Help Tourism

Tourism mostly is about taking: taking lunch, taking sleep, taking pictures, taking excursions… But if – after frequent visits – a strong relation between the visitors of a tourist spot and the local residents and staff forms, tourism can be about giving as well, and become a great platform for mutual enrichment.

Our friend Ajoy just send his Pre Puja Festival Report, 2008 of Sunderbans Jungle Camp. Thanks, Ajoyda.

Last five year, during the Puja Festival I along with my friends & some associates visit Sunderbans Jungle Camp, Bali island to play, dance & spent some quality time with the community living in that area. This year on the 30th of August 2008 we left Kolkata for the same. Our main objective was to involve the entire community with us in various activities like game shows, organizing plays or dramas along with other cultural activities. The local community here gets involved in all the activities & we too try to prop up with them by distributing garments for about 325 children. In addition we bought a carom board for the young guys who are vibrantly involved with us & they have all become a part of our family. Unlike previous year, this year the involvement was extremely surprising as the children from near by villages too got mixed up with us.

The next morning that is on the 31 st of Aug 2008 almost 125 children gathered in our camp where we arranged lunch for all of them. People from our Self Help Group participated in cooking & serving & in distribution of the cloths. This whole gathering gives an enchanting feeling & this has now turned out to be an annual fest.

In addition to all this, though there is a medical camp running for last few year, with the growing demand for medical need we are trying to finalize a land in that area for a four bedded hospital at present. This whole participation does give us a feeling of oneness that will surely get carry forward every year.

Ajoy Roy is a Kolkata based veteran journalist of Associated Press Television News, a keen photographer and documentary film maker and a staunch protagonist of Help Tourism movement, who has documented most of the Help Tourism projects.

Tags: Encounters, Sunderbans

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Community Development, Feedback. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.