Shopping and recycling around the world

This is a bundle of my favorite articles that address Eco-Friendliness, Fair Trade and Sustainability

• Great gift ideas (The one in Dutch is about the store WAAR at various locations in The Netherlands, where you can buy unique Fair Trade goodies!)
• Stories and tips
• Recipes (These recipes are vegetarian or vegan friendly and, of course, you can make sure to use organic and fair trade products)

Sustainability

Looking back at 2017, focussing on the positive. I have been asked to talk, and sometimes even as a Keynote Speaker on Conferences.

My talks are about Sustainability (which is the key of Social Impact) and about Social Impact. I did some research and taught myself all about Sustainability. It was a journey and I would like to share that with you in parts. Why am I thinking about that now? Because one of our interns, who was with us 2 years ago, visited us all the way from Belgium to the Philippines. She graduated Tourism and decided because of her Internship with World Experience Philippines to study more about Sustainability. 

Today she helped me, what is Sustainability and what are the Measurement Tools? For me Sustainability is if you like to make the world a better place and you dont only think about yourself. The official description is: it has to do with lagom (yes the "trendy" word from Sweden) balance, to sustain the world that generaties after us, who will follow us, have gain. Wow. So how do we do that? I am studying again, check out: The Feeling Responsible Platform of Koning Aap, Joker Reizen, check the trends on the newsletter of Travel360. I was inspired today. I wish you too.

What is Social Impact?

‘A significant, positive change that addresses a pressing social challenge.Having a social impact is the result of a deliberate set of activities with a goal around this definition.’(Center for Social Impact, University of Michigan, n.d.)

Social impact can be defined by the net results of the effects of activities on a community and the well-being of individuals and families. Sustainability is key in reaching social impact. The aim is to create positive, meaningful and long-term change for the benefit of the community.

We focussed on the following log frame: input – output – outcome – impact. Via activities, community work for example, you inject input which causes direct output. The outcome is the longer-term effect or change in broader context which hopefully turns into social impact; the sustainable effect or change on the community.

Smokey Tours and Social Impact. When we started doing projects in the slums and giving donations, our goal as to give all to the community. We would give all our income to the Foundation active in the Slum, so it could be directly put in projects. At one point we decided to go on with our tours in a professional way. Thus we had income, expenses, payment of tour leaders, transportation, meetings, a bookkeeper, business registration and “profit”. At that point, also due to transferring to another area where we did our Slum Tour, we started with Quarterly Events together with Crest. The goal was to organize an event with an educational twist, so all people would learn and most people on our route would benefit of the tour.

In the past we have organized: giving out Raincoats to children, giving out Christmas packages, Disaster training, Haircuts, Nutritional Education, Tooth brushing events, a Faucet was built in the Daycare in Happy Land.

More and more we feel like that it is good that the community is trained and organized, so they can be empowered and get more easily a job. We started in Happy Land with the Buddy system. We had 4 extra buddies from the community, as paid tour leaders in training at the back of the tour. After 2 months pilot, we had to wait too long for the buddies, they were late. They were fighting over schedules, and we decided, together with them to stop. Due to our many visits to Happy Land and our close working relationship with Crest, we discovered there was a need for a Basic Health Center. Setting it up, took a lot of time. Last moment the community has backed out and we decided due to the War on Drugs and relocation of the community to other areas to transfer our Slum Tour to Baseco with the help of Crest.

In 2017 we started with Quarterly Events, and more and more the wish of the community came forward to open a Health Center in Baseco. The local Health workers were already trained, but out of a job! It was too good to be true. We found a place, we helped 737 people in our pilot time. The Health Workers were trained by the hospital and trained by MCC of the Netherlands. We wanted more information and data of the needs of the people in Baseco in Aplaya, in the poorest area in Baseco. After 6 months, we became more and more like a Pharmacy. So we are back on track helping malnourished children (Vitameal), pregnant mothers with vitamins and education. As well as Holiday English classes, by one of our tour leaders. That is real empowerment.

We are in the middle of setting up projects sponsored by one of our former guests. With an extra new partner, besides Crest, PRRC, the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission. Our focus has always been, and will always be, to help the people, who want to be helped and to empower people with knowledge and training.

During our tours, our guests are shown the other side of Manila, and we are so thank full of so many donations in cash and in kind. Our key focus is still that we can connect organizations and groups to the Baseco Community and we can do projects together, we had Rotary events, Events with a cruise line, Food packages of individuals, Art classes, Janice slipper and dancing event. Francis Anderson School supplies bag event, Typhoon relief.

A special thanks to: JoHo, Paswerk, Co van der Hoek, Marrigje Pieters, Jenneke, Harry en Eldrid, Fenna, Yvonne S.E van Eck- Remmers van de Diaken Remonstrantse Gemeente Den Haag, Martina Locher, Lucylle, Zoe, Tessa Diamse, Yew Chie, Burn, Mowen, Jos Pepping, Leon Harbers, Daniel Frances. And all the people who are not mentioned and/or don’t want to be mentioned.

Hi everyone!

As you might have noticed, lately I've been trying to figure out how to live more sustainably. However, while I'm getting better at it at home, my travels could do with a sustainability upgrade as well. Therefore, I've been gathering some tricks I use at home, that could also be used for travelling. 

1. Get a safety razor
This is definitely one of my favorite lifestyle changes and it could easily be used for travelling as well. I have been using disposable razors for so long, and never really thought about how damaging they are for the environment due to packaging and all the plastic used for the razors themselves (I'm not even talking about production emissions etc). Recently I saw a post somewhere about a safety razor, which made me wonder whether this would be a good alternative. It turns out, many people before me have asked the same question and hundreds of blogs are written about it. Great! So after reading some experiences of other bloggers, I decided to buy one. Without putting too much effort into it, I choose the "Feather safety razor populair" at https://www.thealphamen.nl/feather-safety-razor-populair-2-mesjes.html which costs 20 euros and comes with 2 blades. I didn't want to spend too much money on one in case I didn't like it, but in hindsight, it would have been better if I bought a safety razor that was 100% metal and maybe a little bit more expensive. 

I'm very happy with my safety razor (maybe I'll write a whole blog about it sometime as well..). I was a bit scared when I used it for the first time, because it's such a sharp razor and a new experience, but this turned out to be totally unnecessary. It's super easy and it's so much better than disposable razors with 2,3,4,5 blades. You can use the razor everywhere (just be a bit more careful in sensitive areas), and you really get a clean and good shave which lasts much longer. For a sustainable shaving cream, especially when travelling, it's easiest to have a soap bar with you, or some coconut or olive oil. This works really well and is super easy. You can just bring a bit of oil with you on your travels and only use a little bit every time you shave. 

By the way, the disposable razor blades last about 1-2 months depending on how often you use it, and are recyclable. 

2. Rice water hair boost
One of the things I really dislike when I'm travelling, is when my hair gets dry. Certain climates can be really tough on your hair and damage it, and usually spending much time on revitalising your hair is not a priority when travelling. So recently, I found out about an easy trick to give your hair a little boost, and it can be done almost everywhere! 

What you do is you boil rice with 1.5 or 2 times the amount of water you would have actually needed for cooking the rice. When it's finished you drain the excess water and keep it separate. Let it cool down until it's colder, cover your hair and scalp in it (for example by putting the water in a bowl and dipping your hair and head in) and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes. Then rinse it out and your hair will be super soft again! 

If you use conditioner as well, do this after conditioning - You can also mix the rice water with green tea to make your hair more shiny - if you have too much rice water, store it in the fridge so you can use more later - you have to figure out yourself how much to use it, I think most people say once a week/two weeks/month. Or you can just use it whenever your hair feels like it needs a boost. 

3. Bring a water bottle and/or sustainable cup with you on your trip
Just like at home, you can bring your own water bottle or coffee cup when you go somewhere. This can safe millions of plastic or paper alternatives. Always ask people to use your cup for a drink your ordering, and fill your own bottle with water. A Stojo cup (https://stojo.co/) is a very good option for travellers since it is foldable and therefore takes up less space in your bag. 

4. Bring your own chopsticks
Okay, maybe this one doesn't count for all your travels, but mainly relates to travelling in south-east Asia, but it really helps save on wooden products. I have experience travelling in Japan and everywhere you buy some food, you get disposable wooden chopsticks in plastic packaging. Imagine saying no to all of these and just using your own chopsticks? It's so easy! I think on the worst days I could have saved over 8 pairs of chopsticks if I did this, and that would be only in one day. So from now on, I'm gonna bring my own and say no to the disposable ones :). 

These are just some simple tricks and tips for more sustainable travels. There are lots more to be found on the internet and more blog posts by me will follow in the future as well. But for now, you can read my blogpost about reducing your carbon footprint while travelling here, about sustainable and ethical travelling here and flight compensation here. 

Cheers, 

Hannah