Outskirt Outreach - Take the path less ordinary
Street Address
No. 9 Persiaran Ind Bercham 9
City
Ipoh
State/Province
Perak
Postal/Zip Code
31400
Country
Malaysia
Year innovation began
2003
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of benefit to the people of the desitination
Place your video embed code here from YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing websites. How to embed a video from YouTube.
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Community Organization
Geographic location
Rainforest.
Main insight addressed
Education through hands-on experience
Name Your Project
Outskirt Outreach - Take the path less ordinary
Describe Your Idea
What is the goal of your innovation?
To raise fund and bring economical spread to jungle fringed communities.
How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
In 2005 May, Glasgow and Leeds University’s researchers found Malaysian aborigines, collectively known as Orang Asli, have mitocondria DNA that matched a 65,000 year old African sample. This finding was reported by American Journal of Human Biology 18:654-667 (2006) and suggested that they are the closest descendants of prehistoric group that first walked out of Africa. Being isolated for thousands of years in the rainforest has kept Orang Asli genes pure. Certainly, as science continues to unravel more mysteries, Orang Asli who today number no more than umpteen thousands are an isolated community directly descended from the first Adams and Eves. Sadly, Orang Asli represents the poorest segment of our society. To help improve income and maintain way of life, we partner Orang Asli communities to offer non-intrusive learning and sightseeing activities. Visiting groups are no bigger than 8 pax to ensure locals’ privacy is maintained and “hospitality fatigue” is kept to minimum. We do not make locals dance or put up a show to coo visitors. We want all to be themselves.
Describe your approach in detail. How is it innovative?
I wouldn’t call what we do innovative but it’s a unique way to bridge hidden communities with urbanites – safely, with a local English speaking contact. I hope it would help inspire other people around the globe see that one need not be rich, well-connected or tied to any organization to help the poor or needy. Everyone can be a self-starter and contribute to humanity in their own small ways. I guess what make our excursions memorable are because they are scripted according to my personal taste. I only purvey trips to places I find intriguing and as a well-traveled writer, my likings are whimsical. I like nature, unblemished vistas and most of all, unpretentious hosts. I enjoy eating what locals eat and bath the same river where locals bath. To me, it’s the emotional value of a place that I am looking for.
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
Reeling in visitors is always difficult – and very expensive. Also, no one wants to be associated with an unheard of smallholder. A responsible tourism e-portal in UK wanted RM3000 before listing our offerings to the world. We rather spend that kind of money buying 375 sacks of 5kg rice; enough to feed more than 100 families for a month! We don’t need professional help but linking with an aid organization that provides marketing would make our day. This kind of partnership will help Outskirt Outreach (hereon known as OO), and every geotourism smallholders around the world offer honest trips that bring economical spread to far flung communities.
In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
I hope to spur more people to start their own outreach program with the personal talents that they have.
Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts? 200 words or less
As this is a personal quest and non-commercial, honestly, there is no measurable on how we make impact or enhance geotourism. Things are too fuzzy in the outskirt. A person’s meat could be another’s poison. For example, we used to donate canned food to poor families but we found out smallholder grocery stores had their sales turnover of canned food curtailed because of our act. Also, we do not possess the fund to help everyone in the village and so we occasionally ruffle some feathers unknowingly, no matter how good our intentions are. Striking a balance is hard, measuring success even harder. Helping people make quantum leap from Stone Age to the 21st century is anything but easy. We take things as it comes along and also learn from our mistakes. When villagers are glad to see us again and greet us warmly, we take it as mission accomplished.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
For satisfaction and continuous improvement we always email guests the followings and ask for feedbacks; “To assist us drive for continuous improvement and service quality, we would appreciate your feedbacks - and brickbats - on how to make our programs better. 1) What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday? 2) Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment? 3) Are the accommodation, food and transport provided adequate?
4) Did you, at anytime, feel danger or lack of safety at certain places during the field trip?”
Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area’s cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
Niche visitors who choose to travel with us are usually eco-savvy and have high standard of environment awareness. Local natives, being poorly educated, are still far behind and it takes frequent visits by outsiders to make them realize that cleanliness, hospitality and conservation are important criteria for deciding whether their village is being singled out as holiday destination or not. Feedbacks from visitors are always discussed with the village headmen.
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
We have various learning and outdoor programs that involve partnering Orang Asli aborigines and offering what they are good at, for example, jungle food cooking, medicinal plant learning, blow pipe skill, jungle survival and wildlife spotting. Nowadays, some Orang Asli families have developed enough confidence to host homestays and that adds income to the community. However, they are not fully independent and still need our English-speaking escorts to help in communication.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
OO has never been financially sustainable since day one. Until today, we do not have enough visitors to churn volume needed to sustain, much less grow. Of course the potential is great. Our pictorial blog gets 200+ hits on daily basis and we regularly deal with 10-20 inquiries weekly. Usually, 70% of inquiries fizzle out as most couldn’t see themselves roughing it out. For some, sleeping on bamboo floorings can hardly be called a holiday. But we believe people looking for authentic rainforest holiday experience will grow exponentially in the next few decades.
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
OO is non-commercial and hence it is “not bankable” in banking industry term. We have been using personal savings to buy essentials such as 4x4 vehicles, outdoor gears and setting up the office. OO’s monthly earning goes to pay bills, 5 full time staffs and our Orang Asli partners first. Good and robust 4x4 vehicles are essential as our trips involve going off-road into very remote regions. Nonetheless, we always manage to raise and save enough to buy rice, food ingredients, clothings and stationery to make donations to aborigine communities on quarterly basis.
What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
Frankly, I never had an expansion plan because I believe that being small is good as it gives OO the flexibility and personal attention needed. But I hope someday OO could inspire people in far flung places around the globe to start their own aborigine aid initiative in their home country. Aborigines being sidelined by modernization aren’t exclusive to Malaysia. I’m sure many countries are facing the same predicament. Sad but true, democracy feeds on majority vote. In most part of the world, aborigines are minority and conveniently forgotten.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
Aborigines and rural community’s inability to speak English is the main hindrance. Without fluency in English, they have to depend on OO to bring in visitors and act as the in-between. This isn’t ideal. That said, I hope to help them see the importance of education and mastering English by frequently engaging them with English-speaking foreigners. But it’s difficult to talk about doing well in school when one has to grapple with poverty. I’ve seen children walk 2 hours on bare feet to get to school daily. I’m not going to judge them for the frequent school absenteeism. Kids have a tough life in the outskirts tending siblings and helping with home chores.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
I am Casey Ng, 40, married and have two kids. I am a trained engineer who left the comfort of 9 to 5 job to pursue my passion for the outdoors. A travel correspondent for New Straits Times (Malaysia’s oldest English daily) I specialize in jungle and countryside anecdotes. My articles are also collected and archived by e-resources such as US based Highbeam.com and LexisNexis.com for reference by the news, legal and academic fraternity. I believe that every child should be taught about roots but given wings to fly.
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
I discovered living away from big cities have left me with a lot of time for thinking and catching up with the things I love, especially nature. However, in my travels into far flung places, I also saw the hidden side of Malaysia. Orang Asli aborigines, who were too diffident to reap the country’s growing prosperity, still lived in poverty and were pushed further back into the jungles when township grew. Being the indigenous inhabitants of Malaysia, they are the soul of the country. I wanted to do something; I think it comes with age. In 2000, I had an idea. After years of combing the countryside, I reckoned that hidden but interesting spots I know must worth something. I can’t sing, I don’t know enough rich people to spur charity functions but I know my knowledge of the countryside is unmatched. I didn’t want people to go ohh and ahh over touristy accolades. First and foremost, I wanted people to learn. Finally, over a weekend, I mustered enough courage and organized an outdoor experiential program for a fee. Fund raised from the jaunt wasn’t much but in a way, it showed me I have discovered a mean of bringing economical spread to rural community. Over the years, I refined the outdoor learning trails and carve more packages. I trained and partnered aborigines, villagers and anyone I saw fit to benefit from what we do. Left alone, they’ll never learn about hospitality, hygiene and what makes visitors tick. I also realized that there was a need to get organized to ensure a steady flow of participants. Travelers want a brand, cliché, a website where they can check you out and past references. Last year, we started a blog - http://malaysiaupclose.wordpress.com/outskirt-outreach/ - and made our insider account of Malaysia available to online community. Well, eventually, we became what we are today. However, I want OO to remain small, close-knitted and low-profiled. This was how we started and this is why rural communities trust us - it should stay that way.
Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on the competition homepage.
IT’S HARD to turn a blind eye to the poverty. We can never get use to that part of traveling. So, here it is: Our little contribution to backwaters community by purveying non-intrusive romps for those who wish to learn and play a part in bringing valued income to locals and village’s communal fund. We pride ourselves with off-the-beaten-path journeys. These are mostly far-flung locations you won’t find them in touristy maps or guide books, where villagers and forest tribe’s shyness and inability to converse in mainstream languages have made them trail far behind in reeling in visitors. To overcome these, we have carefully carved trails that are activity-packed and fully escorted by local English-speaking experts and jungle savvy aborigine guides to ensure everyone enjoys a safe and informative jaunt.
There is no activity associated with this entry
Take action: |
||
|
share this entry |
add to favorites |
|
|
discuss |
||
Quick Translate:
This Entry is about:
Links:
- 188 reads