Travis of the ER gives us a chance to
meet some boundary breaking change
making individuals who remind us that we
all have the power to reach beyond the
bubble of our daily lives to learn from
locals and far-flung places and to
create new opportunities through
droughts these are the people were
celebrating my name is George stone I’m
an editor-at-large of National
Geographic Traveler I’m based in
Southeast Asia and it’s a real honor to
be here tonight to introduce you to a
few of our travelers of the year these
are people on a quest and they’re
striving to make a difference so first I
would like to invite Shannon O’Donnel
out to the stage our first travel of the
year tonight hello Shannon is a blogger
and a volunteer extraordinaire and you
can follow her on a little adrift calm
but her blog alone is not what makes
Shannon’s traveler of the year while she
was traveling and blogging she studied
ethical ways for other travelers to give
back to the places they visit she
collected these discoveries and she
published them in a book called the
volunteer travelers handbook she
launched something called grassroots
volunteering which is a digital platform
and a database of free and low-cost
volunteering opportunities so how did
you evolve from a traveler to a
volunteer ‘used so it started when I
decided to leave on my one year round
the world trip I had already integrated
service into my life I had volunteered
as a teenager and I had volunteered you
know in my home towns and when I moved
it was just a part of what i was doing
back in the united states when i decided
to leave for a year i thought why not
keep that same mindset and why not try
to find opportunities not just to
volunteer but to be mindful of the
places that i was working in so I
volunteered with some month that was one
of the first things that I did on my
round
trip isn’t there was a monastery in
Nepal and I taught them English for a
month I was amazed that when i arrived
in these towns there were connections
that i could make in ways to be useful
and helpful and that’s what’s informed
the next five years of my travels what
were some of the cool ways to volunteer
that you discovered so i tend to teach
english or you know volunteer in ways
that my skill based does i don’t
construct homes or things that perhaps
aren’t within my wheelhouse there’s
conservation work though heaps and heaps
of opportunities there’s also social
enterprises which is if you don’t have
the skills to maybe volunteer the time
to commit a month three months a year to
a project you can actually and this is
what i love to talk to people about is
if you have that desire but you don’t
really want to volunteer you can support
these these social enterprises these
businesses that are addressing a social
enterprise in there a social issue in
their own community and perhaps it’s a
coffee shop and you go drink coffee
that’s not so hard right you know and
they are using those tourism dollars to
then fund a project and it’s as easy as
that to be able to support the local
community when we first spoke a long
time ago you told me that one problem
with volunteering one challenge is it’s
not always delightful it’s sometimes
it’s hard sometimes it’s boring
sometimes you don’t feel you’re making
an impact so how is the traveler to
address that a traveler who might only
have a week in a country I think that
it’s a perspective shift so you’re not
going to go in a week really see
noticeable change in any way but if
you’re there to be of service instead of
saying I’m there to teach or I’m there
to you know specifically work with this
animal and if that doesn’t happen on
it’s going to let down my expectations
but if you go and you say I want to be
of service you may show up and it’s
happened to me where I show up and I say
great this could be really intriguing
they say you know what we really need we
need you to file some people and you go
oh yeah okay because I’m there to be
helpful yeah um so what are your next
steps where you headed now so I know the
answer I’m excited for you because
I’m excited and a little nervous I
actually I’ve never been to Africa and
so in two weeks I had on a solo overland
journey for four months up the east
coast of Africa and the plan is to
grassroots volunteering the site that
you mentioned is to find social
enterprises and independent volunteer
opportunities so to add them to the
database and other travelers who perhaps
have just a week or two can use the
database to find a project that looks
intriguing and as a starting point to
find cool things in that area well thank
you so much for sharing your story with
us thank you so much for having me it’s
an honor now to welcome Allison right a
veteran photojournalist who has spent
her career capturing the human spirit
through her lens alison has traveled
everywhere snapping people in places and
though there have been many sunny days
in her life oh you could say great
exposure may there have been some
unthinkable storms too uh while
traveling in Laos Allison nearly lost
her life in a horrific bus accident on a
remote jungle road it was every
travelers worst nightmare but she
survived thanks to the villagers who
never left her side her brush with
mortality changed the way she worked she
wanted to do more than quote make
pictures as she told me and so three
years after her near-death experience
she returned to the village this
afterlife and she brought along a team
of five doctors in ten thousand dollars
worth of medical supplies that act was
her first foray as phandra the faces of
Hope Fund she now runs a global
nonprofit that helps support women and
children in crisis areas throughout the
world so thank you for being here thank
you very much
how did I did the the horrific accident
change you as a traveler and as a person
um I was doing a lot of besides travel
stories nonprofit aid humanitarian work
so in that regard I’m doing the same
kind of work but now it’s brought a
whole new empathy to the work you hope
that making a photo will create an
awareness and make a difference and
that’s what I did with this faces of
Hope Fund you know once I go around I
speak about you know these people that
are in need and like this child in a
Burmese refugee in Thailand that I
wanted to get to give people a place to
go to that they could donate that they
could help and then with financial
resources I could give money back to the
communities that I was photographing in
to directly help them when we spoke a
while ago you talk about faces of hope
and how they could be both the people
who are helping but also the people who
are being helped but also those who are
helping yes it’s people like my friend
my one of my heroes Olga Marie that you
know she almost single-handedly stamped
out girls being sold into bonded labor
and nepal by giving piglets to family so
that they would sell the piglet instead
of the girl child at the end of the the
year which is a sad statement about what
a girl is worth in nepal but i’m very
struck by people that are out there
making a difference and these are the
kind of people and small organizations
that I grassroots organizations that I’m
supporting most recently I was actually
on the National Geographic assignment
when I discovered these Burmese refugees
that were working as basically
indentured servants and right in our
near our hotel and so I stayed to
photograph that now I’m hope helping
them get a mobile medical unit so it’s
just wanting to give back even more and
helping support the people that are
really out there making a difference
that they’re they’re the ones that are
creating change when you said that
you’re alive today because of the
kindness of strangers
really moved me tell me about that um
you know when I was this this accident
that I was in in Laos was on a very
remote jungle road in Laos and these
villagers cared enough to bring me into
their village and so my arm back up with
a needle and thread and upholstery
needle no sutures no painkillers nothing
I had broken my back my palmas all my
ribs I had so many broken bones major
internal injuries and I was to the point
where I realized I was not going to get
out of situation alive that I wrote a
note to my family and I tell them how I
died and where I died and I wanted them
to know that I didn’t die alone and in
fear and that you don’t get closer than
that like dipping my toe into feeling my
own mortality like that has been a
touchstone for me for my for the rest of
my life now you know and and just
thinking you know what you know not only
they changed my life but then a British
aid workers have them to come by found
me drove me eight hours in the back of
his pickup truck all the way to Thailand
so he was instrumental in saving my life
as well as was the one doctor in his
border hospital and so every day I think
what kindness would would you do for
stranger what kind of what I do for
stranger you know so and how can people
help face about fund um they can go two
faces of hoped org and look at some of
the projects that i have photographed
and a little bit is a trust for me
because as I go around the world I don’t
know what I’m going to find you know but
I feel the need to give back directly to
these these communities but my next
project is really going around the world
and photo focusing on women and issues
of the global empowerment of women at
work I wait to see those pictures mm-hmm
thank you well thank you for being with
us tonight okay
now I’d like to welcome a travel
educator Tracy friley so just about a
third of Americans have a passport and
this is a problem not least because in
Canada seventy percent of the people
have one but it’s a problem because it
limits our horizons tracy has a big
vision she wants to put passports in the
hands of almost everyone and she’s
starting local she’s based in Oakland
California and she realized that the
challenge the passport ownership isn’t
merely monetary but it’s also about
worldview how to travel where to travel
how to get going all these problems are
even more pronounced in poor urban areas
so Tracy solution was to launch a
passport party project this is a
grassroots initiative to provide
underserved girls the tools they need to
obtain the first passports when the
program’s first phase wrapped up last
summer a hundred girls had the first
passports and six young girls I’ve made
their first international journey to
Belize which had to be a lot of work for
you but and now Tracy is busy plotting
the next phase of the passport party
project so thank you for being here
thanks for having me so how did you get
this idea um I actually was taking a
group of girls to the US Virgin Islands
and while you don’t need a passport to
get there um I found that only one of
them had out of the group had a passport
that piqued my interest and about six
months later I just took a group of kids
in my neighborhood and we had a travel
awareness date and then I was able to
give them the money out of my purse to
get their very first passports and how
do you see travel changing these young
people it turned into a rite of passage
there’s the shift that occurs when these
girls get a passport and it’s it’s not
necessarily about getting on a plane or
a train or a bus but it’s the idea that
they can
and that the world is now available to
them I find that that the kids
surprisingly enough when you line them
up and ask them all where they want to
go there shouting out I’ve got a Paris
I’m gonna go to Hong Kong I want to go
they know where they want to go it’s
just a matter of fostering their dreams
their learning geography in school they
are learning geography in school I think
that this program what it does is it
gives them a reason to want to be in
geography class or in history class and
that little blue book has a lot of power
yeah and so is there any particular
story that that you find really
summarizes the possibility and potential
of any individual traveler who who’s
just surpassing joy of being someplace
and well these girls with these were the
six girls that I took to baileys every
one of them is special for a very
different reason the young lady in the
front jasmine actually I’m personally
funding a trip for her to go to Paris
she’s a budding photographer she was in
the nat geo photo with me and she got to
a cistern a Chanel Geographic
photographer which was huge for her and
is keeping her motivated her mom just
told me the other day that the one thing
that you know how teenagers are they’re
interested in this and this and this and
this but the one thing that she notices
is that she hasn’t put her camera down
since that day so I think that the
impact isn’t always immediate it’s
something that you see over time so when
I’m able to follow up with them I’ll be
back sounds like it will be back well
congratulations and I’m excited for your
next steps thanks yeah next steps I’m
working on Phase two right now I was
awarded two thousand dollars by American
Express in their passion project and
that’s gonna fund the first ten
passports for Phase two that’s cool yes
well I’ll see you around the world thank
you
now I’d like to welcome to travelers of
the year who work together on one
project Molly Burke and muy Ombey
mohombi they met while they were both
undergraduates at Bucknell University in
Pennsylvania Miami is from southern
Uganda and molly is from New York they
discovered that they love to travel they
love nooks and crannies and they also
love bicycles they saw an opportunity to
merge the passions and their interest
and the world I win in a dorm room they
launched an organization called bicycles
against poverty this organization uses a
micro finance model to distribute bikes
in rural Uganda so far the nonprofit is
distributed about 830 bikes to
low-income entrepreneurs who make
monthly payments of three dollars to
cover the price of a bike how do bikes
help alleviate poverty a bike in Uganda
is a life-saving tool because we work in
these remote areas where their hours
from the nearest health clinic there are
hours from markets to make a living from
clean water from education there’s a man
in a village blippy that we work in and
his name is own neck I know neck has a
four year old son he started coughing
one day his four-year-old son a boy and
his cough persisted and when you live in
a remote area where healthcare is like I
said ours walks away you don’t take a
child to the hospital for just a cough
his son is growing thinner and thinner
and then he starts coughing up blood but
o-neck didn’t have a bicycle so in the
morning he picks up his three-year-old
son and he carries him for six hours so
what we do is we provide bikes because
bikes are alleviating poverty by getting
people access to medical care with
farmers who have a hundred pounds of
crops throw it on the carrier it’s
absolutely life-changing for people who
are cut off from resources you shared
with us a really cool video that I think
puts into context your work so I’d like
to show that now
there are villages deep inner Oh Africa
a way of life that remains difficult
but our lives have tremendous rotation
it’s not a lack of money that holds us
back but a distance from where we live
where we can find opportunities like
work and education
this story
is about us
about taking responsibility for our
future about taking responsibility for
ourselves this time is of bicycles
this is a story of bicycles against
poverty that was a really cool video and
it shows so much so tell me a little bit
about yourself your background and how
you came up with this idea the story
Maury just shared right now is not
particular to one family that she talked
about it was the same case with my
family and all families around the area
i lived and grew up in southern uganda
as you mentioned in particular my mom
couldn’t get to the hospital really
easily when she was sick so we needed to
get a bicycle every time she was sick
and you know in sickness hits it doesn’t
tell you when it’s gonna come she’ll get
sick in the night and you would have to
deal with it right there and then so
going through that kind of I think give
me put something in my mind and when I
had the opportunity to come to this
great country as you know a lot of
opportunities right um you know I
figured I had to do something and beyond
that other people believed in what we
were trying to do they believed in the
power of the bicycle to change lives and
one of those organizations is the
Clinton Global Initiative where we got
our first seed money from there on to
now we’ve never stopped and people like
Molly make it what it is and we hope to
keep growing one thing that you told me
that I thought was really interesting is
of course you’re a world traveler but
this project is also compelled you to
travel with in Uganda within your home
country and and so often we think about
it when we think about traveling we
think of going someplace far away but
sometimes it doesn’t have to be so far
to feel very far yeah exactly i don’t
think you have to UM when I was getting
started on thinking about the area where
we walk in right now the northern Uganda
part of the country where I mean I don’t
know if you’ve had the stories but this
area went through war for 20 years since
1986 right now it’s okay you can visit
okay so um exactly please go so i didn’t
know i have had read the news i had seen
the news articles just like you probably
see things about iraq or any other
country but had never been there so i
decided why not but i think everywhere i
went the common thing i saw was that
bicycles were everywhere somehow they
seem to always find their way into every
region in uganda so again i think that
also kind of stayed in my mind Molly
where’s bicycles against poverty headed
next we’re definitely very focused on
expanding our organization within gulu
which is in Uganda that’s where base
right now but we definitely want to look
elsewhere you know kenya tanzania across
the globe because ultimately that’s the
scale of the organization no breaks for
you thank you both male my young be
united airlines in National Geographic
has teamed up to create the sustainable
travel Leadership Award we’re very
excited about this new partnership so
here’s her story and it’s pretty amazing
john is a lifelong traveler in 1989 he
bought two thousand acres of coastal
forest with the goal of protecting four
miles of turtle nesting area he
established the PACU re nature reserve
at a time when nearly every nest was
pilfered by poachers today beach patrols
have reduced poaching losses to two
percent thanks to you and there once
depleted coconut farm is now home to 30
species of mammal and 230 species of
bird the poaching remains problem all
over the world and the denims travel
from London to pacu re to work with
volunteers and field biologists to
protect hatchlings and to push for
policies that protect their coastal
ecosystem so thank you for being with us
in congratulations thank you tell me how
did travel help you hatch your plan
well in the mid 80s friend I met in
Mexican you’ve never been to Costa Rica
it’s worth it just for the Turtles so I
went across the region just for the
turtles and i must say i was quite
smitten and there’s something very
moving about seeing a turtle coming up a
beach slowly they make him digging its
nest and laying its eggs there and then
this magic is shattered when you see the
poachers just ready to take it and that
was happening all over all they were
completely uncontrolled and there was no
be doing anything about it and then I
found by chance pure chance there’s some
wonderful area of the forest bullet had
been forest it was a wreck but with four
miles of the very prime leatherback
turtle beach so I bought it and just it
just seemed the logical thing to do and
doesn’t the way it started what have you
achieved over these years I think I mean
obviously the turtle poaching was the
obvious problem and the biggest problem
and for the first few years ideally we
really made much progress 1995 I think
we rarely turn the corner and we got on
top of it and after that we got really
the poachers were sort of on the run and
then for the last 1518 years we’ve had
our own guards we have to employ your
own cards that’s not armed guards that’s
just arm they just armed with a
flashlight a very powerful flashlight
but we can’t bro it okay well bit right
is the mall and that’s that’s all that’s
the only thing that keeps that beach
free we have to employ
God’s for seven months of the year and
they’re patrolling night and day and
that’s the only way to reduce the the
keep the poaching rate right down to two
percent so that that’s the very obvious
improvement the other of course is the
forest and it’s amazing what nature does
it’s now it’s a secondary forest except
for a little bit of primary in the north
but full of animals and birds I mean
it’s a really high density of availables
and we’ve even had a Jaguar we
photographed the night um we had a
crocodile nesting from like that that
but there are posts to all sorts of of
animals and some of them quite rare and
they just populated the place and it’s a
sort of Oasis there and that’s very good
gratifying hell they could you tell us a
little bit about the local impactor
making of your education programs and
the preservation programs you’re working
on it’s a very exciting project that we
have now with you because we have always
had students coming from the UK or from
the US they would come for days and they
have they are very important part of the
reserve but right now with that that was
kind of teaching to the converses
because having all these wonderful
people coming and they just wanted to
help but we realized that we needed to
change the mentality of the people we
need to change what has been a tradition
for many years so within the to work
with children so we have now a project
that we get the young ones in primary
school they come for a day and that is
we’re really traveling starts just many
of them they live about 40 minutes and
half an hour from the beach but they
have never seen the sea they have never
ever been on a boat but then they arrive
and for them is marvelous they just go
down the door to aro canal seeing all
these different animals and then they
come to the reserve and we take them
around the
the forest and and it’s fantastic to see
how they learn and the questions they
ask and how they pinpointed the
different animals and then we show them
the importance of the turtles of the
life cycle and the importance of really
not eating egg turtle eggs because it
would be one little turtle less right
and then we also have another bit of the
program is but we get these secondary
schools they are it’s a different thing
because they they come and they stay the
night they spent two nights with us so
they go they do a bit of reforestation
and then they learn about the different
species of trees how to make um a hole
they use them a check this and they
really have a wonderful time and then
they come and in the biologies as well
they teach them about the life cycle
about what we are doing and then they go
out they patrol so many of them have the
chance to see these amazing animals
coming animals they haven’t changed in
65 million years that they are from to
Jurassic and for them that you know they
just cannot believe it I mean and it
does have a fantastic impact of them and
that’s what we are doing and we’re also
trying to bring the people from the
communities as well to help us and to to
see what we’re doing and and to love
what we’re doing and do it themselves as
well well I think thanks to your work
we’re getting closer to that every day
so congratulations moving in the right
direction yes thank you very much
you
meet some boundary breaking change
making individuals who remind us that we
all have the power to reach beyond the
bubble of our daily lives to learn from
locals and far-flung places and to
create new opportunities through
droughts these are the people were
celebrating my name is George stone I’m
an editor-at-large of National
Geographic Traveler I’m based in
Southeast Asia and it’s a real honor to
be here tonight to introduce you to a
few of our travelers of the year these
are people on a quest and they’re
striving to make a difference so first I
would like to invite Shannon O’Donnel
out to the stage our first travel of the
year tonight hello Shannon is a blogger
and a volunteer extraordinaire and you
can follow her on a little adrift calm
but her blog alone is not what makes
Shannon’s traveler of the year while she
was traveling and blogging she studied
ethical ways for other travelers to give
back to the places they visit she
collected these discoveries and she
published them in a book called the
volunteer travelers handbook she
launched something called grassroots
volunteering which is a digital platform
and a database of free and low-cost
volunteering opportunities so how did
you evolve from a traveler to a
volunteer ‘used so it started when I
decided to leave on my one year round
the world trip I had already integrated
service into my life I had volunteered
as a teenager and I had volunteered you
know in my home towns and when I moved
it was just a part of what i was doing
back in the united states when i decided
to leave for a year i thought why not
keep that same mindset and why not try
to find opportunities not just to
volunteer but to be mindful of the
places that i was working in so I
volunteered with some month that was one
of the first things that I did on my
round
trip isn’t there was a monastery in
Nepal and I taught them English for a
month I was amazed that when i arrived
in these towns there were connections
that i could make in ways to be useful
and helpful and that’s what’s informed
the next five years of my travels what
were some of the cool ways to volunteer
that you discovered so i tend to teach
english or you know volunteer in ways
that my skill based does i don’t
construct homes or things that perhaps
aren’t within my wheelhouse there’s
conservation work though heaps and heaps
of opportunities there’s also social
enterprises which is if you don’t have
the skills to maybe volunteer the time
to commit a month three months a year to
a project you can actually and this is
what i love to talk to people about is
if you have that desire but you don’t
really want to volunteer you can support
these these social enterprises these
businesses that are addressing a social
enterprise in there a social issue in
their own community and perhaps it’s a
coffee shop and you go drink coffee
that’s not so hard right you know and
they are using those tourism dollars to
then fund a project and it’s as easy as
that to be able to support the local
community when we first spoke a long
time ago you told me that one problem
with volunteering one challenge is it’s
not always delightful it’s sometimes
it’s hard sometimes it’s boring
sometimes you don’t feel you’re making
an impact so how is the traveler to
address that a traveler who might only
have a week in a country I think that
it’s a perspective shift so you’re not
going to go in a week really see
noticeable change in any way but if
you’re there to be of service instead of
saying I’m there to teach or I’m there
to you know specifically work with this
animal and if that doesn’t happen on
it’s going to let down my expectations
but if you go and you say I want to be
of service you may show up and it’s
happened to me where I show up and I say
great this could be really intriguing
they say you know what we really need we
need you to file some people and you go
oh yeah okay because I’m there to be
helpful yeah um so what are your next
steps where you headed now so I know the
answer I’m excited for you because
I’m excited and a little nervous I
actually I’ve never been to Africa and
so in two weeks I had on a solo overland
journey for four months up the east
coast of Africa and the plan is to
grassroots volunteering the site that
you mentioned is to find social
enterprises and independent volunteer
opportunities so to add them to the
database and other travelers who perhaps
have just a week or two can use the
database to find a project that looks
intriguing and as a starting point to
find cool things in that area well thank
you so much for sharing your story with
us thank you so much for having me it’s
an honor now to welcome Allison right a
veteran photojournalist who has spent
her career capturing the human spirit
through her lens alison has traveled
everywhere snapping people in places and
though there have been many sunny days
in her life oh you could say great
exposure may there have been some
unthinkable storms too uh while
traveling in Laos Allison nearly lost
her life in a horrific bus accident on a
remote jungle road it was every
travelers worst nightmare but she
survived thanks to the villagers who
never left her side her brush with
mortality changed the way she worked she
wanted to do more than quote make
pictures as she told me and so three
years after her near-death experience
she returned to the village this
afterlife and she brought along a team
of five doctors in ten thousand dollars
worth of medical supplies that act was
her first foray as phandra the faces of
Hope Fund she now runs a global
nonprofit that helps support women and
children in crisis areas throughout the
world so thank you for being here thank
you very much
how did I did the the horrific accident
change you as a traveler and as a person
um I was doing a lot of besides travel
stories nonprofit aid humanitarian work
so in that regard I’m doing the same
kind of work but now it’s brought a
whole new empathy to the work you hope
that making a photo will create an
awareness and make a difference and
that’s what I did with this faces of
Hope Fund you know once I go around I
speak about you know these people that
are in need and like this child in a
Burmese refugee in Thailand that I
wanted to get to give people a place to
go to that they could donate that they
could help and then with financial
resources I could give money back to the
communities that I was photographing in
to directly help them when we spoke a
while ago you talk about faces of hope
and how they could be both the people
who are helping but also the people who
are being helped but also those who are
helping yes it’s people like my friend
my one of my heroes Olga Marie that you
know she almost single-handedly stamped
out girls being sold into bonded labor
and nepal by giving piglets to family so
that they would sell the piglet instead
of the girl child at the end of the the
year which is a sad statement about what
a girl is worth in nepal but i’m very
struck by people that are out there
making a difference and these are the
kind of people and small organizations
that I grassroots organizations that I’m
supporting most recently I was actually
on the National Geographic assignment
when I discovered these Burmese refugees
that were working as basically
indentured servants and right in our
near our hotel and so I stayed to
photograph that now I’m hope helping
them get a mobile medical unit so it’s
just wanting to give back even more and
helping support the people that are
really out there making a difference
that they’re they’re the ones that are
creating change when you said that
you’re alive today because of the
kindness of strangers
really moved me tell me about that um
you know when I was this this accident
that I was in in Laos was on a very
remote jungle road in Laos and these
villagers cared enough to bring me into
their village and so my arm back up with
a needle and thread and upholstery
needle no sutures no painkillers nothing
I had broken my back my palmas all my
ribs I had so many broken bones major
internal injuries and I was to the point
where I realized I was not going to get
out of situation alive that I wrote a
note to my family and I tell them how I
died and where I died and I wanted them
to know that I didn’t die alone and in
fear and that you don’t get closer than
that like dipping my toe into feeling my
own mortality like that has been a
touchstone for me for my for the rest of
my life now you know and and just
thinking you know what you know not only
they changed my life but then a British
aid workers have them to come by found
me drove me eight hours in the back of
his pickup truck all the way to Thailand
so he was instrumental in saving my life
as well as was the one doctor in his
border hospital and so every day I think
what kindness would would you do for
stranger what kind of what I do for
stranger you know so and how can people
help face about fund um they can go two
faces of hoped org and look at some of
the projects that i have photographed
and a little bit is a trust for me
because as I go around the world I don’t
know what I’m going to find you know but
I feel the need to give back directly to
these these communities but my next
project is really going around the world
and photo focusing on women and issues
of the global empowerment of women at
work I wait to see those pictures mm-hmm
thank you well thank you for being with
us tonight okay
now I’d like to welcome a travel
educator Tracy friley so just about a
third of Americans have a passport and
this is a problem not least because in
Canada seventy percent of the people
have one but it’s a problem because it
limits our horizons tracy has a big
vision she wants to put passports in the
hands of almost everyone and she’s
starting local she’s based in Oakland
California and she realized that the
challenge the passport ownership isn’t
merely monetary but it’s also about
worldview how to travel where to travel
how to get going all these problems are
even more pronounced in poor urban areas
so Tracy solution was to launch a
passport party project this is a
grassroots initiative to provide
underserved girls the tools they need to
obtain the first passports when the
program’s first phase wrapped up last
summer a hundred girls had the first
passports and six young girls I’ve made
their first international journey to
Belize which had to be a lot of work for
you but and now Tracy is busy plotting
the next phase of the passport party
project so thank you for being here
thanks for having me so how did you get
this idea um I actually was taking a
group of girls to the US Virgin Islands
and while you don’t need a passport to
get there um I found that only one of
them had out of the group had a passport
that piqued my interest and about six
months later I just took a group of kids
in my neighborhood and we had a travel
awareness date and then I was able to
give them the money out of my purse to
get their very first passports and how
do you see travel changing these young
people it turned into a rite of passage
there’s the shift that occurs when these
girls get a passport and it’s it’s not
necessarily about getting on a plane or
a train or a bus but it’s the idea that
they can
and that the world is now available to
them I find that that the kids
surprisingly enough when you line them
up and ask them all where they want to
go there shouting out I’ve got a Paris
I’m gonna go to Hong Kong I want to go
they know where they want to go it’s
just a matter of fostering their dreams
their learning geography in school they
are learning geography in school I think
that this program what it does is it
gives them a reason to want to be in
geography class or in history class and
that little blue book has a lot of power
yeah and so is there any particular
story that that you find really
summarizes the possibility and potential
of any individual traveler who who’s
just surpassing joy of being someplace
and well these girls with these were the
six girls that I took to baileys every
one of them is special for a very
different reason the young lady in the
front jasmine actually I’m personally
funding a trip for her to go to Paris
she’s a budding photographer she was in
the nat geo photo with me and she got to
a cistern a Chanel Geographic
photographer which was huge for her and
is keeping her motivated her mom just
told me the other day that the one thing
that you know how teenagers are they’re
interested in this and this and this and
this but the one thing that she notices
is that she hasn’t put her camera down
since that day so I think that the
impact isn’t always immediate it’s
something that you see over time so when
I’m able to follow up with them I’ll be
back sounds like it will be back well
congratulations and I’m excited for your
next steps thanks yeah next steps I’m
working on Phase two right now I was
awarded two thousand dollars by American
Express in their passion project and
that’s gonna fund the first ten
passports for Phase two that’s cool yes
well I’ll see you around the world thank
you
now I’d like to welcome to travelers of
the year who work together on one
project Molly Burke and muy Ombey
mohombi they met while they were both
undergraduates at Bucknell University in
Pennsylvania Miami is from southern
Uganda and molly is from New York they
discovered that they love to travel they
love nooks and crannies and they also
love bicycles they saw an opportunity to
merge the passions and their interest
and the world I win in a dorm room they
launched an organization called bicycles
against poverty this organization uses a
micro finance model to distribute bikes
in rural Uganda so far the nonprofit is
distributed about 830 bikes to
low-income entrepreneurs who make
monthly payments of three dollars to
cover the price of a bike how do bikes
help alleviate poverty a bike in Uganda
is a life-saving tool because we work in
these remote areas where their hours
from the nearest health clinic there are
hours from markets to make a living from
clean water from education there’s a man
in a village blippy that we work in and
his name is own neck I know neck has a
four year old son he started coughing
one day his four-year-old son a boy and
his cough persisted and when you live in
a remote area where healthcare is like I
said ours walks away you don’t take a
child to the hospital for just a cough
his son is growing thinner and thinner
and then he starts coughing up blood but
o-neck didn’t have a bicycle so in the
morning he picks up his three-year-old
son and he carries him for six hours so
what we do is we provide bikes because
bikes are alleviating poverty by getting
people access to medical care with
farmers who have a hundred pounds of
crops throw it on the carrier it’s
absolutely life-changing for people who
are cut off from resources you shared
with us a really cool video that I think
puts into context your work so I’d like
to show that now
there are villages deep inner Oh Africa
a way of life that remains difficult
but our lives have tremendous rotation
it’s not a lack of money that holds us
back but a distance from where we live
where we can find opportunities like
work and education
this story
is about us
about taking responsibility for our
future about taking responsibility for
ourselves this time is of bicycles
this is a story of bicycles against
poverty that was a really cool video and
it shows so much so tell me a little bit
about yourself your background and how
you came up with this idea the story
Maury just shared right now is not
particular to one family that she talked
about it was the same case with my
family and all families around the area
i lived and grew up in southern uganda
as you mentioned in particular my mom
couldn’t get to the hospital really
easily when she was sick so we needed to
get a bicycle every time she was sick
and you know in sickness hits it doesn’t
tell you when it’s gonna come she’ll get
sick in the night and you would have to
deal with it right there and then so
going through that kind of I think give
me put something in my mind and when I
had the opportunity to come to this
great country as you know a lot of
opportunities right um you know I
figured I had to do something and beyond
that other people believed in what we
were trying to do they believed in the
power of the bicycle to change lives and
one of those organizations is the
Clinton Global Initiative where we got
our first seed money from there on to
now we’ve never stopped and people like
Molly make it what it is and we hope to
keep growing one thing that you told me
that I thought was really interesting is
of course you’re a world traveler but
this project is also compelled you to
travel with in Uganda within your home
country and and so often we think about
it when we think about traveling we
think of going someplace far away but
sometimes it doesn’t have to be so far
to feel very far yeah exactly i don’t
think you have to UM when I was getting
started on thinking about the area where
we walk in right now the northern Uganda
part of the country where I mean I don’t
know if you’ve had the stories but this
area went through war for 20 years since
1986 right now it’s okay you can visit
okay so um exactly please go so i didn’t
know i have had read the news i had seen
the news articles just like you probably
see things about iraq or any other
country but had never been there so i
decided why not but i think everywhere i
went the common thing i saw was that
bicycles were everywhere somehow they
seem to always find their way into every
region in uganda so again i think that
also kind of stayed in my mind Molly
where’s bicycles against poverty headed
next we’re definitely very focused on
expanding our organization within gulu
which is in Uganda that’s where base
right now but we definitely want to look
elsewhere you know kenya tanzania across
the globe because ultimately that’s the
scale of the organization no breaks for
you thank you both male my young be
united airlines in National Geographic
has teamed up to create the sustainable
travel Leadership Award we’re very
excited about this new partnership so
here’s her story and it’s pretty amazing
john is a lifelong traveler in 1989 he
bought two thousand acres of coastal
forest with the goal of protecting four
miles of turtle nesting area he
established the PACU re nature reserve
at a time when nearly every nest was
pilfered by poachers today beach patrols
have reduced poaching losses to two
percent thanks to you and there once
depleted coconut farm is now home to 30
species of mammal and 230 species of
bird the poaching remains problem all
over the world and the denims travel
from London to pacu re to work with
volunteers and field biologists to
protect hatchlings and to push for
policies that protect their coastal
ecosystem so thank you for being with us
in congratulations thank you tell me how
did travel help you hatch your plan
well in the mid 80s friend I met in
Mexican you’ve never been to Costa Rica
it’s worth it just for the Turtles so I
went across the region just for the
turtles and i must say i was quite
smitten and there’s something very
moving about seeing a turtle coming up a
beach slowly they make him digging its
nest and laying its eggs there and then
this magic is shattered when you see the
poachers just ready to take it and that
was happening all over all they were
completely uncontrolled and there was no
be doing anything about it and then I
found by chance pure chance there’s some
wonderful area of the forest bullet had
been forest it was a wreck but with four
miles of the very prime leatherback
turtle beach so I bought it and just it
just seemed the logical thing to do and
doesn’t the way it started what have you
achieved over these years I think I mean
obviously the turtle poaching was the
obvious problem and the biggest problem
and for the first few years ideally we
really made much progress 1995 I think
we rarely turn the corner and we got on
top of it and after that we got really
the poachers were sort of on the run and
then for the last 1518 years we’ve had
our own guards we have to employ your
own cards that’s not armed guards that’s
just arm they just armed with a
flashlight a very powerful flashlight
but we can’t bro it okay well bit right
is the mall and that’s that’s all that’s
the only thing that keeps that beach
free we have to employ
God’s for seven months of the year and
they’re patrolling night and day and
that’s the only way to reduce the the
keep the poaching rate right down to two
percent so that that’s the very obvious
improvement the other of course is the
forest and it’s amazing what nature does
it’s now it’s a secondary forest except
for a little bit of primary in the north
but full of animals and birds I mean
it’s a really high density of availables
and we’ve even had a Jaguar we
photographed the night um we had a
crocodile nesting from like that that
but there are posts to all sorts of of
animals and some of them quite rare and
they just populated the place and it’s a
sort of Oasis there and that’s very good
gratifying hell they could you tell us a
little bit about the local impactor
making of your education programs and
the preservation programs you’re working
on it’s a very exciting project that we
have now with you because we have always
had students coming from the UK or from
the US they would come for days and they
have they are very important part of the
reserve but right now with that that was
kind of teaching to the converses
because having all these wonderful
people coming and they just wanted to
help but we realized that we needed to
change the mentality of the people we
need to change what has been a tradition
for many years so within the to work
with children so we have now a project
that we get the young ones in primary
school they come for a day and that is
we’re really traveling starts just many
of them they live about 40 minutes and
half an hour from the beach but they
have never seen the sea they have never
ever been on a boat but then they arrive
and for them is marvelous they just go
down the door to aro canal seeing all
these different animals and then they
come to the reserve and we take them
around the
the forest and and it’s fantastic to see
how they learn and the questions they
ask and how they pinpointed the
different animals and then we show them
the importance of the turtles of the
life cycle and the importance of really
not eating egg turtle eggs because it
would be one little turtle less right
and then we also have another bit of the
program is but we get these secondary
schools they are it’s a different thing
because they they come and they stay the
night they spent two nights with us so
they go they do a bit of reforestation
and then they learn about the different
species of trees how to make um a hole
they use them a check this and they
really have a wonderful time and then
they come and in the biologies as well
they teach them about the life cycle
about what we are doing and then they go
out they patrol so many of them have the
chance to see these amazing animals
coming animals they haven’t changed in
65 million years that they are from to
Jurassic and for them that you know they
just cannot believe it I mean and it
does have a fantastic impact of them and
that’s what we are doing and we’re also
trying to bring the people from the
communities as well to help us and to to
see what we’re doing and and to love
what we’re doing and do it themselves as
well well I think thanks to your work
we’re getting closer to that every day
so congratulations moving in the right
direction yes thank you very much
you
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