Travel with Purpose: A Field Guide to Voluntourism

Voluntourism is a combination of travel and volunteering that allows individuals to explore the world and make a difference in the lives of less fortunate people. It doesn't require specialized skills, just a willingness to work hard and a desire to see the world. Jeff Blumenfeld's book "Travel with Purpose" provides examples from his travels and others to show how to identify the right volunteer situation, plan trips, and prepare for activities. It also highlights that voluntourism can be done within one's own state, and that opportunities for service exist everywhere.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 05 April 2019
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Imagine yourself in a schoolroom in one of the most remote regions of one of the most hard-to-reach countries on earth. Nepal. The Lower Mustang region to be exact. To reach it takes a 14-hour flight from New York to Doha,Qatar. Then four hours by air to Kathmandu. Transfer at one of the worlds most dangerous airports to a 90-minute flight to Pokhara, followed by a jarring, eight-hour Jeep ride over a vertiginous dirt road – one side is a mountain wall, the other side a two-hundred foot cliff. Finally, you arrive, but it's not just any schoolroom. It has been converted into an operating room so that doctors from New York Eye & Ear Infirmary can provide the gift of sight to 24 Nepalis who were blind due to advanced cataracts. Jeff Blumenfeld witnessed this firsthand. He was there as a traveler, but also as a volunteer. A voluntourist. People often wonder how they can explore the world and help the less fortunate even if they don't possess specialized skills. These are people who make lousy vacationers. They're bored sitting on a beach or touring umpteen churches on a cruise ship excursion. They want a meaningful role when they travel. That's where voluntourism comes in – a mix of both travel and volunteering. Is it hard work building wells and schoolhouses or excavating dinosaur bones? Yes, it is. But voluntourism doesn't take a particular outdoor skill, just plenty of sweat and the desire to see the world and leave it a better place. Travel With Purpose deals not with celebrities, nor the rich and famous. Instead, it relays examples from Blumenfeld's travels and many others from Las Vegas to Nepal. From health care facilities to impoverished schools. These are stories of inspiration from everyday people, all of whom have definite opinions about the best way to approach that.

Weight: 314g
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538115329