Youth in GeoTourism

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Youth in GeoTourism

Morocco
Budget: 
< $1,000
Website:
http://www.youniteam.com
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

We want to create the possibility for young people to travel, make impact to society, discover new cultures and at the same time promote GeoTourism conception. Upon return to native country young changemakers will make presentations to show beauty and problems of the region to increase awareness and bring change.

About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

The shores in Morocco are very beautiful and attract tourists from all over the world to get rest and admire the beauty of the ocean. At the same time, what can be seen in Rabat region, there are the rides on horses and camels organized on the shores and nobody clean the shores after. Tourists and native population do not pay much attention to preserving the shores and water and throw cigarettes and other garbage straight on the shores. The main city beaches are usually cleaned, but the shores on the suburbs of the city can stay long time without cleaning. But even city beach can make not at all nice impression on somebody who wants to see the sunset at the end of the day. The government do not pay too much attention as well as there is no or not enough trash boxes on the shores.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

We want to propose self-sustainable conception for young people to make their own impact for preservation of coastal destinations during their summer holidays. Young people can make their important contribution still being the students. They will use unique approach using games and competitions on the beach to activate community for coastal cleaning and preservation. We plan to create innovative web site where travellers-changemakers will put their photos and videos not only of cultural heritage of the place of their visit, but of existing problems and changes they succeeded to make during their travel. This site will show to international public the beauty of the place, how this beauty can be damaged by irresponsible tourists and how everyone can preserve this beauty respecting the conception of GeoTourism. The participants of the project will have possibility to integrate with the culture and native population, feel themselves as native citizens and “see the existing situation with their eyes”.
About You
Organization:
YOUNITEAM Union in the sphere of social entrepreneurship
Visit website
Section 1: About You
First Name

Natalia

Last Name

Najmi

Website

http://www.youniteam.com

Organization

YOUNITEAM Union in the sphere of social entrepreneurship

Country

, RSA

Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name

YOUNITEAM Union in the sphere of social entrepreneurship

Organization Phone
Organization Address
Organization Country
Your idea
Country your work focuses on

, RSA

Website URL

http://www.youniteam.com/travel.html

Would you like to participate in the MIF Opportunity 2010?

Innovation
Do you have a patent for this idea?

Impact
What impact have you had on your clients and the tourism sector?

We want to bring up the community of socially responsible entrepreneurs who are leading their activities and important social projects worldwide and also who are able to travel all over the world even being young. We divide special attention to tourism and travel sector in our Union as we believe that every person being socially responsible himself can bring and inspire by this the other people and communities while travelling. We are developing several projects with unique conceptions currently that aim to give the opportunity to young people to explore new countries, cultures and languages and with aim to bring positive change. We will implement GeoTourism conception to all our travel projects to value and enhance environment, heritage and culture of native population. We plan also initiate travel projects that develop and bring knowledge to local communities.

Actions

There will be the following steps in the project: 1. We will announce the start of the project and make eConferences on the GeoTourism conception. 2. We will select participants from different countries to participate in Youth in GeoTourism 2011 in Morocco. 3. We will agree with hotels to host changemakers. 4. Realization of project: Participants will make entertaining and at the same time educating activities for the tourists in the hotel and in nearby shores. 5. Together we will attract media and the public attention to existing problems and possibility to solve them on the level of personal responsibility. 6. Participants will upload photos and videos to the site of the project to show the change to international public and inspire new changemakers to take part in the next editions of the project.

Results

We expect the following results: 1. Popularization of GeoTourism among large number of people worldwide (we will track the number of people on every eConference). 2. Establish nice relationships between country members and their collaboration – several people from different countries benefit for the positive change in Morocco. 3. Involving companies (partners) and hotels to support GeoTourism. 4. Receiving positive feedback from all parties upon project realization: participants, hosting hotels, partner companies and organizations. 5. Having several interview and broadcasts of the project in media. 6. Obtaining long-term impact after realization – by promoting the project site showing real changes possible for everyone to make to international public.

What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.

Second year of project realization: Realizing the project in different coastal cities in Morocco – interested participants will themselves contact planned hosting hotels, present the conception of GeoTourism and agree on their participation / after our guidance + catching attention of lots of people all over the world to GeoTourism by project web site, conferences, etc. Third year of project realization – Going Global: creating community of people who support the conception of project worldwide and creating initiative groups to realize the project in different countries of the world.

What would prevent your project from being a success?

Unexpected geo or political conditions in the region that belong to the category of force-major such as natural cataclysms, war or weapon conflicts, terrorist attack, etc. We also need certain support such as coaching, help with development better detailed conception, promotion, etc as we do not have enough experience in this sphere and Youth in GeoTourism project was inspired by the current challenge when we first get in touch with the topic , realized its importance and become passionate to make a change. As our main change force are people themselves there is the risk not to have enough supporters, but we hope to prevent it with our work and enthusiasm.

How many people will your project serve annually?

1001‐10,000

What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?

$100 ‐ 1000

Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy or introduce models and tools that benefit the tourism sector in general?

Yes

Sustainability
What stage is your project in?

Idea phase

In what country?

, RSA

Is your initiative connected to an established organization?

Yes

If yes, provide organization name.

YOUNITEAM Union in the sphere of social entrepreneurship

How long has this organization been operating?

1‐5 years

Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?

Yes

Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?

Yes

Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?

Yes

Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?

Yes

Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.

We believe that we can realize the project even using our own efforts only. Still the help of travel companies will make possible visas consultation and assistance, booking the flights for participants, etc; governmental support will make it possible more likely to involve media attention to the project; partner NGOs can help with popularization of the project and volunteer people involvement when needed.

What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?

1. Get in touch with communities of change agents where the people support important initiatives and struggle for positive changes. 2. Community activation by proposing challenging and sustainable occupations in the sphere of passion of each concrete individual and community as a whole. 3. Showing the results on the sites of the projects to international public and transmitting the information with concrete examples of changes made by individuals and groups; bringing this understanding from person to person like an Olympic flame to increase the number and impact of socially responsible people in the world.

The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?

Youth in GeoTourism project was inspired by the current challenge – GeoTourism Challenge 2011: Places on the Edge :) We were thinking of creating important social projects in the touristic sphere and this challenge inspired us for creating such a project, brought the understanding of importance of GeoTourism and gave us a push to look for more information in this sphere and to brainstorm ideas to make the changes possible in the nearest future.

Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.

Me, Natalia Ukho, I was working as volunteer in the international students’ organization AIESEC for 4 years in People Development department and also as Event coordinator. I was developing local committees in Ukraine, Belgium and Morocco. During this period I took part in trainings from multinational companies on leadership, entrepreneurship, etc as well as acquired understanding of existing world problems and great motivation to become a change agent. I was one of the organizers of event for more than 50 children in small town in Ukraine to inspire them for personal achievements as well organized other social, teambuilding and leadership events and conferences for young people. I received the certificate of international facilitator after training course in Belgium in 2005 as well as different other honors and certificates for personal and professional achievements. As a vice-president of international charitable fund “Commonwealth of Nations” organized 3days festival for 220 talented children in 2009. Since November 2008 working in the sphere of social entrepreneurship and developing ideas and conception of own project for initiative community YOUNITEAM Union in the sphere of social entrepreneurship.

How did you first hear about Changemakers?

Web Search (e.g., Google or Yahoo)

If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company

50 words or fewer