Adventures In Philanthropic Luxury: Travel Has Never Felt So Good

LISTEN HERE
READ HERE

Philanthropic Travel the Ultimate Luxury

PersonalLifeMedia.com interviews David Chamberlain from ExquisiteSafaris.com about combining luxury travel to exotic destinations with philanthropic adventures. Listen as David describes how he guides private groups to some of the most beautiful and interesting places on the globe, integrating enjoyment, education, and enlightenment. Discover how you can turn your travel experience into a face to face, heart to heart experience of connection and contribution you will never forget. Plus, get a sense for the mission and vision that motivates this fascinating and charming man.

Adventures In Philanthropic Luxury: Travel Has Never Felt So Good with David Chamberlain

Announcer: This program is brought to you by personallifemedia.com

Mark: Welcome to Money, Mission, and Meaning : Passion at Work, Purpose at Play. We will explore how we can integrate our personal values and professional skills to create pleasure and profit in the business of life. I'm your host, Mark Michael Lewis, CEO of Smart Energy Enterprises, Inc. (SEEINC), a beautiful future now.

Today's show explores the power of travel to open our minds and hearts to the majesty of our planet and the human communities that inhabit it. Our guest is David Chamberlain from exquisitesafaris.com: a philanthropic travel company that creates custom-designed luxury vacations for individuals, families, and angel investors for some of the most beautiful and interesting places on earth.

Each Exquisite Safaris adventure includes a morning and afternoon visit to a humanitarian outreach project somewhere along the course of the journey. That visit guides travelers out of their luxury 'bubble' for an authentic opportunity to experience the unique challenges that the people in the destination face. Exquisite Safaris' mission is to deliver a luxury vacation full of intimate family fun. It's not a tour group. It's a specific group which he designs to educate, inspire, and empower travelers towards meaningful, philanthropic engagement.

By connecting travelers with enterprising local community projects, Exquisite Safaris has inspired generous contributions that are making a real difference in the communities, including establishing schools, medical centers, or even just clean water.

Get ready to be inspired as we learn how David combines money, mission, and meaning in his life and his work. First, a couple of highlights from the show.

'...We got about half-an-hour down the road and then stopped in the middle of the jungle and at a market. It didn't look like a market to me. But everybody came out to visit us and no one had clothes on. We got out of the car. My grandmother was a little nervous. Then all of a sudden, a soccer ball came flying through the air, and the next thing I knew I was playing soccer with the kids. And my grandmother was sort of trying to speak to the women and my grandfather was smoking his cigar. Everybody was happy.

In places where folks are averaging two dollars a day in income, a hundred dollars, a thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars can build a complete high school.

All kinds of thoughts go through your head: your guilty, you feel badly, you can't believe that there's no running water, and the people are hungry. And then all of a sudden as you meet the people who live there and you see them, they're friendly and smiling, they're happy to have you as a visitor, and want to learn about you. And [they] want to engage you and discuss everything that you could possibly imagine with you. You meet their families and their children and your children kick the soccer ball with their children. Something very special occurs and I'm challenged to really describe it in words.'

Mark: So David, thanks for coming on the show.

David: Thanks for having me.

Mark: I think it's gonna be a great show today. There's a lot I want our listeners to hear about. I'd just think with you a bit, looking over your web site at exquisitesafaris.com, which by the way is a beautiful site, it occurred to me that each family adventure you lead is designed to create at least 3 experiences.

First, enjoyment. You provide people with fun. Exploration is beautiful in the fascinating planet we live on.

Second, education where people can authentically immersed themselves in other cultures, their traditions, their cuisines, their festivals, and often their pristine wilderness; it is Exquisite Safaris after all. And people get to connect on a heart to heart basis with this world we all share.

And third, and perhaps most interesting and unique to your company, are the enlightening educational experiences where travelers are introduced to local community leaders and grassroots humanitarian outreach projects that are working hard to serve in the difficult circumstances of the places you're visiting. This philanthropic travel experience introduces a cause of philanthropy that parents and their children in a real-world format that can be life-changing. Children and adults realize greater insights into themselves, discover deeper values and understand how they have the ability to participate in making the world a better place for us all.

Exquisite Safaris provides a way for inspired travelers to stay connected to the communities they visit through selfless giving, supporting sustainable initiatives like education, medical care, clean water. It's a sort of all about having fun and making friends while visiting places most of us want to check out and experience at some time during our life on this, I'd say, wild and wonderful planet.

So it's enjoyment, education, and enlightenment. So you obviously put a lot of thought and experience into this David. How did you come to realize that this is what you wanted to do? Did it grow gradually, was there an experience, or even series of experiences and you put all these pieces together in the way you have.

David: Well, as a 7-year-old boy, I had the good fortune of having my grandparents take me on some of their travels. We were in a Port-au-Prince, Haiti when my grandfather decided that he wanted to rent a taxicab and take a ride out into the jungle with my grandmother. We got about half-an-hour down the road and stopped in the middle of the jungle and at a market. It didn't look like a market to me. But everybody came out to visit us and no one had clothes on. We got out of the car. My grandmother was a little nervous. Then all of a sudden, a soccer ball came flying through the air, and the next thing I knew I was playing soccer with the kids. And my grandmother was sort of trying to speak to the women and my grandfather was smoking his cigar. Everybody was happy. So that I think was a real moment in my life that I didn't realize until thirty years later, it shaped the way that I see the world.

Mark: Right. So you have these experiences in a shell. I'm curious. Did it just - I am imagining that you get the sense that people are people wherever they are in that moment.

David: in that moment, children don't have fears and I certainly didn't, although my grandmother reports that she was a bit nervous. My grandfather thought it was a great idea. And it all worked out wonderfully in the end. And it certainly has remained a poignant memory for me.

Mark: And you say that was 30 years ago. How was it that you ended up getting back into the travel business in terms of creating these experiences for others?

David: Well, I spent some time working as a consultant to a luxury tour operator based in Zurich, Switzerland and repeatedly traveling throughout Africa. We're struck with how friendly the people are in the remotest places, regardless of what country you are, going into Africa. And wondering how on earth I could empower them through the travel business. At that point there wasn't a philanthropic component or interest in that particular company that I was working before. So I determined that ultimately I would like to create a philanthropic travel experience and really create a company around that.

Mark: I think it's great. You could say that you create exotic, luxury travel adventures. What's the difference between, let's say, philanthropic travel and more voluntourism.

David: That's an excellent question. Voluntourism is a fantastic experience whereby you set the intention to go and participate. In Habitat for Humanity, for example, many people are familiar with taking a week or two and building a house. And so that's a voluntourism model which requires a lot of certain preference, a lot of hard work, and has made wonderful progress in many places in the world for many people; both the travelers as well as the communities that they engage in.

Philanthropic travel, on the other hand, is really an opportunity for those who aren't inclined to be a carpenter or spend a week or two building something or really working hard. Philanthropic travel gives folks who wouldn't otherwise venture into the local communities an opportunity to stick their big toe in the water and be the guest, really VIP guest, of humanitarian outreach projects that are making a big difference in the lives in the lives of those communities. So in just a morning or an afternoon in the very minimum, I hope to engage a lot of people who don't have the preference for voluntourism in participating in these communities.

Mark: So, it sound like in the voluntourism side of the industry, it's for people who are really hard core and what you do is provide an opportunity for people who are really looking for essentially a luxury travel experience, whether going out and experiencing fantastic parts of human culture in the planet but also giving them the opportunity to participate in the philanthropic humanitarian endeavor where they can experience that face to face without having a two-week commitment.

David: Yes, absolutely. It's just personal preference; let you and your family or your spouse or your partner care to do. There are two different experiences that really shouldn't be lumped into the same category, although they are both philanthropic and both have wonderful merit.

Mark: Right. It seems like philanthropic travel would have a wider range, a bigger market so to speak, of people who are really interested in that. I think as human beings, we're all interested in really making a difference in the world and discovering what we can do but don't necessarily want to make it, the folks, our vacation.

When you do this. You go Africa, Asia, south America? Where are some of your favorite places to take people and where you can make a difference and have this kind of philanthropic travel experiences?

David: Well, my favorite places are in South America: Ecuador, incredible country from the Galapagos, 600 miles off the Pacific coasts, to the cloud forests halfway up the slopes of the Andes, over the other side into the eastern part of Ecuador which is the Amazon basin. So, you can do it all in Ecuador, a wonderful place. In Africa, my preference is southern Africa, that being the countries of Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia. Botswana, for instance, has an enacted a low-volume tourist policy. You could go to places there to places that the Discovery Channel and National Geographic go to film their programs and be one of 16 people in an area the size of Rhode Island and sharing it with 85,000 wild elephants and no fences.

In Asia, my favorite place is really the country of Burma also known as Myanmar. Unfortunately, the country has a terrible dictatorship and a very brutal human rights record; they have Aung Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace price winning leader under house arrest. The place is very safe. The people are very lovely and it's a place that needs philanthropic travel very badly.

We've worked near the plains of Bagan within organizations to put in clean water wells so that the women there don't have to carry water 5 miles just to do the dishes and we're endeavoring to do other community projects so that the people in that place can thrive regardless of what sort of government is in place.

Mark: So that location is actually safe but typically not visited by many people because of the government. So you can take people to specific places and give them experiences they wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

David: Yes, absolutely. The irony of having a dictatorship in place is that it's very safe for people to visit and we're working with folks in Burma that aren't affiliated with the government. We're not sending money through the banking system to Burma. We're getting those payments to the folks we worked with the other places so that it doesn't end up in the government's pocket. But it's still very important to support Burma. The people who cook your food and act as your tour guide all have families and they're doing what they can to survive, and we want to continue to support them in hopes that one day democracy and freedom will come forth in that country.

Mark: Right. And so one of the things that really interested me out what you're up to, what your company does, and what your personal vision is that you're taking something normally considered almost a consumptive act where you're going on travels, you're doing luxury travels, you're going to exotic locations and seeing things. And so it's somewhat an elitist choice to be able to make to go on these kinds of adventures. But then you combine that with seeing parts of the world that people might not be able to see otherwise in a way that actually makes a difference.

Now these are not tours that you go on. You don't fan the thing out and then bring 50 people from the different parts of the world to take them through it. You actually custom-design this for the family or for the couple or for the group of people who have come to you. How is it that you determine where people are going to go and how that works? How do you customize that experience?

David: Well, typically people know that they want to visit a particular region and in conversation with them, based on my personal experience of traveling through those regions, I make recommendations based on what level of activity they're comfortable with, whose coming, how old they are, what sort of things are their interests personally, hobbies. All of those things go into creating a customized private, intimate, family experience that people really remember for the rest of their lives.

Mark: It's such an amazing meeting of values. You have knowledge of the region. You have knowledge about the different opportunities are there. They have the desire to visit and as a trivial example, a cousin came in to town. I live in San Francisco, in San Francisco bay area. And my cousin came into town, want to see San Francisco, and I could show them the parts of San Francisco that I've known and lived and loved. So they get a particular experience of that. I imagine that's especially important when you're going to these far less well-known areas where the tourism industry is not set -up for that. You're going off the beaten track and so you get to show them those kinds of experiences. That must be a special pleasure for you.

David: It is. It is a pleasure. I've always like to take the path less traveled and luckily through partnerships with grassroots humanitarian projects in all of the places that we go, not only do we have expert local guides but we have the leaders of those humanitarian outreach projects who can share their insights into the culture and into the way of life in those places. So, it's really quite unique in that regard.

Mark: That sounds great. We're about to take a break. When we come back, I want to talk more about the actual humanitarian organizations that you worked with and what that experiences like for people who go on and Exquisite Safari with you. My name is Mark Michael Lewis and we're speaking with David Chamberlain on Money, Mission, and Meaning: Passion at Work, Purpose at Play. And we'll be right back.

[commercial break]

Mark: And we're back with David Chamberlain of exquisitesafaris.com, talking about how to combine luxury travel with inspired philanthropy. So, David if I understand it, although the philanthropic segment of the travel experience that you create is only a morning or an afternoon, it's a short part of the overall experience in terms of time, it often becomes one of the most memorable parts of the whole adventure. Why is it consistently discussed at the most memorable? How does it fit into the journey? Why is it so transformative for people?

David: Well, I think that people, when you walk into a village the first time or second time, all kinds of thoughts go through your head: your guilty, you feel badly, you can't believe that there's no running water, and the people are hungry. And then all of a sudden as you meet the people who live there and you see them, they're friendly and smiling, they're happy to have you as a visitor, and want to learn about you. And [they] want to engage you and discuss everything that you could possibly imagine with you. You meet their families and their children and your children kick the soccer ball with their children. Something very special occurs and I'm challenged to really describe it in words.

A fellow by the name of Phil Cubeta has described it as a Socratic moment, a kind of, it all comes together and what I can tell you is the feedback that's comes from clients who've returned and every one of them has said unanimously that although they stayed in the lodge that was on the cover of Conde Nast Travel and Leisure Magazine last month, it was the human heart-to-heart connection that changed their life; the inspiration, the awakening of what one person can do in terms of changing reality in a small village where the lucky forty percent of the people who had income earn a dollar or two a day. It's tied to that experience.

Mark: We hear about these things on television or we read an article about them. And I'm imagining through my own experience, although I haven't gone the kind of travel that you're taking about, I wanted to, there's a reality that happens, you call it Socratic moments, it's kind of where all your ideas that you have about poverty or the challenges that other people have in other cultures when you're actually face-to-face with them, eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart with another human being, you're actually communicating with them, I imagine it's really a life-changing experience with you. It gives you a different sense of what it means to be a human being in this planet.

David: You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right.

Mark: And as you guide people in these experiences, what's life for you as they have these 'Aha!' moments, as they kind of wake up to their humanity in this new possibility, this new way? What's it like to you to be both part of the growth of this person and the community as they meet people and you actually set-up these kinds of arrangements where people can help these communities. Also, what’s it like to you to facilitate people, waking up into themselves, this enlightenment aspect of the philanthropic travel experience?

David: For me, it's a pleasure. It's what I do. It's what motivates me and bringing people together in a positive wonderful way like that is something that I enjoy doing. So, it's a passion.

Mark: I like how you just said that. It brings together into a positive experiences because a lot of these experiences from the outside, from our kind of affluent western culture, when we go experience them or see them, it seems a little sad or depressing that people are living this way but you also get to discover that they can define their own joy in what they're doing and how they, even though they do not have the things that we're expecting, also have the joys that come with their lifestyle: their families, their friends, their particular activities.

David: Absolutely. The interesting thing is that most of the time, obviously, when you're dealing with children with AIDS in such serious issues as that, there are certainly people who are not happy but generally speaking, the people in the places that we visit are doing everything they can to live as abundantly as they possibly can.

The experience that we as Westerners have in understanding that lifestyle is one that opens our hearts, teaches our children how lucky they are, and builds bridges that in my opinion will create a more peaceful world, a more tolerant world and a place that we really want. On the outset, you can look at philanthropic travel on the sad and depressing situation and circumstances but that's really just a western point of view.

If you go with an open heart and you connect with the people and the place. And you understand how you can help them to find a sustainable source of income, whether it's microfinance or some form of entrepreneurship there are all sorts of heartwarming and fulfilling experiences that can result over the long-term from just spending a morning or an afternoon with some people on the other side of the planet that otherwise, you would only hear or read about in the newspaper or on TV.

Mark: I can imagine this gives people a new sense of their own life in terms of what they're experiencing and the things that they normally consider challenges versus what these people are experiencing and how they can get in touch with the healing dimension, the caring, the love, you are best to make this beautiful no matter what the situation and make it that human connection so in terms that possibly negative or saddening experience for you into something inspiring and uplifting. When that happens, I can imagine that people are mulling, 'Well, I can make a difference here. I don't need to spend a half-million dollars here, a few thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars can completely transform and make a huge difference. What are some of the project that have come out of it? If you could tell a story perhaps on of your guests, one of the people who've taken your exotic safari and something they've and the difference that has made.

David: Sure. You don't have to be Richard Branson or Angelina Jolie to make a big difference. They get the press but in places where folks are averaging two dollars a day in income, a hundred dollars, a thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars can build a complete high school for children. So early on, one of our clients came and said,' Look, I get ten thousand dollars. I want to take it and create a school and I want to bring my children and grandchildren once it's completed to see the opening and to understand what that money went towards and how many lives that money will impact today and into the future. So those types of intentions and the people who have those intentions, I consider visionary philanthropic travelers. That's the Hall of Fame of philanthropic travel. If we all start out on the same place which is as a traveler whose gonna take a luxury vacation anyway and we step into a morning or an afternoon visiting one of these projects and learn how one person typically began that project with a vision just like I had described to you, we can all move along that spectrum from traveler to philanthropic traveler, whether you're John Sixpack or whoever you are. There's no donation nor intention that's too small. The point is that we get involved and we try to make it the ultimate project to be sustainable, i.e., that the people of the place own it, manage it, and we create a way for it to continue on indefinitely.

Mark: Right. Essentially, teaching them one more way to fish.

David: Exactly.

Mark: This show is called the Money, Mission, and Meaning and it's really about overcoming the idea that there's a – you can do money on the one hand or meaning in it- Either-or. It's really making it a Both-and experience. I'm imagining people who've gone on your excursions, they've probably done other types of travel. And they had great experiences but when they compare the experiences where they're just traveling, where they're just enjoying themselves, where they're just discovering other places and other people compared to those experiences where they make a connection with people who are in need and are given them an opportunity to make a difference, it completely changes their relationship to it. And it brings together the money with the mission and the meaning into something that not only do they get the enjoyment of the travel but they got something that really keeps them in touch with what it means to be a human being in this planet and part of the human community.

We're about to take another break. When we come back I want to talk you a little bit about the donation project and how Exquisite Safaris participate in helping these communities as well as what the personal experience has been for you in terms of making the choice of making this your career.

My name is Mark Michael Lewis. Your listening to Money, Mission, and Meaning with David Chamberlain of exquisitesafaris.com. We'll be right back.

[commercial break]

Mark: So if people are interested, one way that they can actually support these humanitarian efforts is to choose to do their luxury travel through you.

David: Yes, exactly.

Mark: In that way the money that's earned and the connections that get built, perhaps they want to go a place that you don't currently have a relationship with someone who in the process you'll create a new relationship to create new bonds. So one way they can actually do that is actually go on travel with you.

David: Yes.

Mark: Do you also accept donations? If people say, 'You know, what they're up to is something I want to support. That's something I would feel good about.' Do you just take donations directly?

David: Exquisite Safaris never takes a donation. We will put you with either the 501c3 or the actual humanitarian outreach projects that have their own 501c3. So, that's how we do that. Exquisite Safaris is a for-profit company that supports non-profit humanitarian outreach projects.

Mark: Okay, great. So you can act as a bridge is someone is looking for a way to contribute and likes the model that you're using.

David: Yes.

Mark: Okay, great. You once describe your adventure as a kind of an opportunity for each of us to create our own personal foreign policy. Is that something best left to our government leaders? [David laughs] Or rather, in terms of creating actual social impact beyond the people that you're working with, what is the vision, the mission, of Exquisite Safaris in terms of actually making a difference in the world through what you're doing?

David: That's a great question. Our objective -I mean you can travel with multitude of companies out there. Our objective is to take the travel experience, that is a personal, face-to-face, heart-to-heart experience, and use it as a bridge to create a more peaceful world. So by facilitating new relationships between travelers and people living in those destinations, I think we have an opportunity not just to create a positive uplifting foreign policy on an individual basis but to actually make the world a global village. Once you come back, you can be in touch through e-mail. The most important thing is that person-to-person meeting. That's really the value that philanthropic travel brings in terms of creating world peace.

Mark: I like that metaphor of an international bridge between worlds. It sounds like when you have that eye-to-eye real world contact with the people, it creates a very strong bridge; something which you can really move back and forth across. And it's that communication, that bridging between worlds, which allows us to recognize our commonalities and how we can work together to make the world a better place rather than to work at cross purposes, sometimes even accidentally because we don't understand. The more of these bridges that we build, the more we can actually have the kind of impact on the world that we want and build the kind of community that really satisfies us.

David: Absolutely. We are really building a network of people. And hopefully, most of these people are children like I was at the age of 7. Through that experience, I think it will impact the world today and far into the future.

Mark: I think that's great. As a curiosity, you've worked with about 75 families in the last year?

David: That's right. Exquisite Safaris is about a year old; although my experience in the luxury travel business goes back to 1999. We've worked with about 75 families in our first year. And we hope to work with quite a few more in the coming years.

Mark: It sounds like a natural choice for someone who once had a luxury travel experience. Why not have it coming that's meaningful at the same time. Does that make a lot of sense? Of those having their families, how many shall we say under 15 year old have you been working with?

David: Probably, around 50 percent of the folks who have traveled have brought their children.

Mark:Wow. That's just awesome. I have this great vision of you as a seven year old play starting to play soccer.

David: I have my Miami Dolphins leisure suit and light leather loafers on. [Mark laughs]

Mark: I'm just imagining that kind of impact that had in you and the fact that you are able to create that for so many children to the families that used to work with you. I think that's great. I look at you 30 years later and now you're actually a catalyst to create that experience. And I'm sure each person integrates that in their own way but I've also look forward to the future as the people you touch and their touch in the world.

You say you've been doing this for a year. I can imagine that before this, you have the idea. You have this fantasy or a possibility that you could go out and actually do this. And then there was a choice that you make to actually do it. What was that choice like for you? What was it that pushed you over the edge from an idea of what was possible into a reality that you’re committed to create?

David: That could take a while to discuss.

Mark: What's the heart of it? I understand we're human beings and life has a hundred different obstacles, a hundred different realities and criteria and forces that we need to deal with when we make these kinds of choices. But this show is called Money, Mission, and Meaning because it is about how we can empower people or inspire people to find a way of making money, making meaning, to bring this two together as best you can. What was that for you?

David: I enjoy when I see people smiling and laughing and the best experiences in smiling and laughing for me personally has always been while I've been traveling in new places with all the stimulation and the new food and everything is exciting. I just like to give people that experience and I want people to experience all of the abundance and wonderful possibilities that exist in the world, and leave their fears and all those negative things behind. Because once you get out there, you get your passport and get out there in the world and try philanthropic travel, you'll understand exactly what I mean when I tell you that walking into that village after being out on the Serengeti plains and meeting those people and engaging and realizing that you as an individual have so much so give and they have so much to give back to you. You go home with an experience like I did that just commits you to sharing that either with your children or with your spouse or partner and having that be a tradition, a legacy, as you lived through life.

Mark: I want to ask you a kind of a tough question around that again because I think exactly what you're saying is that there's something that you saw that made you light up. It's just [that] you love it. It gives you a sense of real accomplishment, fulfillment, connection. And there was a time when you weren't doing that. There was a time when you were doing something else, making money. I'm sure bringing pieces of these puzzle into existence. And then there was a time when you chose to make it your profession and, if you can, what were the thoughts that help you go over the edge? Because I know that there are people listening to the show right now who have ideas that they're excited about, that they've been thinking about perhaps even for decades, and they have been going 'Oh! Only if I could do that.'

What was it that had you take it from 'Well, maybe could' to 'I'm gonna learn what I need to learn to find out, what if its financially feasible, can I actually do it.'? And two, 'What would it take to do it?' And then three, actually making the choice to do that. What was it that got you to overcome the inertia or the comfort to take this risk?

David: I decided that I needed to move from the United States in 1999 and try life in a different country just to get a different perspective on things. It was through that experience that I made my way from the high-tech software world into the luxury travel world. And then it was an incremental experience after experience that brought me closer and closer to remembering My First Philanthropic Travel Experience. And then it all came together and I said 'You know, this is something that I need to try' and frankly I was pretty terrified. I didn't know if people would consider it a good idea or they just think it was a fool's folly. But it was my dream and I just had to do it.

Mark: That's great. And so now you've been doing this for a year. You've taken 75 or 75 plus families through this journey. What's it like to wake up for you today that's different from let's say two years ago before you were doing this? What's different in terms of how you're experience your life?

David: I feel like I'm a citizen of the world. I know people all over the globe and am excited about the possibilities for other people to experience that. So, I wake up every day ready to facilitate that experience for people.

Mark: I think it's great.

David: Right.

Mark: I love what you're up to. Thanks a lot for coming on the show today. I think we touch a lot of the useful and definitely thought-provoking material.

David: Thank you for having me.

Mark: We're just speaking with David Chamberlain of exquisitesafaris.com. For more information about David's work with philanthropic luxury travel adventures, go to exquisitesafaris.com for beautiful pictures, inspiring stories, and learn how you might be able to support the humanitarian efforts that are involved with by participating with them and using the resources that they have. Again, that's exquisitesafaris.com or you can go to the Money, Mission, and Meaning show page at personallifemedia.com where we have that site as well as some biographical information on David, that information. If you want texts and transcripts of this show or any of this shows on the Personal Life Network, please visit our website at http://www.personallifemedia.com.

I'm your host, Mark Michael Lewis, That's brings us to the end of our show. So thanks for listening and join us next week on Money, Mission, and Meaning: Passion at Work, Purpose at Play as we interview cutting-edge business leaders who are committed to make a positive difference in the world, about their motivations and practical ideas that create pleasure with profit in the business of life.

Travel Connoisseur Magazine on Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide

``
Make an appointment with an expert.

Join us on Facebook and get to know us on Twitter

Learn More:
Personal Philanthropy = The Globalization of Empathy
Living Legacy and Philanthropic Voyages
Your Philanthropic Travel Team
Around the World with Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel
Philanthropic Journeys begin with Exquisite Safaris
Member of the United Nations Foundation World Heritage Alliance for Sustainable Tourism
The Advent of Philanthropic Travel by Mark Lovett Global Patriot
Financial Times/FT.com: Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travelers
Vacationing in Generosity: Philanthropic Travel
TheGlassHammer.com Philanthropic Travelers
Your First Philanthropic Travel Experience

Philanthropic Travelers:
The One's Who Do: Philanthropic Travelers
John Legend: Philanthropic Traveler

link to entry | comments (0)

77 Million Paintings

link to entry | comments (0)

Waging Peace: Philanthropic Travel

link to entry | comments (0)

Paul Hawken on the End of isms & Travel Philanthropy

A leading environmentalist and social activist's examination of the worldwide movement for social and environmental change.

Paul Hawken at The Long Now Foundation :: Podcast

Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice.From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people's needs worldwide.

Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of the movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and hidden history, which date back many centuries. A culmination of Hawken's many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire and delight any and all who despair of the world's fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself. Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity's collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to reimagine our relationship to the environment and one another.

Blessed Unrest is exciting, compelling, and very important. It describes the growing unrest that I encounter around the world, the frustration and courage of those who dare to challenge the power of the political corporate world. Paul Hawken states eloquently all that I believe so passionately to be true - that there is inherent goodness at the heart of our humanity, that collectively we can - and are - changing the world. Please read and share Blessed Unrest, a celebration of the awakening of the human spirit. It will inspire and encourage millions more to take action. -Jane Goodall, UN Ambassador for Peace

This is a genuinely whole-Earth catalog of environmental and social activism. It hits the reader first as a revelation - because of the form, scale, and consequence of the phenomenon reported – and then as a tool. The world is busy saving itself. With this book you learn where and how to plug into the process. -Stewart Brand, creator of The Whole Earth Catalog and CoEvolution Quarterly

If you have lost a sense of direction in your life, if despair dogs your every step, pick up a pencil and pick up this book. Paul Hawken, without a trace of self-importance, impales a very dark room on the beam of a very bright light here. In his hands, the civil society movement reveals itself as the action that has replaced the talk. -Barry Lopez, author of Resistance and Arctic Dreams

This is the first full account of the real news of our time, and it's exactly the opposite of the official account. The movers and shakers on our planet aren't the billionaires and the generals--they are the incredible numbers of people around the world filled with love for neighbor and for the earth who are resisting, remaking, restoring, renewing, revitalizing. This powerful and lovely book is their story—our story—and it's high time someone's told it. Nothing you read for years to come will fill you with more hope and more determination. -Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy and The End of Nature

Blessed Unrest is a beautiful, soulful, crucial book. It is a manifesto of hope for the 21st century grounded squarely in the hearts of engaged people around the planet. Paul Hawken chronicles and testifies on behalf of this "movement with no name" with his charismatic intelligence and insight. This book makes the invisible visible. I believe Hawken when he says we are part of the Earth's immune system each time we exercise our active compassion in the name of social justice and ecological health. I love this book. It is a field guide for all that is possible. -Terry Tempest Williams, author of The Open Space of Democracy

Many books describe the world in ways that break our hearts. Blessed Unrest invokes a heartbreak from which light pours. Paul Hawken is stupendously well informed. He is also critical without rancor, intuitive without woo woo, and poetic or hard-minded as the case requires. His narrative flows from a harrowing litany of "free market" abuses and desecrations to the countless life-saving actions and organizations that now envelope the earth in response. This is a work of enormous love and consequence. Every compassion-driven soul who reads it will be stunned by the scope and power of the movement we've inadvertently formed. When, inevitably, my daughters someday feels their hearts broken by the wounded world they have inherited, I will be handing them this and a precious few other books. -David James Duncan, author of The Brothers K and God Laughs & Plays

For the first time since life evolved, one species is now altering the physical, chemical, and biological features of the planet on a geological scale. Scientists tell us of a litany of ecological disasters—climate change, toxic pollution, species extinction, marine depletion, deforestation—the depressing list can paralyze one with hopelessness and despair. Fear can motivate immediate action in the short-run, but hope can be sustained. Paul Hawken's writings are always at the cutting edge of environmental thought, original, surprising and shot through with optimism. Blessed Unrest is an uplifting perspective, engendering wonder and hope. For all of us that are squirreling away in our individual small ways, it is inspiring to realize that millions of us can add up to an irresistible force. Read this book and shout "Hallelujah!" -David Suzuki, author of The Sacred Balance

Paul Hawken is at the top of his storytelling art in Blessed Unrest. By revealing the twin heart of the environmental and social justice movements, he helps us know ourselves in a new way—as competent members of the natural world, intent on recovering from our stumble as a species. Each page yields surprise and “of course!” recognition for what has been swelling beneath our collective ground for over 100 years. I read it in a single sitting, hungry for the next piece of the puzzle, the next 6-degrees-of-separation coincidence. Hawken makes these invisible truths obvious through impeccably researched tales told in the bell-clear prose of a statesman poet. In this chronicle of the groundswell with no name, we have found our Tocqueville, our Twain, and our Sinclair. -Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry

On one side the four horsemen of the apocalypse; on the other a vast and nameless uprising of peoples and organizations fighting for justice, places, communities, diversity, and health—the planetary immune system. Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest is not just a good book, it is a necessary book, wise, eloquent, perceptive, sober, and timely but above all, hopeful. A landmark! -David Orr, author Design on the Edge and The Last Refuge

Paul Hawken has written an important and significant book—intelligent, compelling, moving, and hopeful. In the broad sweep of a history of diffuse and seemingly unconnected events and people, he has found emergent pattern. That pattern, amazing simultaneously in its intricacy and simplicity, gives clarity to the direction humankind is moving in its struggle for survival. Read and regain a sense of optimism for our grandchildren's grandchildren; and be motivated to ensure that they inherit a restored earth and an equitable society. -Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface and author of Mid-Course Correction

What the Apollo missions did for Earth, allowing us to see her for the first time entire, Paul Hawken is doing for us with this nameless, century-shaping movement of ours. It's way bigger than we imagined. And way more powerful. -John Elkington, Executive Director of SustainAbility

In the midst of the last century's happy delusions, Paul Hawken courageously revealed the hardest truth: we are in grave ecological peril. In the midst of today's growing environmental fear and anxiety, his latest book reveals the most hopeful truth: an extraordinary capacity to meet these challenges is growing up everywhere. Sometimes the present is as obscure as the future. Thankfully, the human family has Paul Hawken - blessed with the gift to clearly see both. - Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

If ideas are living things which can change the course of history, then this book could be the vital turning point in the survival of humanity on this magnificent vulnerable planet. - Molly Harriss Olson, Director, President's Council on Sustainable Development under Clinton/Gore

Paul Hawken has an extraordinary ability to perceive the underlying order in chaos, and his latest work is his most profound illustration of this. Blessed Unrest reveals that buried within the thousands of apparently disparate social and environmental organizations of our day, an enormously important phenomenon is occurring. He allows us to see it for the first time the fabric of a movement of human and planetary evolution-- the Earth's own immune system hard at work. You will put down this book with a sense of awe, as well as optimism, realizing that although natural systems seem to be in a state of decay, the cure is arising from within, and we are it. This book is a stunning accomplishment that should be read by everyone.
-Sarah Susanka, architect and author of The Not So Big Life, and The Not So Big House series

Paul Hawken has created a wondrous experience -a book that magically weaves together the world across time and place. From the wisdom of ancients to our modern predicament. Fom dead fish to the industrial giants that killed them. From endangered peoples defending nature against the onslaught to their new friends and allies in the capitals of capitalism. Within this vast tableau, the book tells the dramatic story of people rising to resist - a global coming together mobilized to change the world and save it. -William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy

Learn More:
The Fable of Stone Soup
PersonalLifemedia.com on Philanthropic Travel
Travel Connoisseur Magazine on Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide
Understanding Philanthropic Travel
Affluent Parents Dedicated to Instilling Philanthropic Values in their Children
Fast Company Magazine on Philanthropic Travel
Philanthropic Traveler funded High School opens near Victoria Falls, Zambia
My First Philanthropic Travel Experience
Giving while Living: The Deeper News About the New Philanthropy
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty
Are We Talking about Philanthropy Yet? No, We Are Not

Philanthropic Travelers:
Marc Gold's 100Friends lead Philanthropic Travelers in Asia, Africa & South America
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Chellie Kew
Rachael Paulson Philanthropic Traveler
Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers
Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler
Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler
Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers

Why Exquisite Safaris?

link to entry | comments (0)

Philanthropic Rock & Roller: Dr. Ari Mintz

Dr. Ari Mintz is the Doc o' Rock

"There is so much of the world to see and so much to be done, and you've found a way to combine both tasks." -Ari Mintz to Marc Gold

All proceeds from his current CD Our Secret Heart are donated to the UN Millennium Project in its efforts to combat extreme poverty.

Millenium Villages & Jeffrey Sachs
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Marc Gold 100 Friends Project

On Earth, early 21st century:

A death by starvation occurs every 3.6 seconds.

A death by AIDS occurs every 14 seconds, though it is treatable.

A death by malaria occurs every 30 seconds, though it is curable.

There are 6.1 billion people, 1.4 billion of whom live in extreme poverty.

But there is enough to go around. The chasm between the privileged and the destitute is not uncrossable. On the contrary, we of the developed world do now have the resources to cure this human calamity, and without significant compromise to our present way of life. -Dr. Ari Mintz

Ari Mintz is a Chicago native who has performed, written, and recorded rock and roll long enough to know better. He has played bass in numerous bands including Moose and Squirrel, Life on Mars, Angel Train, Doc o' Rock and the Mothers of Intervention, The Sunshine Festival, Juspher Grinz, and The Sons of Simba, where bandleader Kevin Rosen first dubbed him "the Doc o' Rock." Mintz is a physician specializing in the field of Diagnostic Imaging. Composing and recording at Hungerdunger Studio with various talented musicians, his musical specialty is the collaborative creation of original rock. Influences include the Beatles, James Brown, the Allman Brothers, Ben Felson, Fran Rabinowitz, Jimi Hendrix and Sting.

Learn More:
Understanding Philanthropic Travel
Fast Company Magazine on Philanthropic Travel
DIY Foreign Policy: Philanthropic Travel
Philanthropic Traveler funded High School opens near Victoria Falls, Zambia
The Fable of Stone Soup
My First Philanthropic Travel Experience
Affluent Parents Dedicated to Instilling Philanthropic Values in their Children
Giving while Living: The Deeper News About the New Philanthropy
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty
Are We Talking about Philanthropy Yet? No, We Are Not

Philanthropic Travelers:
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Marc Gold 100 Friends Project
Philanthropic Traveler: Phil Cubeta
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Chellie Kew
Rachael Paulson Philanthropic Traveler
Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers
Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler
Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler
Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers

Why Exquisite Safaris?

link to entry | comments (0)

Marc Gold: Visionary Philanthropic Traveler in Chicago Tribune

Marc Gold and friend

100 Friends Newsletter Spring 2007
Marc Gold partners with Exquisite Safaris
National Public Radio on Philanthropic Travel

In February, Arlene Butler of Willowbrook asked 40 friends to consider donating money that she would give away during a trip to Thailand. She raised $3,000, the equivalent of a typical annual salary in that country, with contributions ranging from $2 to $250. Among those who chipped in with $100 was Marc Gold, a 57-year-old community college professor from California.

It's a gift that Gold has made about two dozen times to people who have been inspired by an group that he founded in 1989, the 100 Friends Project. The group is based on reaching out to friends -it started out as 100 at first, hence the name -to donate money. Gold then uses the money for what he calls "philanthropic travel," usually a six-month trip in which the money is used to help improve lives. In mid-July, he will begin a trip to Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan and Myanmar. Among other causes, he will donate $20,000 to build a school for 1,000 boys and girls in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

During his fund raising swing through Chicago, which included stops in Willowbrook, Downers Grove and Arlington Heights and ends Sunday in Oak Park, Gold has already raised $4,000.

Funds for his organization come through word of mouth, one-on-one meetings, home gatherings, presentations before larger groups in public venues and the project's Internet site at 100friends.com

At a fund raiser in her home Friday night, Butler, 51, related how, through a few key contact people referred by Gold, she gave $1,500 to a group that grants wishes to terminally ill children and $1,500 that covered an entire summer-activities program for an orphanage of children with AIDS. "It changes your DNA when you have a chance to go and do these things," Butler told guests. "Marc was the inspiration for all of that."

Before about 15 people, Gold explained that it is vital for philanthropic travelers to learn how to network with trustworthy, knowledgeable individuals in a given locale, to be discerning in how they donate and to be sensitive to cultural differences along the way.

At one point, he drew guests' attention to slides that showed a beaming Indonesian woman who had lost her husband and three children in the 2004 tsunami. "This is why I do what I do," Gold said. "I've seen this look hundreds of times and I'm hooked."

The project is the fulfillment of an actual dream Gold first had as a 7-year-old child growing up in Atlantic City. In the dream, Gold is standing atop Mt. Everest and sees a family of four from a far-off village beckoning him to come and help. The images were embedded in Gold's psyche as the years rolled by and as he developed a growing case of wanderlust. Then, in November 1989, the dream repeated itself one night. Upon waking, Gold immediately began preparing for an around-the-world trip that he launched the next month and included an encounter with an extremely poor Tibetan man living in the Himalayas.

Gold met the man's family. His wife had been suffering from life-threatening ear infections for months. For a dollar, Gold bought antibiotics that cleared up the problem. And for another $30, Gold bought a hearing aid and had the honor of turning it on. The woman began sobbing for joy, and Gold's life, he told the gathering, "changed in that moment." "I realized the power that a small amount of money can make in people's lives," he said.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune by Matt Baron Special to the Tribune June 19, 2007, 7:13 PM CDT

Inquire now about private Philanthropic Family Safaris to Africa, Asia, South America, India and Bhutan with Marc Gold -powered by Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide.

Learn More:
Visit 100Friends.com
National Public Radio on Philanthropic Travel
Understanding Philanthropic Travel
Fast Company Magazine on Philanthropic Travel
DIY Foreign Policy: Philanthropic Travel
Philanthropic Traveler funded High School opens near Victoria Falls, Zambia
The Fable of Stone Soup
My First Philanthropic Travel Experience
Affluent Parents Dedicated to Instilling Philanthropic Values in their Children
Giving while Living: The Deeper News About the New Philanthropy
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty
Are We Talking about Philanthropy Yet? No, We Are Not

Philanthropic Travelers:
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Marc Gold 100 Friends Project
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Chellie Kew
Rachael Paulson Philanthropic Traveler
Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers
Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler
Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler
Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers

link to entry | comments (0)

100 Friends Help Change Thousands of Lives

Inquire now about private Philanthropic Family Safaris to Africa, Asia, South America, India and Bhutan with Marc Gold -powered by Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide. Help Marc Gold give away 1,000,000 dollars by 2010..

National Public Radio: Marc Gold Visionary Philanthropic Traveler
Globalization of Empathy: Philanthropic Travel

A chance meeting almost 20 years ago changed Marc Gold's life. It was 1989, and the college psychology lecturer was visiting India, a place he had wanted to see since he was a child. While he loved taking in the country's sights, experiencing its culture, and making new friends, he was shocked and saddened by the grinding poverty and misery he witnessed.

When one of his new friends took him home to Darjeeling to meet his wife, Gold's pain became personal. The family was too poor to go to a doctor about her life-threatening ear infection.

Gold took it upon himself to find a specialist who prescribed a course of antibiotics, which cost only one U.S. dollar. "That's when it first hit me how powerful a small amount of American money could be," he recalls. "Now it's not always a dollar a life, but often it is."

Marc Gold helped fund a heart operation in Kerala, India in 1992.

By the time Marc Gold returned home, he was determined to do something to harness the power of the dollar to help the world's poor. That's when he started his 100 Friends Project. He went through his address book, came up with 100 names of business contacts, friends and relatives, and sent out letters asking them to donate whatever they could.

"I expected about $300 or $400, and I got $2,200," he marvels. "Now it's 18 years later, and this year I raised $80,000. So, of course, in one way, I can do more."

Gold calls what he does philanthropic travel. "Because I want to travel, personally, and I want to do some good at the same time, I found a way that really works."

And, he adds, what he does is practical. "It's blankets, education, small businesses, loans, wheelchairs… food, clothing. And I discovered that I had the power with a small amount of money to impact a lot of people. Now it's thousands."

Marc Gold helped a burned child and bombing victim in Afghanistan in 2006.

Instead of aiding the local economy by being just a tourist, Gold seeks out the area's poor to help directly. Each mission, he says, takes a lot of work and research beforehand.

"I've gone into many slums, prisons, hospitals, villages, disaster zones, tsunamis, earthquakes, AIDS, and I do a lot of reading, and I meet a lot of people." He always works through a local contact. "I put the money to work as wisely as I can, as appropriately as I can, and then I report back with documents and reports and figures and photographs."

A young student at the Center for Children's Happiness boarding school which rescues scavenger children from Phnom Penh's trash dumps
The Center for Children's Happiness boarding school rescues scavenger children from Phnom Penh's trash dumps

Over the past 18 years, Marc Gold has traveled to more than 40 countries, spreading his good will and his money.

In Cambodia, for instance, he works closely with the Center for Children's Happiness. The boarding school takes in children rescued from a trash dump on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia where hundreds of youngsters still scavenge through rotting garbage for a meager subsistence. About 130 children are now being cared for at the center, at an annual cost of $600 per child. Gold's 100 Friends Project sponsors 11 of them.

Marc Gold supports girls in Allaudin orphanage school in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, a country that fires up his imagination, Gold's 100 Friends Project helps maintain an orphanage. It is also building a school, and supporting a grassroots Afghani project that helps orphans, war widows, and women incarcerated in prison.

But Marc Gold doesn't just give away money. He makes loans to help people set up businesses so they can earn a living, and when the loan is paid back, he recycles it to help others. Marc Gold also insists that recipients do what he calls, 'paying it forward.'

He gives an example of a rickshaw driver he met in Calcutta. "The rickshaw literally collapsed while I was on it because the axle broke. And the old man on the rickshaw, it was a bicycle rickshaw, started to weep. And I found out through a translator on the street right there, he was weeping because that was his business and his home, and he didn't have the money, which was all of $40, to fix it."

Marc Gold supports children at the Durgabari Ashram New Light Shelter in Calcutta, India.

Gold made a deal with him. "I said, 'I will fix it for you, but you have to promise once a month to go to Mother Teresa's 'Mother House' and for a half a day take the sisters on their appointed rounds in the neighborhood.'" Gold recalls the man was delighted to do that.

Marc Gold was set on the path he now travels when he was just a child, when his father, photographer Albert Gold, explained "the meaning of life." He took the 8-year-old into the bathroom and had him look in the mirror.

Gold recounts the conversation:

Albert: ''What do you see?'
Marc: 'I see myself.'
Albert: 'Okay. How old will you be in 70 years?'
Marc: '78.'
Albert: 'Okay, when you are 78 years old, look in the mirror again and ask yourself one question, because by then your life will be almost over: 'Did you live a life that made this a better world or not? Very simple. If the answer is yes, I am proud of you, and if not, I am disappointed.'
Marc: 'But how am I going to make this a better world?'
Albert: 'That's your job. You figure it out.'

Gold's supporters, like physician Peter Joseph and his wife, Marcy Levine, would say he's done his job well. The couple got a taste of philanthropic travel while visiting Laos a few years back.
When they heard about the 100 Friends Project, they decided to help by sponsoring fund-raising parties. That's one way Marc Gold raises money for his work.

Joseph calls Gold "a great ambassador" for the United States. "He represents the best of America and Americans in the world. And we appreciate the efficiency with which he does it. There's no middleman. There's no big organization with its overhead and its offices. He's a one-man show. And we also think he's something of a saint." Levine adds, "And he does it because he wants to, because he cares."

Marc Gold's next destination is Africa, but until he heads off again, he'll be advising other altruistic travelers on how to start their own projects.

Inquire now about private Philanthropic Family Safaris to Africa, Asia, South America, India and Bhutan with Marc Gold -powered by Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide.

Learn More:
Visit 100Friends.com
Understanding Philanthropic Travel
Fast Company Magazine on Philanthropic Travel
DIY Foreign Policy: Philanthropic Travel
Philanthropic Traveler funded High School opens near Victoria Falls, Zambia
The Fable of Stone Soup
My First Philanthropic Travel Experience
Affluent Parents Dedicated to Instilling Philanthropic Values in their Children
Giving while Living: The Deeper News About the New Philanthropy
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty
Are We Talking about Philanthropy Yet? No, We Are Not

Philanthropic Travelers:
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Marc Gold 100 Friends Project
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Chellie Kew
Rachael Paulson Philanthropic Traveler
Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers
Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler
Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Karen Jacobsen: Philanthropic Traveler
Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler
Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers

link to entry | comments (0)

100 Friends partners with Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide

Marc Gold in Afghanistan

Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide has partnered with 100 Friends and Marc Gold to facilitate private guided philanthropic experiences worldwide. Please contact Exquisite Safaris for itinerary details.

Marc Gold's 100 Friends Spring 2007 Newsletter

Why is Marc a Visionary Philanthropic Traveler?
Marc Gold was set on the path he now travels when he was just a child, when his father, photographer Albert Gold, explained "the meaning of life."
He took the 8-year-old into the bathroom and had him look in the mirror.

Gold recounts the conversation:

Albert: ''What do you see?'
Marc: 'I see myself.'
Albert: 'Okay. How old will you be in 70 years?'
Marc: '78.'
Albert: 'Okay, when you are 78 years old, look in the mirror again and ask yourself one question, because by then your life will be almost over: 'Did you live a life that made this a better world or not? Very simple. If the answer is yes, I am proud of you, and if not, I am disappointed.'
Marc: 'But how am I going to make this a better world?'
Albert: 'That's your job. You figure it out.'

Inquire now about private Philanthropic Family Safaris to Africa, Asia, South America, India and Bhutan with Marc Gold -powered by Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide.

What is the 100 Friends Project?
The 100 Friends Project is a small, informal grassroots project dedicated to helping people in Third World Countries facing myriad problems. Marc Gold collects the donations (a little as $1 and as much as $500) from approximately 100 people and then takes the money overseas to distribute as directly and intelligently as possible. I am the representative of those who donate (I also make a donation each time). The recipients are usually delighted that there are a group of strangers reaching out to help them with no strings attached.

Do the recipients have to repay the money?
No. However, I usually suggest that they use part of it to help others. For example, if I give a needy person 1500 Rupees (approximately $33.00) for some good purpose, I will often suggest that they give something like 50-100 Rupees from the donated funds to some one who is perhaps even more needy than them. They always seem to brighten when I suggest this, perhaps because it makes them feel part of a larger cycle of giving and receiving. Occasionally when we are involved in a small income-generating scheme (purchase of a sewing machine, setting up a bicycle repair service, etc.) the person may repay the money over a long period of time so that someone else can use the money to start a small business in the future.

Learn More:
Travel Connoisseur Magazine on Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide
PersonalLifemedia.com on Philanthropic Travel
The Fable of Stone Soup
Understanding Philanthropic Travel
Affluent Parents Dedicated to Instilling Philanthropic Values in their Children
Fast Company Magazine on Philanthropic Travel
Philanthropic Traveler funded High School opens near Victoria Falls, Zambia
My First Philanthropic Travel Experience
Giving while Living: The Deeper News About the New Philanthropy
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty
Are We Talking about Philanthropy Yet? No, We Are Not

Philanthropic Travelers:
Marc Gold's 100Friends lead Philanthropic Travelers in Asia, Africa & South America
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Chellie Kew
Rachael Paulson Philanthropic Traveler
Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers
Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler
Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Karen Jacobsen: Philanthropic Traveler
Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler
Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers

link to entry | comments (0)

No Nukes, No Depleted Uranium: Period

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -James Madison

"This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love." -Martin Luther King

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind ~ Mahatma Gandhi

"Experience teaches only the teachable". -Aldous Huxley

***

The United States spends more money on "defense" each year than the rest of the world combined. With the vast arsenal of weaponry we possess, it is beyond farcical to suggest that our security is seriously threatened at the existential level.

Got Depleted Uranium?

The Bush administration is adamant about developing and building a new generation of nuclear weapons (they're calling it the "Reliable Replacement Warhead" (RRW) program). There's a chance to kill that terrible idea, but it's up to the Senate. Right now, Senate leaders are drafting their spending bill that could terminate the nuclear weapons program entirely. This is our best shot to end funding of new nuclear weapons. Email your Senators and tell them to support an Energy and Water Appropriations bill that cuts all spending for new nuclear weapons.

Tell a Friend

Recently, the House threw a wrench in the administration's expensive and unnecessary nuclear program by denying the President's funding request for new nuclear weapons.1 The Senate should follow the lead of the House by cutting all funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program in their spending bill.

We should be working to make the world a safer, more peaceful place, not funding and building more nuclear weapons.

Decisions about this bill are being made now. So be sure to email your senators today and ask that they do everything they can to call for a bill that cuts all funding to the nuclear weapons program. We have a real chance to end funding for nuclear weapons, but the Senate needs to hear from as many of us as possible. After you've taken action, be sure to send this message onto your friends so they can get involved.

TrueMajority.org is a grassroots group of citizens who believe in America's true values of openness, fairness and compassion. We believe participating in an effective government is the best way to be mutually responsible for our community.

Learn More:
Nevada Test Site: Google Maps
Ban Space based Weapons
The War on Terror is the antithesis of Philanthropic Travel
What every American Should Know about Iraq..
The Blue Pill
Institutionalized Nationalistic Insanity
"I just wanted you to know about it..."
Beyond Treason
Philanthropic Travel: Vietnam
Bombs
ATTEN -TION!: Ba'Quba, Iraq: November 2004
Iraq Veterans against the War
Retired Generals Against Iraq War
US vs. them: US Military costs $550 Billion a year.
War is over -if you want it.

Philanthropic Travelers:
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Marc Gold 100 Friends Project
Nobel Peace Prize for Travel Urged..
Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers
Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler
Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler
Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers

link to entry | comments (0)

NPR Chicago WBEZ on Philanthropic Travel

Marc Gold discusses 100 Friends projects 2007/08 and partnership with Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide with NPR WBEZ Chicago on June 15, 2007.

Inquire now about private Philanthropic Family Safaris to Africa, Asia, South America, India and Bhutan with Marc Gold -powered by Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide.

Learn More:
Understanding Philanthropic Travel
Fast Company Magazine on Philanthropic Travel
DIY Foreign Policy: Philanthropic Travel
Philanthropic Traveler funded High School opens near Victoria Falls, Zambia
The Fable of Stone Soup
My First Philanthropic Travel Experience
Affluent Parents Dedicated to Instilling Philanthropic Values in their Children
Giving while Living: The Deeper News About the New Philanthropy
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on the Strategic Steps Out of Poverty
Are We Talking about Philanthropy Yet? No, We Are Not

Philanthropic Travelers:
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Marc Gold 100 Friends Project
Visionary Philanthropic Traveler Chellie Kew
Rachael Paulson Philanthropic Traveler
Milton & Fred Ochieng: Philanthropic Travelers
Jane Kaye- Bailey: Philanthropic Traveler
Richard Branson: Philanthropic Traveler
Angelina Jolie: Philanthropic Traveler
Karen Jacobsen: Philanthropic Traveler
Oprah Winfrey: Philanthropic Traveler
Palm Beach Life Magazine: Philanthropic Travelers

link to entry | comments (0)

Page 1 of 2 pages 1 2 >