Abundance Journeys
Yangon, Myanmar
Organization type:
hybrid
Start-Up
Budget:
$10,000 - $50,000
- Intercultural relations
- Education
- Youth leadership
- Philanthropy
- Sustainability
- Wellness
- Travel and tourism
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
TAP led a 5 day trip through Myanmar in November 2012 for an individual who was interested in becoming more involved with international philanthropy. The results of this short exchange were striking. First, the guest remarked that the trip was the most personally and spiritually uplifting travel experience of his life, and wants to get deeply involved in social change work in Myanmar as a result.
The TAP guide and the guest visited ten local organizations, four of whom sent staff to help guide and who each received donations of $60, $500, $150 and $150 for 1/2 - 1 day of work. Of the four local partners, one is a member of a taxi collective made up of former political prisoners. Another is the director a local youth organization working on food justice and sustainability; the donation helped him travel abroad for the first time to pursue an internship in sustainable agriculture.
The third beneficiary is a local YMCA which oversees an umbrella group of over 50 CBOs but is badly in need of general operating funds. The fourth is a rural monastic school and orphanage which cares for 300 children and relies on small individual donations to operate.
The guest was compelled especially by the work of one local organization and is currently working with the board of directors of a U.S. based group with a similar mission to build a long term sponsorship relationship. Finally $2500 was donated to TAP, with the guest proposing various other collaborations and visions for funding our work in the future.
Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?
There are various organizations and companies working to offer socially conscious tourism. Thus far, these groups are not active in Myanmar and do not have an on-the-ground presence like TAP, which is quite well known for giving capacity building support to local youth organizations. So we would not anticipate any competition in terms of raising our local partners' interest in this project as it grows.
TAP's main need for Abundance Journeys to grow is to establish a small but active, word of mouth network of travelers who would like to experience the services we are offering. We do have a plan to scale up and market our services publicly by 2015, but for the next 2 years we hope to run 5-10 short trips per year, with no more than 8 guests per trip.
Comments
Hello fellow innovators! We are growing our organization's business, a travel company that merges high-end tours in Asia with philanthropic, community-based tourism.
We would love to connect with entrepreneurs, investors and community organizations working in sectors such as sustainability and sustainable development, travel-related social enterprise, and capacity building initiatives with local grass roots partners.