people and places

We at people and places are proud and pleased to be finally supporting The Code officially. 

The Code is an industry-driven initiative with the mission to provide awareness, tools and support to the tourism industry to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

“The Code encourages the practice of responsible, sustainable tourism by tourism companies from around the world. By enacting responsible policies, members of  The Code play an essential role in protecting children from the sexual exploitation that is particularly prevalent in this industry. In addition, The Code exists in order to inform travelers that child sex exploitation is never okay, no matter what country they visit.”

All the  of the projects, with which we work,  are in economically poor communities – most involve work with vulnerable children and adults. This is true for most other volunteer recruitment organisations too.

We know that the vast majority of travelers – and the organisations that facilitate their travel – have only the best interests of the vulnerable children they may meet at heart.

Although tourism is not the cause of  crimes against children, offenders utilise the services and infrastructure of the tourism industry to carry out the crime. Offenders can and do gain easy access to children in economically poor countries – the very communities where most volunteer organisations operate.

We believe we have a responsibility to do all we can  towards the protection of children . We have had child protection policies in place for some time. The Code will help us improve these policies.

Nowhere is responsible travel more important than in the area of child protection and the prevention of abuse. (more…)

We are proud and excited to announce that we are now working in partnership with The Gambia Experience (GE) to offer fully ATOL protected (GE’s ATOL No is 1866) volunteer travel to The Gambia.

We coudln’t ask for better partners – GE is recognised for its commitment to responsible travel in The Gambia.

In 2003  The Gambia Experience was awarded ‘Appointment to the Order of The Gambia’, from the Gambian Government for  longstanding commitment to the country within tourism.  The Gambia Experience  is  also holder of AITO 5 star Sustainable Tourism status sustainable tourism, the highest level possible.

Volunteers will now be able to participate in our volunteer programme in The Gambia with the reassurance of having bought a fully protected package of flight, accommodation and the volunteer programme from one of the most respected travel operators in the UK.

Learn more about The Gambia Volunteer Experience here.

How exciting!

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the value – or not – of review sites. Some are fantastic and the reviews are genuine – with lots of useful information about the realities of volunteer travel – and these are the sites we encourage our volunteers to write reviews for.

These are our favourite sites … so far … you may know of others where reviews are genuine and trustworthy. Please let us know of any you like and think worthwhile!

Volunteer Forever – and Go Overseas

But – and there is always a ‘but’ – the more reviews an organisation has, the more visible that organisation is on the website. Hence our earnest plea for volunteers to PLEASE write something about your trip.

Read the latest review here - about a volunteer’s experience in Amar Jyoti School in Nepal.

the nursery class at Amar Jyoti

Huge thanks to those of you who’ve written reviews so far, but we really will welcome more! – and we fully appreciate that not everyone wants to or has the time.

But – yes, another ‘but’! – the more reviews there are, the higher your project will appear in the listings, the more people will read about it – and the more may want to go, thus building upon your own work!

Tags: people and places, volunteer, volunteer abroad, voluntourism

Many of you will have heard of Tribes Travel – they are award winners.  A small, personalised tour operator run by husband and wife team Amanda and Guy, Tribes specialise in personal service – for the traveller and for the communities they visit.

“… we believe that the very best tailor made holidays are the ones which not only make you feel special and help you engage with the places you visit, but which, at no extra cost to you, also allow the destinations (people, places and wildlife) to benefit from your visit.”

Which is why, year after year, Tribes wins awards for sustainable travel.

Well now people and places  wants to say a big “thank you” to Tribes – look at what they have gone and done! http://www.tribes.co.uk/volunteering

Support like this from another award-winning responsible tour operator warms our hearts -

….if you are researching a holiday – and not planning to volunteer with us !!! – you couldn’t do better than talking to these guys -

http://www.tribes.co.uk

Tags: responsible travel, volunteer, volunteer abroad

Nick Leader was our first ever volunteer back in 2001 – here’s a piece he wrote for The University of the Third Age.

(more…)

There are still far too many volunteer sending organisations exploiting vulnerable communities and well meaning volunteers.

PLEASE PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO – its an hour long but it is very very important.

people and places was set up 7 years ago to campaign for change – we wanted to show that volunteer travel could be done responsibly –  that it can be a real force for good. It’s been an amazing journey – sometimes we feel as if we are talking to ourselves, or with the few people who already “get ” the ethics of volunteer travel.

There are still way to many instances of wanton damage to vulnerable children, adults and wildlife in the volunteer market.

This year I (Sallie) was asked to sit on a panel discussing volunteer travel at World Travel Market – one of the leading trade shows for the travel industry.

Paul Miedema – our local partner in South Africa- was also on the panel ( what he had to say is the most important )

The panel was chaired by Mark Tanzer the CEO of ABTA and Richard Oliver from The Year Out Group was the third panel member.

The debate got heated – GOOD – now we need ACTION .

I am an optimist – couldn’t do this work if  I wasnt! – I think we may be at a tipping point – I think, just maybe, some of the key players in the travel industry may start to help us expose the exploitation and promote best practice – oh I do hope so – it is time.

If you would like more info about the issues take a look at these two slide shows. I would ask you to post your comments here – you can be a change maker – we need people to ask these questions

people and places – responsible volunteer travel – It’s SIMPLE

Calabash Tours  - Time for Change

Listen to an interview with Sallie P&P SilverTravelShow .

Sallie

And for those of us that remember the wireless this is a great radio station

One of the main  reasons Kate, Harold and I started people and places was to campaign for better volunteering experiences – better for local communities and for volunteers. Back in 2007 we started a questions you should ask campaign – and we’re very  pleased to see that many volunteers, as well as members of the press and other volunteer organisations, are now asking these questions too … BUT – there’s still a long way to go!

There are – still far too many examples of volunteers and local people being exploited – still too many questionable child care projects – if anything there are more! – still too many projects where volunteers are poorly screened and prepared – still too many buildings being built by volunteers – buildings that stand empty because there are no funds or skills to staff them – still too many volunteers who are replacing local employment – still too few organisations exercising transparency in where volunteer monies go.

Many of you will know that Harold Goodwin, our co founder and Non Executive Chair of our Advisory Committee,  is Professor of Responsible Tourism Management. We are working with him on two awareness campaigns Better Volunteering and Better Child Protection . Working with Children – our mistake - read it here

We would really welcome your opinions, insights ,questions and stories.

You can read more about the campaigns and other campaigns Harold is involved with here

A final reminder to anyone who would like to come and meet us and previous volunteers and learn about the rewards and challenges of  volunteering with us.

please email kate@travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk if youd like to come

We know that some people have already made their travel plans – but thought we should outline some info about travel to Faversham. This (local!) website provides links to various useful sites

By Train

Faversham is on the mainline from two London stations – St Pancras and Victoria – to Canterbury/Dover or Whitstable/Ramsgate

From the station to our office ( Kates home) is about a 10 minute walk – Kate will provide address etc if you contact her.

By Road

Faversham is on the ‘old’ A2 between London and Canterbury/Dover

Several bus routes are within easy walking distance

Or, for those of you who plan to arrive without the aid of public transport we are  only about a mile from either junction 6 or 7 on the M2

There is plenty of parking in the nearest side street

‘Programme’

A term we are  using fairly loosely, as there is no rigid agenda to the afternoon!

c. 2.00-2.30pm   arrival !

c. 2.30-2.45pm – we shall attempt to give a short ‘formal’ presentation – but after that, the afternoon will be ‘free-flow’ – we know that volunteers will want to meet and talk with each other, and just maybe us!

Refreshments

We will be doing the shopping (on our usual tight budget, of course!) … so if anyone has any allergies PLEASE let us know, and we shall endeavour to provide appropriate drinks and nibbles for all

Please do let us know if you’d like to come – and we look forward to catching up with all of you who have already committed to come – lets hope the weather is kind to us – so we can enjoy the garden too!

If you haven’t already spotted out you tube channel it’s so worth a look. There are video interviews from volunteers and even Kate and Sallie.If you have videos of your time volunteering or one of the talks you have done – we know many of you talk to groups on your return from volunteering – please send them to us so we can share them.

Take a look at the YouTube videos here

Take a look at slideshare for slide shows from volunteers – again if you have a slide show to share with us please do send it to us

thanks so much to all the volunteers who have contributed to date.

Remember we are on facebook too - follow us here – here in the blog and on facebook are where we tend to post our latest news.

if you like beautiful pictures and funny visuals we are also on pinterest – follow us here

and finally we are tweeting too – follow us here

phew – so there’s lots of info out there from us – please follow us whereever you choose.

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