So I’m heading out to Mexico for thanksgiving break with a group of friends. We’ll be in Tulum for a couple of days, but have a few days to venture inland into Yucatan, and possibly Chiapas / Tabasco. I am sure there are so many things we could bring along with us and leave there: medicine and clothes. It wouldn’t take much for me to fill up part of my bag with some extra clothing and pills. If all ten of us (going to Mexico) do that, we can essentially have quite a large package of extremely useful items. The big question is WHERE do we bring this to? I’m browsing online, looking for information, but as expected, its either in Spanish, or non-existent!

** UPDATE **

Through a flickr account I found a link to someone who might be able to provide me with useful information. In his blog, Root Coffee, there’s a lot of information coming from his relatives in villahermosa.

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The wikipedia entry with lots of information.

Here is a link to a youtube video report on what’s happening in the region.

An enormous humanitarian crisis continues to unfold south of the border. Since the beginning of November, the state of Tabasco, Mexico has been hit by widespread flooding due to steady rains – currently, more than 80% of the state is completely flooded, leaving thousands homeless.

Recent reports from the Red Cross indicate:

- The evacuation phase of the operation has ceased
- Over 1 million people have been affected in Tasbsco and neighboring state, Chiapas
- Mexican officials estimate it will be another two to three weeks before water levels recede
- An estimated 70 percent of Tabasco’s capital city, Villahermosa, remains under water
- An estimated 80,000 people remain in 365 official and unofficial shelters
- The flood has resulted in widespread destruction of homes, building, infrastructure, agricultural crops and livestock.
(source: shalomrav)

And here is HJ’s in-depth article from Global Voices, including translations from local Mexican blogs.

This is a picture I took in Lhasa, Tibet, two years ago. An older Tibetan woman holding a prayer wheel, while a young Chinese lady talks on her mobile phone. It is a common sight, and most probably did not even occur to me as anything out of the ordinary when there. It is remarkable to see the pace at which cities such as Lhasa are developing. To stand on one of the balconies of the Dalai Lama’s Potala Palace, send out an SMS home and receive a reply within minutes.

Following is some basic research I conducted on mobile phone usage in the developing world:
There are currently 3.5 billion mobile phones worldwide (source: mobile activism website). In Africa alone, there is an excess of 60% growth over the past year. In many cases mobile telephony has become people’s only means of telecommunication. China Mobile, the worlds largest mobile network, has been adding subscribers at a rate of almost 5 million users a month this past year. (source) It is estimated that by the year 2015, mobile communications will deliver affordable voice, data and Internet services to more than 5 billion people. (source: gsmworld)
In many countries mobile phones are the easiest and least expensive way to get a phone line. They are far more pervasive in developing countries, when compared to the Internet. The growing infrastructure in even highly remote and rural locations makes the mobile phone network an accessible means of communication in the developing world, especially as prices of hardware and services continue to drop. In addition, there is a relatively low learning curve when using a phone, making it far more accessible than computers to a wider range of possible users. Prepaid services enable those who lack the funding or credit for monetary deposits to also own a phone. When using prepaid cards, one pays for a bulk of airtime, and does not need to pay for any monthly fee or deposit. 4.58 million of China Mobile’s new customers in February were prepaid subscribers and only 328,000 were contract customers. (source) Prepaid considerably lowers the entrance barrier and raises the potential participation level, especially for the developing world. Mobile phones are not as restrained by illiteracy as one would think. It is a much more substantial barrier for computer usage. Therefore, mobile phones provides millions new opportunities to exchange information and engage in entrepreneurial activities.
Renting out mobile phones is a common solution in many poor regions, where people can’t afford to own a private phone. An article on Forbes describes Sukhriya Hassani’s work for a cell company called Roshan in Afghanistan, rention out cellular phone service by the call minute. Roshan has spread across 175 cities and villages and provides mobile phone service to 1.2 million customers – half the Afghan market. This model works for many of the African nations. Grameen phone in Bangladesh provides similar services for its rural and poor communities.

In India, what is truly wonderful about what is recognized as the “mobile miracle”, is that it has accomplished something India’s old socialist policies talked about but did little to achieve: It has empowered the less fortunate. Beneficiaries of mobile phones are not just the affluent, but those who in the old days would not even have dreamt of joining the 20-year-long waiting lists.”

Text messaging has allowed people to exchange information and communicate efficiently at both national and international levels. Patients can now receive reminders to take their medicine, saving time and money traveling to local clinics. As farmers in india receive market demand and pricing data for their products, young teens from the slums of Nairobi receive messages alerting them regarding job opportunities in the city. It has become clear that SMS use has great potential in campaigning, public awareness, disaster alerts and for NGO work in developing nations. /however, most ICT-inspired organizations concentrate on designing and developing ‘top-end’ systems for SMS-based services, while the door is often shut to the grassroots possibilities.

“Texting works where wires can’t reach, and often functions even when regular cell phone service fails. Because mobile telephony is leapfrogging the constraints of fixed telco infrastructure, the mobile phone is now the key technology platform to focus on for service delivery and development. The stats speak volumes: growth of mobile phone usage in Africa alone was 140% in the last 12 months.” (source: worldchanging.org)

Here is a list of some interesting mobile phone initiatives, thinking about solutions for the developing world:

FrontlineSMS is a communications solution for NGOs working in the developing world. Their system encorporates a mobile phone hub, connected to a PC or laptop computer. This hub receives, saves and replies to incoming SMS messages. They explain that certain logics can be applied to this system, such as programming so that it serves as a way to access information remotely. For example, it is possible to send an SMS message with a bus number, and get a reply with the times and location of that bus.

CAM is a mobile application framework for the rural developing world, being developed in the computer science department at the University of Washington. They use semacodes with mobile phones, aiding the process of filling out forms for local entities in the third world.

MobileActive - a global network of people, tools, projects and resources focused on the use of mobile phones for activism, campaigns, and civic engagement. This is a great source of information regarding different mobile phone initiatives, looking at this technology as an emerging tool for use in social change campaigns.

Textually.org is another fantastic portal to get information regarding mobile phone usage in the developing world.

It is extremely important to make use of new technology in the developing world in a way that makes sense locally. There are so many possible uses which can’t even make sense to foreigners. It is necessary for foreigners to provide resources or training, while local people develop solutions on their own, not becoming dependent on foreigners, but self-sustaining. In an interview about her Guatemala travels, Xeni Tech, co-editor of boing boing, states that there is still substantial discrimination facing many Mayan people. The law limits usage of their native tongue, giving way to the possibility of them forgetting their cultural roots. By using online teaching tools and documentation methods, it is possible to save the language and other cultural relics for the younger generation.

Xela Teco, a workshop in the town of Quetzaltenango, is a place where tech-minded Guatemalans build eco-friendly devices. The workshop is a small business supported by the U.S.-based nonprofit Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group. Xela Teco builds environmentally friendly technology that can be used to provide survival basics to poverty-stricken villages in the Mayan highlands: clean water, electricity and fuel. While American foreigners are currently part of the Xela Teco initiative, their goal is to eventually step aside. They hope that by arming rural communities with certain skill sets, they can help break a cycle of poverty, disease and malnutrition. (Their Indigi-Net entry: link)

Google Earth and the Holocaust Museum have a unique partnership, based on their assumption that technology can be a catalyst for education and action. “Crisis in Darfur” enables Google Earth users to visualize and learn about the destruction in Darfur and join the museum’s efforts in responding to this continuing international catastophe.

YouTourist.net is an Internet-based Trusted Social Network for the tourism industry with the objective of promoting and encouraging sustainable tourism based on the UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. The website is not active yet, but seems like secure participation will be a key element of this future service. Their take at poverty alleviation is through providing special communication opportunities for local communities and travel companies.

It is virtually always irresponsible to give gifts to the unaccompanied children of strangers – whether you’re in a remote Cambodian village or a rich American suburb. We have no way of verifying that the parents or elders of these kids approve of the gifts or of the begging, and we have no right to interfere with their discipline just to create a feel-good Sugar Daddy moment. It seems like a good compromise to give pens and pencils, but it makes more sense to donate these supplies to schools rather than street kids.

As a guest, however, giving gifts is important. It helps offset the host’s cost of putting you up. Costs are considerable, especially when thinking about food. Giving to the owner of a house you are staying in seems appropriate, even if you are paying, especially if your gift is food. Local handicrafts are also a good way to spread your largess, and invest in a sustainable cause when visiting a foreign community.
It is the arbitrary flinging coins that bothers me. They help support local artisans and perpetuate traditional crafts. But even the non-arbitrary charity methods can cause many problems. The outpouring of donations after the 2004 tsunami resulted in an immense amount of clothing donations, much in excess of what locals could ever use, in addition to other fabrics inappropriate for any local season. So what? Well, locals were concerned that heaps of clothing, especially in the rainy season, could lead to breeding of mosquitoes and the growth of mold. If this happened, malaria and other health concerns, on top of the problems already caused by the tsunami, would add to the already existing multitude of worries. Interestingly enough, a resourceful volunteer came up with the idea of tsunami dolls.

The emphasis for volunteer work in developing countries is to empower and hire local people, when possible, to address local issues, build their own capacities and provide them with employment opportunities. The priority is to fill gaps in local skills and experience and not to give the volunteer an outlet for his or her desire to help. It is much more beneficial for them to hire local people to paint walls, dig ditches and build houses, when compared to bringing a foreign volunteer.

“That said, the days of international volunteers are not numbered. There will always be a need for international volunteers, either to fill gaps in knowledge and service in a local situation, or because a more neutral observer/contributor is required. So, to volunteer overseas, you need to have skills and experience that are critically needed in a particular region, and that can be utilized by local institutions and local people quickly.”, writes Jayne Cravens, on her fantastic Coyote Communications website.

I strongly believe in the promise that these so called Global Souls, or world-travelers, hold for the better future of our society. Travel is a way extend beyond cultural boundaries and gaps, by creating person to person relationships, which are strong and long-lasting. More and more people engage in the act of travel, specifically to developing and third world locations. However, with travel also comes responsibility, and that is what I want to address in this post.

Pico Iyer, said once: “travel for me is an act of discovery and of responsibility as well as a grand adventure and a constant liberation.” A major reason to engage in travel, is getting out from behind our desks and into the world; learning about the things we wish to understand, change, or somehow influence. Regardless of how far we physically travel, the inevitable base of these journeys incorporates cross-cultural communication.

As tourists we may visit a certain community only once in our lifetimes, but our experiences and memories stay with us forever. Responsible travel is a term I’ve seen frequently in the past few months. By traveling responsibly, one aims to be sensitive and aware about local culture and ecology. Tourism is the largest economic sector in terms of earnings worldwide, certainly playing a large role in third world economies. But the masses are harming and changing these exotic, once untouched parts of the world, taking away the very essence of what draws tourists there initially. I strongly believe that by being conscious to our surroundings and acknowledging our different strengths and abilities, when provided with the proper information, it is possible to find ways to give back while visiting foreign cultures, and not only taking.

However, it is often forgotten that tourism and this very process of cross-cultural communication can actually be an incentive for creation. In places like Bali, the influx of tourists has generated new dances, new musical forms, and breathed new forms of life into a culture that they took for granted.

Zaid Hassan claims that The invitation is probably the most indispensable tool we have when we visit indigenous populations around the world. When no invitation exists from local entities, inter-cultural encounters can potentially deepen the gap between locals and foreigners, especially when ignorant travelers disrespect important customs. Many communities value their privacy and prefer not to engage with uninvited strangers. When interested in a specific community, it might be a good idea to invite its members into one’s own community – maybe a cup of coffee. Developing sensitivity toward the invitation is critical in building healthy relationships across traditional cultures.

VolunTourism appeals to people who are no longer satisfied by simply mailing a check to the headquarters of a multilevel conglomerate nonprofit organization. If we are to change and help out in the world, we need to experience firsthand the issues and challenges facing deprived communities. VolunTourism promotes self-education and local participation, while promising a “unique” travel experience while doing good. David Clemmons, editor of the voluntourist e-newsletter. You pay to work. However, the work designed to make an impact. A proliferating number of companies and organizations are sending travelers to do volunteer work abroad, even if they only have a week or two to spare. Cross Cultural Solutions sends volunteers to countries like China and Guatemala, where they work for orphanages, schools and hospitals. Volunteer Adventures includes conservation work on its roster, with projects that use volunteers to plant trees in the Amazon or rescue sea turtle eggs.

Another emerging trend in tourism is reality travel or poorism. Ironically, as most of the travel industry focuses on whisking customers into a fantasy cultural disneyland, these type of tour operators take the opposite tack, escorting tourists through Brazilian favelas, South African townships or Mumbai’s slums. Many of these type of agencies have policies where they donate much of their profits back to these communities. But there is something eccentric about this.

Both of the above options are possible ways to give back while traveling. Personally, I’ve never done either in all my travels. I must say that I don’t agree with paying astronomical amounts of money in order to have a volunteering experience. However, I do believe that by using technology these opportunities can be made in a more inexpensive manner. There exists a cultural gap, and an intermediary is usually necessary to bridge between both sides. I have also never taken these so called slum tours. While in India, I walked in many of these areas by myself. Unless it truly gives back to the people living in those areas, I don’t see a reason for taking such an organized tour. But does it? Reality Tours & Travel in Mumbai have yet to show what they do with their profits, once they do become more profitable.

I’d like to end with a quote taken from an interview with Pico Iyer:
“I think the main reason I travel, if I were to sum it up in one word, is for ambiguity. The reason I love travel is not just because it transports you in every sense, but because it confronts you with emotional and moral challenges that you would never have to confront at home. So I like going out in search of moral and emotional adventure which throws me back upon myself and forces me to reconsider my assumptions and the things I took for granted. It sends me back a different person.”

Upon reaching San Cristobal de las Casas, two opportunities, among many probably options, seemed to be right at that moment. One fifth of the money was given to Amparo, a blind girl we met in the central Market Place, and the remainder to an organization called CRREAD, dedicated to getting drug addicts and alcoholics off the streets. More about those encounters below.

Thank you ITP… (Bianca from CRREAD below…)

Amparo

I spotted Amparo at the entrance of the main marketplace in San Cristobal de las Casas and couldn’t help but shiver. She was singing with a baby strapped to her back. I didn’t need an interpreter to realize what she was asking for. Rocio talked to Amparo while guiding her through the labyrinth of stalls and ditches of the marketplace. Her sorrow and hard life was apparent through her numb facial expression. Placing a nice sum of pesos in her palm, we told her to put it away in her pocket. When she heard the amount, I couldn’t help but noticing her face light up, faintly, with excitement. She said “god bless you” in her soft tone and kept walking towards the exit.
Even if handing out money to the poor is not a sustainable method for poverty alleviation, I have hope that these 500 pesos, can somehow serve Amparo and her family well. I think that receiving such a large amount (large in Chiapas) is a rare occurance for her, and have no way of knowing what she did with it. I can only trust my instincts on this one.
CRREAD

CRREAD (Centro de Recuperacion y Rehabilitacion Para Enfermos de Alcoholismo y Drogadiccion) operates all across Mexico, taking alcoholics and drug addicts off the streets and into their shelters. We met Bianca and Margarita in the Santo Domingo square, San Cristobal de las Casas as they were asking for donations. Bianca is the elder sister, and at the age of 15, works full-time for the center. One of their main tasks is raising money to pay for their bills (electricity, water) and buy mattresses. They get free food from the community, as well as clothing donations. We were there when a drugged person was brought in, and saw the process of them locking the doors behind him and taking off his shoelaces (so that he would not commit suicide). This center operates on a fantastically low budget, and benefits the community, since alcoholism is a major problem, especially with the indigenous people of that region. I tried to convince them to allow me to document their center, and take more photos, but they were not very keen. I am hopeful that this will change in the near future, as more and more people realize that being “online” can directly benefit their operations.