Educational Travel - Global Exchange

Summer is almost here, but it’s not too late to sign-up for the trip of a lifetime! There’s no need to shelve that tour you wanted to take but never got around to planning.

We have three life-changing Reality Tours planned for June and July, and we have space for you.

Learn about the Indigenous rights movement in Chiapas, Mexico. Experience the beautiful highlands and Amazon of Ecuador, while meeting with local communities working for social and environmental justice. Learn about the newest wave of popular struggle in Haiti, as hundreds of thousands of Haitians put their lives on the line to build an inclusive, equitable, just, and sustainable Haiti.

This summer, see the world, meet the people, learn the facts, make a difference!

We hope you’ll join us!

Chiapas: Indigenous Rights & Environmental Justice

July 1 – 9, 2019

Travel to Chiapas to learn about one of the most successful Indigenous rights movements in the Americas – the Zapatista uprising and its ongoing struggle for Indigenous autonomy. From a base in the colonial town of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, we will travel to surrounding communities to speak with indigenous leaders, artists, educators, and students. This delegation will also include a focus on the ways in which Mexico’s criminal justice system disadvantages Indigenous women and the collectives fighting back; on new and intensified environmental assaults; and on U.S. bound migration from Central America through Chiapas.

Ecuador: Social and Environmental Justice from the Andes to the Amazon

July 12 – 20, 2019

Travel to the Ecuadorian highlands and the Amazon basin for a deep-dive into grassroots, Indigenous, and women-led efforts to resist the exploitative toxic practices of extractive industries. You will be introduced to some of the most successful local and international efforts to bring environmental and social justice to the Andes and the Amazon while enjoying Ecuador’s rich biodiversity and cultural traditions.

Haiti’s Popular Uprising: A Call for International Solidarity

June 2 – 11, 2019

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets in mass mobilizations demanding accountability from Haiti’s political class accused of squandering billions of dollars in proceeds from Venezuela’s discounted PetroCaribe oil program. Chanting “we are hungry, we can’t take it anymore,” protesters are demanding that the thoroughly corrupt and fraudulently elected president, Jovenel Moise, resign immediately. Their demands have been met with vicious repression. It is an urgent moment for international solidarity to break the silence around Haiti. Join us on this timely trip where we will meet with a range of local Haitian citizens and organizations stepping up against tremendous adversity to build an inclusive, equitable, just, and sustainable Haiti.

The following post is written by Professor Sarah Sharp who recently participated on a Reality Tour to Iran. While there, she was inspired by the great Persian poet Saadi, wondering, how would Saadi encourage the participants to embrace their travel experiences?

Persian poet Saadi Shirazi.

The 13th century Persian poet Saadi traveled widely, visiting Syria and China, as well as many sites in Europe, and throughout Persia, of course. He liked to give advice and he encouraged “good thoughts, good talks, and good deeds,” according to our Iranian tour guide, Bahman.

One day, we stopped in at a madrasa to see Shi’ite Islamic classes in session, housed in a Safavid era building. Mullahs were speaking outside in the central garden spaces. I hoped to photograph a small group and was quickly waved off by one of the individuals. Iran’s supreme leader supervises all of the country’s system of madrasas through his appointees. To truly understand the theological training that occurs in these seminaries, and even to see further by visiting Qom, Iran’s theological center, a city with hundreds of madrasas for men and women, would take a much longer journey. But we can harness twin efforts from what we do see. For one, we can ask questions about religion and its full-bodied dimensions in Iran’s society. For another, we can imagine that Saadi is walking a bit ahead of us, encouraging to be generous in all meetings and settings.

Visiting Saadi’s tomb. Photo by Shereen Jon Kajouee.

Touring with Saadi would refresh us in every way. While at his tomb earlier this evening, I saw a mother feeding ice cream to her child. I caught her eye, smiled to her, and simply said, “Salaam.” She followed me, offered to have me hold her daughter and then she took our picture. We encountered many groups of young and older families, youths, strolling through this park that surrounded Saadi’s tomb. Not only were the strollers curious about us, but they genuinely wanted to communicate with us. They said, “Hello,”and gave us other greetings. Saadi would have urged us, like the small child, to extend ourselves with a warm hospitality somehow, whether we could speak the same language or not.

We have returned a few times to a gallery to see a wide variety of Persian carpets, collected from several regions across Iran. Not only are they rich in color and design, but many of them have a single motif that repeats across regional specialty. The cypress tree. Visiting Iran’s 4000-year old cypress tree a few days ago gave me a chance to record bird sounds coming from the tree, but also to photograph families doing what we were doing — getting a close look at this natural wonder. I didn’t realize that I wasn’t done with that part of Iran’s past until I saw the cypress tree woven into many of the carpets. What would Saadi make of this connection? Maybe he would encourage us to see the beauty of both past and present.

Saadi’s poetry is a grand gift from Persia’s past, as well as Iran’s present. As a fellow traveler, I can hope, a bit, to walk just bit behind Saadi and appreciate his point of view, “good thoughts, good talks, good deeds.

Thanks Sarah for sharing your experiences with us!

Take Action!

If you are in the Bay area, please join recent Reality Tour participant Marc Sapir for a report back from his travels in Iran. The event is December 8 at 7pm at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita, Berkeley, CA. For questions about the event, please contact Marc at marcsapir@gmail.com.
Learn more about traveling on a Reality Tour to Iran!

As 2012 comes to a close, we at Reality Tours want to thank all of you who have traveled with us, you keep us motivated and inspired! As your friends and family consider travel options for 2013, please share our video that celebrates Reality Tours and our journeys with you.

Here is a look back at some of our favorite blog posts and stories from 2012.

Walter Turner, Global Exchange President of the Board of Directors, explains recent changes in policy regarding legal travel to Cuba and calls for unencumbered travel to Cuba, while Global Exchange co-founder Kevin Danaher reminds us that Cuba needs us to see its reality.

Lea Murray shares about how her trip to Venezuela has left lasting impressions, while Costa Rica program officer Marta Sanchez explains how she first became involved with Global Exchange.

The amazing “serial tripper” Jane Stillwater went on her 6th Reality Tour, this time to Uganda, while Global Exchange’s “What About Peace?” program went to Haiti to spread the message of peace with Haitian schoolchildren.

Burmese Temples

We said Aloha to Malia Everette, our Reality Tours Director for over 15 years, and wish her well in her transition.

We announced Reality Tours’ newest destination, to Burma, in 2013!

Every year is an eventful year for Reality Tours, and 2012 has been no exception.

We wish you all a peaceful New Years, and we’ll see you in 2013!

Take Action

We’re building an unstoppable movement for change. Are you in? Make a donation today.

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.

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

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

Pachamama Women's Group, Ecuador

Today the world reflects for a moment to honor women. We bear homage to women who have made a difference in their communities; women that have struggled and resisted discrimination and injustice; women that have succeeded in the face of immense social, political and economic odds. As Global Exchange’s blog said today, “we celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future” and in the quotes of our everyday heroines we acknowledge the struggle and the love that inspires us to organize, educate and sacrifice for our children, community, nation and planet.

Visiting with Lucy from Generacíon, in Lima, Peru

As a human rights advocate and someone blessed to have travelled the globe, I have seen how women across the world bear a disproportionate burden of the world’s material poverty and are usually the most vulnerable socioeconomically. Indeed despite all the progress the women’s movements have made, we still have a lot of work todo. Just look at the UN Women’s proclamation today and spend a few moments reviewing their decades of data. Clearly, women are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger because of the systematic discrimination they face in decision-making, politics, education, healthcare, employment, and control of assets that often transcends physical borders.

Girl with Nan in Kabul, Afghanistan

All Reality Tours offer an in-depth look at the reality of destination countries through direct observation and engagement of the host society, however we are instructive with our program officers to include women as speakers, and include women’s organizations, into the itineraries. For us, this is about balance and inclusion.

Women Cultivating Tea, Nepal

Have women’s lives improved since the downfall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001? To what extent are women represented in the government in South Africa today? Are women and girls benefiting from the new education, health and job training programs that have been launched in Venezuela? Why are women and girls 80% of those being trafficked around the world today? How are economic reforms in Cuba effecting women? These are some of the questions that are explored on upcoming Reality Tours that examine women’s rights and gender discrimination.

Lastly, let me extend my deep admiration and gratitude to some the phenomenal women around the world that work their magic with us as program officers and advisors: Delia (Argentina), Marsha (Afghanistan), Virginia and Maisa (Brazil), Fan (China), Marta (Costa Rica), Isabel and Michelle (Cuba), Karen (Ireland), Annie (Guatemala), Rae (Haiti), Mala (India), Parvaneh (Iran), Faiza (Iraq & Jordan), Tasha (Jamaica), Noelia (Nicaragua), Hwayoung (North Korea), Lucy (Peru), Myesha (South Africa), Wanjinku (Uganda), and Nhu (Viet Nam). You inspire me!

A4T Science Fair in Kabul Afghanistan. These students (4.5 to 7 yrs. old) sang the Afghan National Anthem to the audience before the Fair’s presentations.

Today’s special blog is the last commemorating a decade of Reality Tours in Afghanistan and features the insights of Marsha MacColl, on behalf of our partner Afghans4Tomorrow (A4T). On behalf of Global Exchange we thank all the tremendous energy and efforts of A4T and look forward to a dynamic future of continued collaboration.

Congratulations to Global Exchange Reality Tours on the 10^th Anniversary of your tours to Afghanistan and on your partnership with Afghans4Tomorrow (A4T). Each delegation has stayed in the A4T Guesthouse since 2004, enjoying the warm hospitality of the staff. The house, located in a quiet secure area of West Kabul, has 5 guest bedrooms upstairs and a lovely garden in the back. Depending on the size of the group, the rooms sleep between 2 and 4 people. The guides who helped plan the tours and activities of these Global Exchange Reality Tours are Najibullah Sediqi and Wahid Omar, who also have volunteered with Afghans4Tomorrow for 10 years and serve on its board. Their tours have included, among other things, interesting in-depth meetings with Afghan women from all sectors of Afghan society, visits to primary schools, hospitals, universities, watching a buzkashi games and attending the International Women’s Day celebration in Kabul.

Najib has also been a wonderful guide for these delegations. The many delegates I’ve talked with over the years highly recommend these tours. They said Najib put them at ease with his warm welcome, his concern for their safety, his quick wit, compelling stories and the Afghan history he shares on the tours. Many have kept in touch with him over the years. Some delegates in fact have been inspired to get involved in helping one of the many Afghan-related NGOs (or start one of their own) after they return from the tour.

Here are some of the 35 third graders reading in their home school class. If you would like to help us raise funds for chairs and school supplies for these students, please make a donation at: http://www.afghans4tomorrow.org/donate

There have been several GXRT alumni who have helped Afghanistan through A4T since their tours. They are: Kim O’Connor (GXRT ’04), who joined A4T when she returned in 2004 and recently served as President for the past 2 and a half years; Adrienne Amundsen (GXRT ’10), who joined A4T in January ’12 after volunteering since ’10; and Asma Eschen (GXRT ’03), an honorary A4T Board member, who co-found the Bare Root Trees Project and has led a group to plant trees in Afghanistan six times since 2005. The Bare Roots group has planted/distributed a total of over 130,000 trees in rural and urban Afghanistan. See Asma’s post on this GXRT Blog in this series.

As an A4T member since 2004, I’ve enjoyed the stories and photos that many GXRT alumni have shared with me over the years. It has been a life-changing experience for many! Our board members have helped the GX program directors over the years with information they’ve needed for their delegates, guesthouse arrangements and helping delegates to meet some of our members and staff. I volunteered to teach English in our A4T school in Kabul for 10 days in 2007 and greatly appreciated Najib’s help with all the arrangements of my work and also a visit during the Nowruz holiday to Istalif village near the Shomali Valley. This reality tours program is great for travelers wanting to learn more about ordinary Afghans, their culture, history and how they’re overcoming many difficult challenges.

The NGO which inspired me to volunteer to help rebuild Afghanistan is Afghans4Tomorrow. A4T is a non-profit, non-political, humanitarian organization founded in 1998 and dedicated to the development of sustainable, community driven projects focused on education, agriculture and healthcare. A4T has an all-volunteer board residing in both the US and in Kabul. We are able perform our work thanks to the generosity of our donors and volunteers from around the world. We hire local Afghans to be the managers of our programs and teachers in our schools. We have established relationships with multiple sponsors, foundations, and non-profit organizations.

In our Shekh Yassin School, Wardak Province, 162 girls are in three Home Schools, from 1st to 6th grade. Here are the 25 first graders reading their books in Pashto.

Afghans4Tomorrow currently operates a school in Kabul and one in Wardak Province. Our school, located in the Chelsetoon area of Kabul, opened in 2004 and has nearly 300 students, 170 girls in kindergarten through 9^th grade and 110 boys in 1st through 7^th grade. This school is one of the best private schools in Kabul. We plan to add 10^th grade this year. The school started in 2005 as a “catch-up” school for older girls who had been deprived of an education during the wars. Now most all those students have caught up and are the normal age for their grade level. Several A4T alumni have graduated from high school and are in a community college or a university.

Our School in Shekh Yassin, which opened in 2005, serves students from three villages in the Chak district of Wardak Province. It has a boys’ school of 568 students, in 1^st to 9^th grades in two shifts per day, and more than 175 girls in three Home Schools, from 1st to 6th grade. We plan to add 7^th grade this year. We are unable to add 10^th grade to the boys’ school until we can build 3 new classrooms.

A4T held its second Science Fair program on Oct. 15, 2011 in which 17 students participated in 9 teams. They did research on their experiments for one month, assisted by their science teacher.

The students presented their research results to 4 qualified judges at the fair. After their evaluation the judges gave prizes to the top 3 winning teams. The project that won 1^st place showed the filtration of dirty water using four kinds of sand and one kind of charcoal. Government officials, private school principals and the media were invited to attend the Science Fair celebration. A4T hopes to see this same program in all government and private schools throughout Afghanistan in the future.

Afghans4Tomorrow’s goal for both schools is to help improve Afghanistan’s very low literacy rate, to provide a superior education and to have a substantial number of our graduates continue to college.

Teacher demonstrates an experiment in copper and iron ions in solution to a 7th grade Chemistry Class at A4T Boys School in Shekh Yassin, Wardak.

Since 2007 A4T has operated the A4T’s Abdullah Omar Health Post in Sheikh Yassin village which provides a doctor, pharmacist and staff offering basic health care, medicines and immunizations. Last year A4T added a midwife to better serve the women coming for pre-natal checkups, deliveries and post-natal and baby checkups and to help reduce the high maternal and infant mortality rates in Afghanistan. Our health post has improved the lives of thousands of people each year.

A4T’s Agriculture Stream is pleased to report the successful training of 120 rural farmers the last two years by helping them to raise poultry and supplying them with equipment for their chicken coops, and healthy birds. The women poultry farmers sell the eggs to help support their family.

Volunteers are needed to help A4T continue there great work. Please visit their website to learn about their projects, affiliates, members, photos, videos, and how you can make a difference.

Join Us on an Upcoming Reality Tour to Afghanistan! Learn more. Visit our website for all you need to know about upcoming transformative journeys.

Yesterday I shared with you some of the background on our Reality Tours trips to Uganda. Today in Part 2 of this two-part series, you’ll read my firsthand account of traveling on a Reality Tours trip to Uganda:

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Follow along on a Reality Tours trip to Uganda

Arriving into Kampala I recall the delightful heat of the air. I had to wait in line to purchase my visa and was behind a group of missionaries from the US who were eager and complaining about the slow speed of our processing. I felt awkward about one of the gentleman’s statements about bringing God to “these people” and decided not to engage in a discussion about salvation and religion at that moment. Instead, I pondered about what I was about to experience, and the stereotypes I brought with me.

After arriving at the airport I was met by one of the hotel staff and was whisked away into the night for a long drive to the hotel. There I met up with some fellow trip participants, a group of free spirited students from Suffolk University. We sat and talked about our first day in Uganda. These young women knew the issues and were really excited and nervous to meet with youth from Sister Rosemary’s Girl’s Tailoring project the next day.

Over the course of the next week and a half we met with many individuals and organizations that are committed to rebuilding their communities and lives. We met with folks who work to rehabilitate and provide psychological support services to children who are former “child soldiers” and “bush brides”.

Here are highlights from some a of the many amazing stories that came out of this inspiring trip to Uganda:

Meeting with “Child Mothers”: Picture a large living room shared by about two dozen North Americans and two dozen Ugandans. We had invited two women from some of the groups working with the child soldiers in Gulu and Lara to travel to Kampala to meet with our group, share their stories and exchange. What a fabulous encounter this was.

First we met with Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe who is the Director of the St. Monica’s Girls Tailoring School located next to a refugee camp in Gulu, Uganda. Her school works with ‘child mothers’ -a term Ugandans use to describe women ages 12 to 18 who were abducted child soldiers.

During our visit, the young women shared personal stories of abduction and rape by their captors, their struggles to survive and their hopes for their future and for those with children, their families’ future.

The next day we were joined by Lina Zedriga (who now runs the Trauma Healing And Reflection Centre-Gulu or THRACE-GULU) and heard similar but unique experiences shared by the youth under her care. Lina is a lawyer and magistrate who has tirelessly advocated for women, peace and security. We all listened silently to story after story told by the courageous young people, each of us connecting to the stories, some of us with tears, some of us with clenched arms, and others feverishly taking notes.

This was quite a moment for many of us, including the children who were able to listen and share with each other their stories of struggle. For many this was their first visit to the capital. As one of Lina’s girls spoke, she had to stop and gather herself to resume her story. Her strength was admirable.

As the exchange ended, we dispersed after hugs and thank you’s, ready to break for a spell before dinner. Some of the youth went off to play soccer. Over dinner our group processed and discussed, but also shared moments of laughter, a choir of voices, all of us mingling, talking, and sharing. I closed my eyes and listened to giggles and heard people talking about music and the best places to dance. Plans were made for groups to go out and enjoy some local night life.

Friendships had been made. I wrote in my journal that night a rhetorical question:

“How can one so young, so innocent, see so much brutality, endure so much pain, inflict pain on others still find the internal reserve to live, laugh, heal and dance?”

I left Uganda imprinted with the faces of the children I met, remembering the image of one of them carrying a 25 kilo sack of sugar on her head into the bush, starting off on her hours-long trek. This travel experience left me with an amplified respect for the tenacity of the human spirit and with a broader understanding about our human capacity to endure, feeling compelled to hear truth, unconditionally love and take a stand.

Join Us on an Upcoming Reality Tours Trip to Uganda! Learn more by joining us in Uganda this year. Visit our website for all you need to know about upcoming trips to Uganda.

Watch this great series! Check out Bridge the Gap’s Uganda Series, a wonderful web-based TV program that highlights some wonderful transformational stories, including linking Uganda and community development to the importance of Fair Trade (through bees!) Here’s a spot on Bridge the Gap about Global Exchange:

2011: Global Exchange: join the network for people’s globalization! from Global Exchange on Vimeo.

Prof. Judy Dushku with Ugandan Children, Suffolk University Delegation to Uganda

This is Part 1 in a 2 part series about Global Exchange Reality Tours trips to Uganda.

History of Global Exchange Reality Tours Trips to Uganda: For decades many of us here at Global Exchange talked about adding more trips to Africa to our list of destinations. Given our commitment to social justice advocacy, citizen diplomacy and socially responsible tourism surely there are dozens of African countries where folks would want to meet the people, learn the facts, make a difference.

It wasn’t until 2008 when we started seriously considering creating our educational human rights journeys to Uganda, just two years after we began working in partnership with the abolitionist organization Not For Sale.

As a human rights organization, we partner with like-minded organizations to educate groups of individuals who travel abroad to learn about the root causes of human trafficking and to inspire and mobilize participants into the international abolitionist movement.

After organizing delegations to many other countries to explore the issues of smuggling and trafficking of human beings for slave labor and sex slavery, we recognized the importance of examining what has been happening for decades in Uganda with the mass abduction of children into armed conflict.

Learning About Uganda:

Visiting the IDP Camps in Gulu, Uganda 2009.

I started reading about “child soldiers” and about the political struggles in Uganda and what led to the birth of the LRA (the Lord’s Resistance Army). Established in 1987 the LRA engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government in what is now one of Africa’s infamous conflicts.

I visited Uganda and got the chance to visit one of the IDP camps (for internally displaced peoples). We drove by one of the old haunting spots of the LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony, and I could not help but feel the immediacy of this place and the astonishment and fear that many must hold in their hearts for their leader.

Reality Tours Trips to Uganda Began:

Eventually we decided to develop a reality tour trip that would examine not only the beauty and biodiversity of Uganda, but also investigate the legacy of conflict and the last remaining active rebel group, the LRA.

The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children, and forcing children to participate in hostilities and incursions. LRA fighters have achieved a sad notoriety by turning on the Acholis people they claimed to represent, hacking off lips, ears and noses, killing thousands and abducting more than 20,000 civilians, mostly children.

The conflict continues to have devastating effects on the Ugandan people, Museveni’s political legitimacy, and countries in the region that have experienced increased strain due to the flow of irredentist populations. The need for people to learn from the stories of communities in Uganda that have been affected themselves compelled us to offer a series of delegations in the summer of 2009 called Human Trafficking in Africa and Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Trafficked Girls and Boys coerced into being Child Soldiers in Uganda.

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That’s it for Part 1 of this 2 part series about our Reality Tours trip to Uganda. Tomorrow in Part 2 on our Reality Tours blog, I’ll share with you some of my memories and pictures of the Reality Tours trip to Uganda that I participated in.

Join Us on an Upcoming Reality Tours Trip to Uganda! Learn more by joining us in Uganda this year. Please also check out Bridge the Gap’s Uganda Series. A wonderful web based tv program that highlights some wonderful transformational stories, including linking Uganda and community development to the importance of Fair Trade. In fact, check out the Global Exchange spot live today!

Boreth Sun's visit to Global Exchange in San Francisco, California

This is the second in a two-part interview by Global Exchange Reality Tours Intern Sue Sullivan with our Cambodia and Thailand program officer, Boreth Sun. Follow along to discover what it means to be an in-country representative of Reality Tours and our partnering organization Not For Sale.
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This past October, Reality Tours’ in-country program officer for Cambodia and Thailand, Boreth Sun traveled to the Bay Area to speak at the 2011 Global Forum on Human Trafficking.

Reality Tours has been honored to work and partner with Boreth since 2007 and we took advantage of his visit to show him the office and take him for a brief tour of San Francisco…after all, a few of us here at Reality Tours have traveled with him throughout his beautiful country. We also had the opportunity to interview him about his experiences working with us and facilitating Reality Tours.

Boreth’s perspective is informative, compelling and inspiring. Learn more about what it means to be an in-country partner and why it is important for the international community to visit and learn first-hand about life in South East Asia in the second in this two part blog.

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Sue: What has your experience been as an In-Country Program Officer in Cambodia?

Boreth: It has been a learning experience for me because I have had a chance to meet with a lot of people from the US and elsewhere through Reality Tours. I take it for granted that everyone should know about these issues; about community issues, human rights issues, human trafficking, poverty, the community struggle for people to improve their livelihood, to manage their own resources, about the big fight against corporations coming to take over their land, I thought people should familiar with all these issues, but Reality Tours, you realize that through people coming in that sometimes, its their first time they are seeing things and looking at things from a different perspective. For me it has also been good to help show people, link people and promote cultural change, a change of mindset to look at things from different perspective. It really is rewarding for me that some of these participants, from the delegation Reality Tours, the Reality Tours have changed their life, it has changed their career, and they’ve become more socially aware and conscious. They even started working to promote social issues; to begin to look at issues far away form their community, far away from their homes. What they’re doing in the US can have big impacts elsewhere in the world. So for me, it’s rewarding to see that. Some of the people who participated on the tour also went back to Asia, went back to Thailand, went back to Cambodia and they are providing some support to local NGOs. Its not that they just went back and offered support, they went back, they learned more and then they give more and they can become sort of an agent of change, promoting, spreading news of what is happening elsewhere in the world that some people sometimes take it for granted.

USF Cambodia Customized Reality Tour 2007

Sue: What are some of the most impactful moments you have witnessed while facilitating GX Reality Tours?

Boreth: Some of the most impactful moments were when the first time I showed people around, some students from the University of San Francisco, they were young, energetic, willing to learn and experience new things, we took them to a dump site where they see lots of people and kids as old as two years old up to teenagers scavenging for whatever in the dump site they could make a few dollars and also make their living. I think at that moment, in the students you could see the mind shift and how people react to these types of issues. Some of the students have come back and start working for Not for Sale Campaign to promote children’s rights, basic rights of people who don’t have access to education and school… I think that’s what gets me going..to see that we can make a difference. A visit like that can make a difference. A visit like that can help people change because nothing is more powerful than going to experience things, see things and then doing things afterwards. Its not just organizing a trip for people to learn, to see to experience, but to actually transition people into taking some action and doing what they believe is right. I think that’s what gets me going and why I’ve been doing work with Global Exchange since 2007 and I’m still doing it now.

Sue: What are the most compelling issues that Global Exchange members and travelers should learn about?

Devotion at Ankor Wat, Reality Tours Delegation August 2010

Boreth: You see, a lot of people in the US, they know about Cambodia mostly for the killing fields. They know about the Vietnam War, they know about the genocide in Cambodia, the killing fields in Cambodia and Angkor Wat, one of the oldest temples in Cambodia. But there’s more to it than that. The most compelling issue in Cambodia is mostly looking at poverty. After many years of war, poverty is the biggest issue. People are desperate, the majority of people are still poor, and that’s why they’re vulnerable to be trafficked; to be bought, sold and traded into different entertainment industries of the world. So those are the most compelling issues. But we should not focus on the symptom or the survival of the issue, we need to address the grassroots of the issue, which is poverty and food securities. Right now because of climate change, you look at Southeast Asia, you know Thailand and Cambodia; Cambodia is underwater now. People are going to loose their crop, their pig, their chicken, their duck, everything, their livestock. So the people are being affected by the climate change, by this flood and this pushes them further and further into poverty. So people become so desperate, they will do anything to survive. I think another big issue in Cambodia is environmental degradation. A lot of corporation companies from around the world, mostly Chinese are going there to destroy a lot of Cambodian resources. Deforestation is big, land concession is big, they take away people’s land and give the right to the corporation to grow different crops soybeans muang beans as part of the corporations trying to make big money. Also minerals, they extract minerals from the ground and again they are destroying the resources. In the future, in Cambodia, I think the biggest compelling issue, the biggest challenging issue will be environmental degradation because it impacts food security and people’s livelihoods, and destroys the social fabric, the social structure of community villages throughout the country. That’s going to be the biggest challenge. You can see that’s what’s happening now. The flooding is just the beginning of what’s to come I think.

Sue: Is there anything else that you’d like to share about your experiences as a Global Exchange in-country program officer?

The Power of Recycling and Reclaiming- A visit to a dump and meeting with SCARO, a Cambodian NGO working with garbage collectors.

Boreth: What I just want to say is that I think what Reality Tours and Global Exchange are doing in Cambodia and Thailand is great. I think we become a bridge between the West and the East and Asia. I think we build a bridge for change. We exchange information, we exchange experiences, we exchange skills, the know how, the technologies. We are connecting the world and I think this is great work that Global Exchange is doing. And linking with the institutions such as NFS and the socially responsible NGOs and enterprises. We are helping build the bridges. In doing this, we become some sort of agent of humanities and change. When we do this, we can build the world to be a better and more peaceful place for everybody, not just the rich and powerful.

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Past Cambodia Reality Tour trip participant Photo by: Tammy Gustafson

Special thanks to Sue Sullivan, Reality Tours’ intern for conducting this interview with Boreth.

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Find out about how you can travel to Cambodia and Thailand on a Global Exchange Reality Tour.

Ron Herman's image from Havana

A few weeks ago I received an email from Ron Herman, a dynamic and gifted photographer and chair of Foothill College’s photography department sharing with me a cover story in the Palo Alto Weekly about his customized Reality Tour to Cuba.

The article called “A Changing Cuba: Cuban, Local Photographers Reveal the Heart of the Country” featured the story of Ron and those that traveled with him. In it was a detailed narrative with beautiful imagery about the customized Reality Tour Ron made happen, a rich testament to dreams becoming reality, specifically Ron Herman’s photographic educational travel dream becoming a Reality Tour!

After reading the article, I asked Ron if I could share it and include a few of his words about why he created the customized Reality Tour and why he choose to partner with Global Exchange. Here is what he had to say:

Like many, the mystique of Cuba has always intrigued me. Right now, Cuba is at a transitional point, and I believe that the Cuba today will look and be very different from the Cuba tomorrow. I decided that the timing was right to make this trip a reality, and so I contacted Global Exchange to arrange a customized tour for my group of photography professionals.

Ron Herman's image from Havana

Global Exchange’s Reality Tours emphasize education and relationship building to improve international relations. Cultural exchange is very important to my personal travel philosophy, so I knew Global Exchange would be the right organization to arrange our trip. When developing our tour, they made sure that every day was one where we learned something new and unexpected about Cuba. They incorporated a variety of activities where both cultures could learn from each other, which in the end, resulted in a socially responsible and personally rewarding travel experience.

In 2010 and 2011, I led groups of photographers to Cuba to engage in activities that brought photographers from both countries together to share ideas and information. We mounted an exhibition of our work in Cuba and upon our return, mounted two joint photography exhibitions of Cuban and American work. These exhibition opportunities are just one link in the chain that connects American and Cuban photographers, and I hope we’ll see more creative collaborations in the future.

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Photo Credit: http://cubainfocus.wordpress.com/

On behalf of Reality Tours we thank Ron for working with us and look forward to building upon the relationships we have been developing between his community and those in Cuba. The relationships as captured by these Cuban and American artists are revealed in their images as is a shared spirit of education.

TAKE ACTION! For those of you in the Bay Area check out “Cuba in Focus,” an exhibition by 11 American photographers (Katherine Bazak, Mary Bender, Harlan Crowder, Lisa D’Alessandro, Ron Her- man, Bob Hills, Mary Ellen Kaschub, Robin Lockner, Laura Oliphant, Cynthia Sun and John Thacker) and seven Cuban photographers (Guillermo Bello, Raúl Cañibano, Mario Diaz, José Manuel Fors, Eduardo Garcia, Jorge Gavilondo and Perfecto Romero) at the Krause Center for Innovation, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. The exhibition runs through Dec. 8.

As Eduardo Garcia, one of the Cuban photographers who met with the group and has work in the exhibition, “We photographed together with common goals. Now our American friends can show our reality from their perspective. For us, it’s important to gain the friendship of people who care about Cuba.”

Go to Cuba! Find out how you can travel to Cuba with Global Exchange Reality Tours.

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