Malia in Oahu

Update 11/28/12: A few photos of our bon voyage Malia staff lunch are now posted on Facebook.

“If you come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. If you come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” —Lilla Watson

In 1991 as a graduate student of International Relations, I signed up for a Global Exchange Reality Tour to Cuba. I wanted to learn about the impacts of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and understand what the current socioeconomic realities of the Special Period were on the nation. That trip dramatically expanded my understanding of the power of travel.

While I had backpacked to over 30 countries before that Reality Tour, I had never experienced that type of life sharing journey before. I engaged with grandparents, doctors, teachers, artists, musicians and politicians. In effect Reality Tours changed my life.  I experienced connection and insights, and returned to the United States committed to advocate for sane U.S. foreign policy. Once home, I promptly cut out and placed Lilla’s quote (see above) on my fridge. Little did I know that six years later I’d start working at Global Exchange, where Lilla’s quote found a new home on the Global Exchange office wall.

Ethical Traveler Tour to Cuba

Visiting Art and Hope in Cuba, with Ethical Traveler

Today it is my bittersweet honor to announce that after almost 16 vibrant years I am transitioning out of Reality Tours. Being the Director has been a true vocation. I’ve had the unique opportunity to combine my skills as an educator, social justice activist and alternative travel business woman to build up Reality Tours’ travel destinations, themes and reach.

Looking back I sit and smile thinking of all the talented, opinionated and solidarity minded people that ebbed and flowed through the Reality Tours department in San Francisco. And I think of the everyday heroes in the U.S. and all around the world whose  generosity of spirit welcomed us, collaborated with us and compelled us to meet them as brothers and sisters. We learned about their struggles, successes and aspirations which inspired us to seek changes in U.S. foreign and economic policies.

Princeton University in Mostar, Bosnia, 2012

I know the model of socially responsible travel to educate and inspire advocacy works. In fact, I could fill volumes based on my personal experiences and those often brilliant, joyful and incredibly painful moments of learning.

From the jungles of the Amazon and the struggle of the Sarayuku nation, to the healing and rehabilitation efforts in IDP camps of Northern Uganda; from facilitating thousands through migration in Havana and sharing the incredible tenacity of spirit of Cuban’s through the “fruits” of their Revolution and in their models of sustainability post “peak oil” to learning about how poachers become conservationists in Tanzania; from the smiles and solemn survival stories of children saved from the sex tourism industry in Cambodia, Nepal, Peru & Thailand to the important organizing efforts of elders training the next generation of leaders in Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Vietnam… I leave Reality Tours personally and professionally enriched with memories and experiences, and breathtaking vistas.

Malia with Yury, Ecuador Reality Tours program officer

To each of the program officers who so diligently work to take care of every creature comfort, airport transit, hotel reservation, and days and days of program confirmations, thank you for your solidarity!  It is such necessary work, yet it is painstaking and not so glamorous. When Reality Tours runs a 100 departures a year and 98 go off perfectly, nobody knows how much work it takes to make that happen! You are all stars.

Reality Tours would not exist without our members and supporters. Sometimes I’ve called you strangers, then associates and later friends, collaborators, teachers and alumni. I’ve shared some of my deepest human connections beside you, and cultivated some of my closest friendships.

Some of you “serial trippers” know I will miss traveling with you! Again, I could write volumes on what I have seen as humans blossom, when we disconnect from the phones, computers and to-do lists and when we truly spend time to talk, share and push our comfort zones to be and to grow. How many times have I lead a group when each person typically required 1-2 feet around them to have their “zone” of comfort, only by the end of a tour to see everyone touching arms and hugging their new friends good-bye? There are so many surprising rewards on a group travel experience.

Suffolk Univeristy group visiting an orphanage in Busia, Uganda

Suffolk Univeristy group visiting an orphanage in Busia, Uganda

For those of you I giggled with trying to find a bathroom to wash my fingers after blue ink was all over my face in Tehran, or scrambled to find  “relief” in the fields of Nagpur, India or tried out bartering in crafts markets in Amman knowing but a few words in Arabic, I thank you. To those I cried with, flooded by the power of the human spirit hiking through the Cu Chi and the Sarajevo tunnels; trying to get through check points from the Occupied Territories in Palestine into Israel; and being permeated by the horrific human costs of war in the War Remembrance Museum in Ho Chi Minh City and in Pyong Yang, the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg… I thank you. To those I just held hands with as we heard the testimonies of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, and walking through the Killing Fields, I thank you. And, for those that I dragged out to teach salsa dancing to over and over, ya tu sabes, gracias.

Kevin and Reede being “Good Sports” as my sons dress up

Words cannot express my deepest appreciation to the Global Exchange founders Kevin Danaher, Kirsten Moller and Medea Benjamin to whom I  have been so blessed to work with. They each are hard working visionaries and phenomenal human beings, yet they are also friends, babysitters and cuddlers, and mentors. How I love and admire each of you!

Global Exchange has been a family to me. To all the members and staff, and especially to those that serve and have served on the Board of Directors, you are brothers and sisters and I thank you for your commitment to make this world a better place. Because of your tenacity and persistence, I know “another world is possible”.  I am who I am because of my years at Global Exchange, and I  look forward to moving forward pa’lante and continuing to using my life in service to humanity and to the planet, because its liberation is bound up with mine!

With Aloha,
Malia Everette

Global Exchange Reality Tours and ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking  of Children for Sexual Purposes) have signed The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism.  The Code of Conduct is a tool that promotes the cooperation of the travel and tourism industry to prevent and combat sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.  The Code of Conduct was designed in 1998 by ECPAT Sweden in cooperation with Scandinavian tour operators and the World Tourism Organization.  Since 2000, the Code has expanded as an ECPAT project, as part of a campaign signed by the European Union, led and supported by the World Tourism Organization.

The Code, which is promoted and supported by UNICEF globally, has been adopted worldwide by over 900 tour operators, hotels, travel agencies and their associations, such as trade unions from 34 European countries, Asia, North America, Central and Latin America.

Global Exchange Reality Tours agrees to take the following actions:
1. Adopt an ethical corporate policy against sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
2. Train all staff about sexual exploitation of children and adolescents and how to prevent it.
3. Introduce a clause in their contracts with suppliers that declare their common rejection of commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
4. Inform tourists by various means they deem appropriate (catalogs, brochures, pamphlets, videos, websites.
5. Provide information to local actors who are key in tourist destinations.
6. Report annually on implementation of the above criteria.

The Code of Conduct was signed by Carol Smolenski, Executive Director of ECPAT USA, and Malia Everette, Director of Reality Tours at Global Exchange.

“Global Exchange’s Reality Tours help to promote social, economic and environmental justice around the world. By signing the Code of Conduct, it is also taking a stand in favor of every child’s right to grow up free from sexual exploitation.  Reality Tours staff will receive new training about what child sexual exploitation is and how to prevent it, and when and where to report it.  We are delighted to have them join us,” said Carol Smolenski Executive Director of ECPAT-USA.

Malia Everette, Director of Reality Tours, stated that “the Code of Conduct is a natural fit for us. We have long been leaders in supporting responsible tourism and as a human rights organization Global Exchange supports global and national, economic and environmental justice. The Code is yet another vital tool for us to ensure responsible interaction with local communities, to educate our participants and partners, and to protect the rights of children and adolescents.  We are happy to partner with ECPAT-USA on this initiative.”

ECPAT USA is the U.S. branch of ECPAT International, a network of organisations and individuals working together to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children. It seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation.

Reality Tours is honored to sign the Code. Clearly doing so is a natural and significant extension of the work we have been doing as a human rights organization, as a socially responsible tour operator, and as a partner with Not For Sale and  other to inspire education, advocacy and abolitionism!