Mission 2011: Rural Enlightenment through Volun-Tourism
Monday, January 10th, 2011
“With Volun-Tourism we envision an enlightened and empowered rural India where local communities are able to create conditions to fulfill their aspiration and earn a respectful livelihood without leaving their villages, overcoming barriers of class, cast, gender, ethnicity and religion.”
The year 2010 has been very special for Help Tourism as the organization completed its 20 years in Responsible Tourism. It was indeed an eventful journey punctuated by joy and sorrow. We salute all the members of the team and extended family of Help Tourism and our guests and partners who gave us support and sustenance. We take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to conservation and communities by practicing tourism as the religion of mankind.
Despite many challenges the organization successfully launched several new initiatives, projects and programmes in 2010.
The WTD (World Tourism Day) Yatra was a grand success with several very fruitful programmes in Dhaka and Paharpur to connect the heritages of Bangladesh and India. The Indian delegation was lead by internationally famous filmmaker Goutam Ghosh.
Two Peace Parks were established in 2010: Guru Padmasambhava Peace Park in Ultapani in Manas Biosphere Reserve in Assam and Lalon Fakir Peace Park in Chilapata in North Bengal.
The annual Nature and Community festival at Chilapata witnessed record attendance of all the local and regional stakeholders.
The Samsing Jaldhaka Orange Festival received overwhelming response with more than 5000 participants who presented a spontaneous and spectacular show for two days and mesmerized the audience and guests.
The ‘Waste-free Destinations’ campaign continued in 2010 with enthusiastic participation of the local grass route NGOs, travel trade, local traders, lodges and home stay operators, Forest department and local administration in Manas Biosphere Reserve in Assam.
With generous support from the state Forest and Tourism departments, Help Tourism introduced full-fledged nature-based and cultural tours in Tripura.
We along with our Nagaland team leader Angulie Meyase assisted celebrity birders Bikram Grewal, Sumit Sen, S.Ramakrishnan, Bano Haralu and Government of Nagaland in conducting the first systemic Ornithological survey in Nagaland.
We also supported the research and photo-documentation projects in Bengal and Northeast India for the publication of the book named Forts and Palaces of India published by Om Books International, written by Amita Baig and designed by Alpana Khare with photographs by Joginder Singh.
An extensive training programme was organized by us at The Swiss Hotel, Darjeeling for the Project Leaders of nature-based rural tourism initiatives in East and Northeast India. 35 Project Leaders received training on hospitality basics, rural tourism management and operations, community based tourism, adventure tourism, waste management and conservation of natural resources.
Help Tourism received the prestigious “HSBC-TOFT Wildlife and Tourism Initiative of the Year” award. Our Dihing River Camp was awarded “The Most Innovative Tourism Product” at the 80th TTF (Travel and Tourism Fair) in Kolkata.
The modern India is emerging as the second largest growing economic power in the world though sadly, despite the strong economic growth, huge domestic capacity and service potential, India still witnesses alarming disparity between the rich and poor and poverty and backwardness in the rural areas where the communities are ready to sprout with even a little encouragement and support. Tourism in general too has still a long way to walk to take a turnaround and recognize Responsible Tourism as a key to reduce the disparity and drive conservation efforts and help communities to establish their ownership on local resources.
To much to our delight, a new Mantra of Responsible Tourism is increasingly proving its worth as a level maker by poverty alleviation and bringing valuable resources and benefits to the rural communities. Volun-Tourism as it is commonly known is the demonstration of the noble way of sharing and exchanging knowledge and resources between the guests and the hosts and giving maximum back to the people and destination while enjoying an inspirational holiday experience. It opens up the global door through the local window.
Based on the need of the local communities in the destinations and the various skills possessed by the Volun-Tourists, Help Tourism has introduced well-researched and custom-made Volun-Tourism holidays and projects in several villages in East & Northeast India over the years and has already gained the trust and confidence of the communities.
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- Kolakham village, Neora Valley during a Volun-Tourism project between 7th to 19th December 2010: The volun-Tourists helped the expansion of Kolbung Primary School and built a new class room and safety boundary/fencing surrounding the school complex for the students.
Through our projects and tours Volun-Tourists have been able to cut across all geographical, language and cultural barriers and have adopted villages lying adjacent to the Protected areas and Heritage sites – from the mangroves of Sunderbans to the remote mountains in Mishmi hills and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh, from the tropical forest of Bengal Dooars and Assam to the high altitude ecosystem in Neora Valley and Sikkim, by bringing support to various important fields such as education, self-help enterprises, sustainable bio-farming, low cost and pollution free energy, rain water harvesting, medical assistance, small-scale handicraft business, organic food product, waste management, home-hospitality business, wildlife conservation, creation of community buffer forest and biological corridors; documentation of indigenous culture, language and folklores; survey and monitoring of endangered plants and wildlife.
With Volun-Tourism we envision an enlightened and empowered rural India where local communities are able to create conditions to fulfill their aspiration and earn a respectful livelihood without leaving their villages, overcoming barriers of class, cast, gender, ethnicity and religion.
May we declare the mission of Help Tourism for 2011:
RURAL ENLIGHTENMENT THROUGH VOLUN-TOURISM!
We solicit your blessings, support and participation to help us establish benchmarks in Responsible Tourism and influence rest of the globe with our humble mission.
We wish you all a great, peaceful and prosperous New Year ahead.
With deep regards, admiration, appreciation and love.
Help Tourism Family.
31st December 2010, India.
Judges at the TTF-Hyderabad (3rd to 5th July 2009) felt that “Help Tourism’s sustained effort to safeguard the environment and involve the local communities in conservation through tourism has been an example of best practices in what is truly meant by EcoTourism”.
The Dibang Valley Jungle Camp, in Mishmi Hills, Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, is a new project, only recently launched by Help Tourism. Judges honored the camp as “Most Innovative Tourism Product 2009“.
