Back to blog list

Hilary Bradt

• View profile
• View blogs
• View articles

Tags

• Volunteer and conservation

The gift of giving something back

28th November 2011

What difference can one ordinary person make? Legendary traveller Dervla Murphy and Bradt co-founder Hilary Bradt agree it can be a HUGE difference

As I hugged good bye to Dervla Murphy (see interview...) she murmured “You will mention the book, won’t you?”

“Which book?” – after all, she’s written over 20 – “The goat book, of course!” So, yes I will, because as Dervla says, it’s a book which actually does good and it also represents all the initiatives started by ordinary travellers who wanted to make a difference.

A Runaway Goat: curing blindness in forgotten India is by a former TV presenter, Lucy Mathen, who threw all that media glamour away to train as a doctor, then as an opthamologist. On a visit to India, the land of her birth, she found her true vocation: to give sight back to villagers in the remotest, ‘forgotten’ parts of the country. It’s a cliché, I know, but there’s no other way to describe her book except ‘inspiring’. Read it for yourself: www.secondsight.org.uk. The sale of one book will cure one cataract-blind person. It also happens to be very well written.

All over the developing world there are ordinary travellers, the sort of people who read Wanderlust, who plan their next trip little dreaming that it will change their lives. Later they realise they can do something positive to help the country they have fallen in love with.

I am astonished at the imagination, fortitude, and generosity of the people I have come across who have seen a need and acted on it. For example there’s the Children’s (Niños) Hotel in Cusco, founded by a couple from the Netherlands who were in Peru to see pink dolphins but ended up helping the street children in the Inca city. When I was last in touch (over a decade ago) they were providing hot meals for 100 children, as well as helping with education and health.

Madagascar is also benefiting from the concerns of three Dutch women who, again, came as visitors and stayed on to found Madalief which, as with the Niños Hotel, uses a guest house as a training ground for adolescent children. From small beginnings emerge sizeable charities. Jamie Spencer fell ill in a remote part of Madagascar and was so touched by the care he received from the local people that he founded Feedback Madagascar which now has projects all over the country.

I could fill pages with examples of these people. Mostly just ordinary travellers with a bit of extra oomph. And for readers who don’t want to throw up everything just yet, there’s Kate Humble’s Stuff Your Rucksack, where any traveller with a little extra space in their luggage can bring much needed stuff to children’s homes, schools or whatever, and add a little something to their visit in the process. And that actually brings us full circle back to Lucy. Just think how busy Kate is with her TV and writing work, yet she saw what a high-profile person could do to help the developing world and acted on it.

So where is it you’re going on your next trip? Will you come back just with special memories, or will you leave something special behind?

Do you have stories of giving something back as you travel? Tell us your tales below, or email them to fromtheroad@wanderlust.co.uk.

More like this

Check out Hilary's interview with epic traveller Dervla Murphy here | Interviews... More

'Why I stuffed my rucksack with marker pens,' Hilary Bradt tells her own 'Stuff Your Rucksack story' | Destinations... More

Check out more articles by Hilary Bradt here | Contributors... More

Wanderlust blogger Alastair Humphreys on why Dervla Murphy's Full Tilt would accompany him on a desert island | Blogs... More

Dervla Murphy on her book Silverland | Interviews... More

View all posts from this blogger

Next