3 ways to give back when traveling
I love traveling – 42 countries and counting!
The reason I love traveling so much is because it is an opportunity to learn about different cultures and truly connect with people all around the world. Learning about people’s stories, their struggles and victories, their fears and breakthroughs, their dreams and accomplishments; it makes you realize that no matter the cultural difference or the language barriers, we are fundamentally the same in our core.
Each of us is uniquely gifted with our own stories, our talents and our own way of showing love, that is meant to be shared with the world! The interesting thing about sharing our talents is that we grow as we share.
Serving others with our love, time and talents it’s a privilege. In the process of serving others, we are also developing our talents and ourselves even further which then ignites a passion and fulfillment within us to continue expanding and keep pouring into other people’s lives.
I would like to highlight a recent experience of volunteering and making a positive impact during a trip to Cape Town, South Africa. But it’s important to keep in mind we can all serve anywhere starting in our own communities.
“Being of service and volunteering is the act that continues pouring back into you so much more than what you pour out.”
In November 2018, I joined an Unsettled group in Cape Town for two weeks. Unsettled is a travel agency that curates co-working retreats in many cities around the world providing a home, an office, workshops, and many fun-filled adventures with a group of people coming from all around the world. It is a great opportunity to meet other location independent entrepreneurs, digital nomads, and adventurous souls! It brings back the sense of community that many remote workers/digital nomads lack when traveling alone and working remotely.
During the welcome week, we do a wish/gift activity as a group to learn more about each person’s wishes – what they would like to get out of the retreat/experience, and their gifts – what they could bring to the experience. I saw it happen a couple of times where the people who thought they couldn’t bring anything actually had the biggest impact on the entire group. In just 2 weeks the entire group bonded at such a deep level and we learned so much from each other.
“Tapping into the fact that we all have talents to share with the world and my own passion for community and traveling consciously to make a positive impact in the places I visit, I decided to explore ways to contribute and be of service during my 2 weeks stay in Cape Town.”
Airbnb Social Impact Experiences
Did you know that Airbnb has a category for Social Impact Experiences? If you select experiences within the “Social Impact” category, Airbnb doesn’t charge fees so the organization you chose to support will get 100% of the proceeds. In addition, you get to learn about the interesting culture, struggles, and history of a location / destination by benefiting a social impact cause directly and not a third-party or tourist agency.
I booked my Airbnb experience with a Cape Town native who founded Township Roots. The walking tour through the historic and beautiful neighborhood of Bo-Kaap was a much more rewarding experience with the knowledge and stories of a local, plus I knew the proceeds of this tour would support his non-profit organization Township Roots.
Township Roots’ goals is to reduce the number of school drop-outs, develop resilient community leaders, and increase the chances of success among students who attend low resourced schools within the disadvantaged communities. They improve children’s literacy in primary school, and provides a wide range of extra-curricular activities.
2. Supporting Townships Entrepreneurs
The moment you meet Jason you can’t help but be inspired by his passion to help others and positively impact people in the townships. The townships are the suburbs that were designated for locals during the racial segregation era – or the apartheid era; however, it is still very much segregated even up until this day. Jason founded a social impact company called Side by Side Township Development in order to bridge tourism and township entrepreneurs.
Jason - Founder of Side by Side Township Development
Through his company, he brings tourists into the townships to create the opportunity for connection, interaction, sharing stories, and learning from each other; unlike many “poverty tours” which would take tourists into the townships just to see the poverty and leave without interacting with the people. It was an amazing experience to learn from the townships’ locals and have the opportunity to be inspired by their resilience, their strength, and their courage.
During the tour we got the chance to hear from an entrepreneur chef who was raised in the townships and learned culinary skills abroad, he returned to open his restaurant and give back to his community by cooking delicacies from around the world. He provides the opportunity for people in his community to try new types of food that they’ve never tried inside the townships before, they would normally eat things like smileys – search “smiley South Africa” if you are curious.
As we walked around the township we saw a group of girls that were staring at us. Jason encouraged us to approach them without hesitation and I’m glad we did! They asked if they could sing for us and it was so amazing! Their voices were so beautiful- It was indeed a wonderful moment of raw authenticity and curiosity that led to deep connection.
The tour ended with Zumba class where we had the opportunity to learn how to dance to African rhythms from a youth group. It felt wonderfully fulfilling to empower this youth group to share with us something they are so passionate about and watch them lead with so much enthusiasm.
3. Give your time and use your talents!
Sometimes you don’t need to go far to realize you can make an impact in someone’s life. It can be right next to us and it takes us to be conscious and intentional to identify those opportunities where we can make a difference in someone’s live. Just like my dear friend Aish did!
I met Aish on arrival day when we learned that we both work for the same global consulting firm – I’m based out of Washington, DC and she’s based out of Sydney, Australia! And we found ourselves in Cape Town and even got to be housemates during our Unsettled experience 😊, our backgrounds were also very similar in the fact that we are both assigned to the Digital group within the company.
With a background in designing experiences and e-commerce platforms, Aish volunteered her time and skills to create a website for a young massage therapist, Samantha, who was looking to have a steadier income and more visibility in the services she can provide. Samantha worked at a spa which kept a great portion of the profits leaving her with not enough; by having her personal online brand where she can showcase her services, she could start her own business and become independent. This helped the young woman without the skills or resources to build her own website or brand, but thanks to a tourist- volunteer, she received the push she needed to kickstart her entrepreneurial journey.
Website Aish created for Samantha
Going back to what was stated at the beginning, we all have talents and gifts to share with the world! Whether it is by sharing the technical skills to help a local business have an online presence, being passionate about dancing and teaching African Rhythms to foreigners, singing to strangers passing by and lighting up their day, cooking delicious food to the community, using your passion for unity and building bridges between foreigners and the townships, or supporting local social impact causes by booking on Airbnb social impact experiences. As you can see, being of service can take many forms, we are all so uniquely made and we all have something to offer, the world needs it!
I would like to encourage you to be aware of the opportunities around you where you can help and make an impact, this desire will naturally be heightened even more when traveling abroad!
Now ask yourself, what are you most passionate about? Follow those passions, pursue them – they are there for a reason, and then share them with the world!
