the University of San Francisco in 2010. Throughout Corinne’s time in university and post-grad she worked and did fellowships in South Africa, Uganda, Australia, and India where she supported and coordinated a multitude of social change projects for at-risk youth to immigrant and refugee families. Corinne is a world traveler who lives the givebackpacker lifestyle, make a positive impact wherever she goes, whether it is out in the surf on her home turf beach, giving sage advice to her very lucky girlfriends, or while trekking through jungles and sneaking across borders in the Congo. To support either of these local programs, please visit the sites below, or make a much needed donation of funds or working laptops, as the kids in Corinne’s programs desperately need computers to do their homework and apply for scholarships....
by GBP | Jan 21, 2015 | Cause, Connect, Travel
www.TheBlogAbroad.com Traveling is truly an amazing concept. Not many other things in life can leave you speechless, yet turn you into a storyteller. But traveling does just that and more, depending on your attitude and aptitude to let it make an imprint greater than just the stamp in your passport. From a year’s worth of travel, I went from a passport of pages to a passport of purpose, as the stamps throughout my 15 countries of exploration decorated the empty spaces, silently singing the stories of spontaneous adventures, life-changing encounters, and the ever-lasting impact the people from other cultures had on me. But the biggest thing I had to learn was how to be a traveler and not a tourist. The minute you master this, the floodgates of opportunity and discovery will open for you, because there’s a special component to traveling with purpose that changes the way you see and approach life. Try and create unique experiences by going outside the norm to visit places under the radar. Not to mention breaking out of your shell by trying to speak the language and exchanging perspectives and cultural views with locals. As a global citizen, your duty is to enrich this world. People need you. We need you. I need you — to continue to push the agenda for the uniquely-born, free-spirited, adventure-junkies who eat bowls of pride and courage for breakfast every morning. With a side of bacon. Traveling is what I love to do. And when you love something enough, you find a way to make a living out of it. But money alone won’t fund...
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