Disaster Relief Employee Volunteering - Field Report from Haiti and Update on Japan Plans

We are taking this opportunity to provide you with an update on the significant progress being made by Elevate Destinations Disaster Relief Programs.  In addition to completing another successful Haiti trip, Elevate Destinations won a prestigious honor from National Geographic Traveler and is planning a volunteer relief initiative in Japan.

Haiti – Report from the Field: In March 2011, the Elevate Haiti trip was an unequivocal success.  Volunteers from all over the United States were able to:

• Raise over $10,000 for the St. Joseph’s Family and the rebuilding of their homes for orphaned and ex-slave children.
• Bond and play with the kids, sharing extraordinary moments filled with laughter and music.
• Contribute to amazing progress on the construction of both the Port-au-Prince Home and the Jacmel Community Center extension.
• Show solidarity with Haitians during their rebuilding phase.
• Support the employment of over 20 Haitian workers hired for the rebuilding process.

We invite you to review the report and “Before & After” pictures from Urgent Service Travel Director, Andrea Atkinson. “The first time I was in Haiti was in May 2010. It was 4 months after the earthquake. It had been 4 months since St. Joseph's School for Boys had been ravaged and Bill, the director, had fallen from the 7th story to the ground below, saved from being crushed by the rubble only by the strength of a sturdy tree that held it back”. Read the full report from Haiti here.

However, there is still more to be done.  Ongoing funding, volunteers, and support are crucial to the completion of the new orphanage – which will benefit more children than in the 28 years prior combined. The building will be completed in 2013.  Until then, we have a monumental but achievable task ahead.

Disaster Response in the Gulf: Our trip to the Gulf to help with restoring marine habitats after the BP Oil Spill is being planned for next year. Our partnership with non-profit, Ocean Foundation, is developing and expanding as we learn of additional needs in the region caused by the recent tornadoes. A custom trip is possible upon request.

Disaster Relief Plans for Japan: Elevate Destinations is saddened by the tragedy that continues to grip Japan and is moved by the amazing interest in volunteering in the country. Elevate Destinations is working to secure effective partnerships with non-profits in Japan, so that when the country is ready for second response disaster relief, we are ready to mobilize. We are focusing again on the needs of the many children orphaned by the earthquake and tsunami to help them rebuild their lives.  We expect to offer a volunteer trip late this year or early in 2012.

National Geographic Traveler Award: The trip "Elevate Haiti: Jacmel Community School Volunteer Build-Out," has been selected as one of National Geographic Traveler magazine’s 2011 “50 Tours of a Lifetime,” and is featured in the May/June 2011 issue - Read the article online

About Elevate Destinations Disaster Relief Programs: Elevate Destinations is a social enterprise with expertise in travel organizing and humanitarian issues. Elevate’s staff has extensive knowledge of international sustainability development issues to ensure that each service opportunity is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable for the long-term. Elevate Destinations custom designs extraordinary individual, group, and family trips, donating a percentage of profits to the protection of natural resources and community development in destination countries. These programs provide communities with funding, resources, and human capital, enabling concerned citizens to engage in urgent service and life-changing experiential learning. Additional information about the sponsorship benefits and costs is available at http://www.elevatedestinations.com/urgentservicesponsor.html

Elevate Destinations and Reputation Dynamics has partnered together to help corporations combine corporate contributions with first hand employee participation, maximizing positive impact for employee engagement and the communities that are most affected.  Please contact us to explore how we can help you design signature programs worldwide, tailored to your company's strategic giving interests.

Sam Taylor

Disaster Relief Employee Volunteering and Sponsorship Opportunities - Haiti and the Gulf

Commitment to disaster response and relief programs is an increasing priority for corporate responsibility and community development programs. This is due to the frequency and severity of natural disasters that have occurred in the United States and around the world. In just the past five years, we have witnessed catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti Earthquake and the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill.  In addition to donating money and resources, employee volunteer programs represent significant benefits and opportunities for corporations.  In addition to providing financial donations and in-kind support, employee volunteer programs enable companies to cultivate more personal links to the community by sharing human talent with organizations in need.

Elevate Destinations is offering disaster relief employee volunteering and/or sponsorship opportunities in Haiti and the Gulf.  Their programs provide communities with funding, resources and human capital, enabling concerned citizens to engage in urgent service and life-changing experiential learning.

Upcoming Trips:

Elevate Haiti: Jacmel Community School Volunteer Build-out March 20 - April 3, 2011; 
August 14 - 28, 2011; and November 20 – December 4, 2011.

Port-au-Prince Boy’s Home Rebuild March 20 - 28, 2011; August 14 - 22, 2011; and November 20 – 27, 2011 Non-profit Partner: St. Joseph’s Family

Elevate the Gulf: April 22 - April 30, 2011 Non-profit Partner: The Ocean Foundation

There are opportunities to be involved in several ways:

• Sponsor a volunteer trip. By supporting a volunteer trip as a Single Trip Sponsor, Series Sponsor or a Top Sponsor, you support a local community project as well as a group of volunteers already committed to hands-on disaster relief. You commit to the recovery of a community in need by providing needed resources to the project and offsetting the costs that devoted volunteers take on to participate.

• Send employee volunteers. When you support your employees’ desires to engage in volunteer experiences, you not only commit to disaster relief, but also commit to building a team of loyal and dedicated employees. You have the opportunity to send one or more of your employees on the trip of the lifetime as a Single Trip Sponsor, Series Sponsor or a Top Sponsor.

Additional information about the sponsorship benefits and costs is attached, along with a link - http://www.elevatedestinations.com/urgentservicesponsor.html.

Elevate Destinations is a social enterprise with expertise in travel organizing and humanitarian issues. Elevate’s staff have extensive knowledge of international sustainability development issues to ensure that each service opportunity is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable for the long-term. Elevate Destinations custom designs extraordinary individual, group,and family trips, donating a percentage of profits to the protection of natural resources and community development in destination countries (www.elevatedestinations.com).

Elevate Destinations Press and Recognition:

Travel + Leisure – November 2010 “Best Life-changing Trips” Haiti: Help Heal A Nation Los Angeles Times – June 2010  “Haiti: Volunteer vacations to help rebuild quake areas”

For further information, please contact me at sam@reputation-dynamics.com

In Honor of World Water Day, Reputation Dynamics and Elevate Destinations Partner on Kenya: Water 2010

July 10 - 20, 2010

Registration Deadline: April 15 View full itinerary

5% of Trip Cost to be Donated to NGO Partner Organizations

As citizens and companies are becoming increasingly aware, we are facing a global water crisis, which is consigning large segments of humanity to lives of poverty, vulnerability and insecurity.

In fact, the United Nations estimates that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will face periodic and often severe water shortages.

The UNDP Human Development Report argues that the scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and inequality, not in physical availability of water.

In partnership with Elevate Destinations, Reputation Dynamics is offering an exciting opportunity for your company stakeholders (employees, customers, business partners) to understand the importance of water, as well as consider Kenya as an extension to your sustainability initiatives. Through conversations with local and international water experts, policy makers and NGO representatives, as well as project site visits, you will learn first-hand the significance of water for human, environmental and economic prosperity. 

Trip Overview:  Travelers will receive a comprehensive overview of the most important water-related challenges facing people in Kenya, and explore some of the innovative and effective solutions that have been suggested in response.

Participants will explore issues of environment, biodiversity, droughts, floods, transboundary water resources, sanitation and health, agriculture and fisheries, pastoralism, and other areas through a combination of activities: conversations with local experts, participation in daily activities, project visits, and tourism.

Paul Faeth, President of the coalition group Global Water Challenge based in Washington DC, will lead the tour.  Local experts will also accompany the group and add their own particular perspective on the issues of each region.

This trip is the first in a series of theme-based travel opportunities for global citizens wishing to understand and impact urgent issues.

Highlights:

• Nairobi: Learn about water distribution and sanitation in informal urban settlements
• Lake Victoria:  Explore the importance of integrated and transboundary water management for sustainable growth and development
• Northern Kenya:Learn about the devastating effects of the recent drought in Samburuland, and examine ongoing mitigation strategies.
• Maasai Mara:  Understand how deforestation has affected local communities, wildlife and the ecosystem

Partner organizations include Florida International University (FIU), Global Water Challenge; KickStart; the Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Cooperation (LVRLAC); the Kenyan NGO Maji na Ufanisi (Water and Development); the Ol Malo Trust; and the WWF, among others.

More information:

View full itinerary

For more information and to register for the trip, please contact Sam Taylor at sam@elevatedestinations.com. Tel. +1 212 979 6092

Why is water important? Water has always played a key role in economic development, and economic development has always been accompanied by water development. Investment in water management has been repaid through livelihood security and reductions in health risks, vulnerability and ultimately poverty. Water contributes to poverty alleviation in many ways – through sanitation services, water supply, affordable food and enhanced resilience of poor communities faced with disease, climate shocks and environmental degradation. Water of the right quality can improve health through better sanitation and hygiene and, when applied at the right time, can enhance the productivity of land, labor and other productive inputs. In addition, healthy freshwater ecosystems provide multiple goods and services essential to life and livelihood. Water and sanitation are among the most powerful preventive medicines available to governments to reduce infectious disease. Investment in this area is to killer diseases like diarrhea what immunization is to measles – a life saver. Unclean water and poor sanitation have claimed more lives over the past century than any other cause. Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2006; UN World Water Development Report 3

About Elevate Destinations: Founded in 2005, Elevate Destinations is a leading global sustainable travel company offering customized adventures to travelers seeking to explore and impact the environmental, socio-cultural and economic conditions of the places they visit. Elevate Destinations offers travel to Africa, India, Latin America and Southeast Asia, and organizes donor trips for both profit and non-profit organizations. Every Elevate Destinations trip benefits environmental preservation and community development.

Posted by Sam Taylor

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