Trip to ChangePeople from diverse fields with similar dreams got united to work towards achieving all the dreams together through DREAMERS UNITED, by supporting each other and by creating spaces for sharing and initiating new ideas.
The founding members are Ijas Hakkim, Hridya Shyamala Jayaram, Mina Jaleel, Jaseel CK, Niyog Krishna and myself working in different sectors with common interests in travel and community development came to a single platform to share their skills to initiate the first project that involves both travel and community development, bringing a new perspective to the existing trends and travel culture, by introducing first of its kind voluntourism program - TRIP to Change (Travelling Rural India Paths to Change). Trip to change is an initiative by Dreamers United initially implemented with the host organisation, Manthan Kotri, an organisation that works in the area of sustainable development in rural Rajasthan for last 20 years, to provide never before experience to travellers in exploring and understanding rural India and its culture in its true essence, and to utilize their skills and inputs in bringing change to the villages and contributing to their sustainable development, giving an all new dimension to volunteering tourism. TRIP to Change is a travel volunteering project, where travellers get to visit the lesser known, yet beautiful villages in the interior parts of the country, interact with the people there and help them in solving the issues that they face. This way, they get a great amount of exposure, help find feasible solutions, and you get a new travel experience. The expenses of the travel that the participant gives goes directly to the local economy. Participants get to stay with different host homes in the villages and be a part of their daily activities and works like farming and working in the salt fields. This is one way in which the local population can have an additional income and a direct benefit from the project. In addition, the participants get to be a part and share their skills in the sustainable development projects in the village. The first batch of volunteers is yet to join, even though the programme was implemented for a group of fellows from Australia and Britain respectively. They stayed for three weeks each, where they got to live with the locals and learn their issues and contributed their part to the community. |