In Amsterdam

18 February 2012. Amsterdam, Netherlands.

We have been in the Low Lands for more than a week now, went on a family visit and arranged some boring bureaucratic "stuff". The good news is that we are almost ready to go South by South-East (as those will be the predominant direction of our journey: south to Kenya first, than South-East to Capetown and hopping over to South America). But we might as well change our plans completely and go to any other country in the world (with very few exceptions). Do you have a suggestion where we should go?

Winter seems to be over here, the traditional ice-skating competition, the Elfstedentocht, was cancelled on the night we arrived here, and we can walk around with not much more than a sweater. The city is vibrant: through the window of a coffee shop where we worked today (I mean a shop where the sell coffee), we saw a parade of adorned cars proclaiming the greatness of the Prophet Mahomet. I thought that the participants looked rather dull and dutiful, but still, this colors public life.

Inside that coffee shop, the Stadskantine, Kamiel worked on the kindmankind.net-website, and now volunteertravelfreedom.org
is pointing to it (check it out and participate!). Meanwhile, Yeon visited a museum that turned out to be closed. More luck if we go out, tonight.

We are going to Holland!

6. February. Istanbul, Turkey.

For practical reasons, we have decided to visit the Netherlands for two weeks; Kamiel's family is there, and some unfinished paperwork. Add the fact that Dutch is his native tongue, so he can use the thing on media and potential supporters of Charity Travel. Plus we might get a chance to chime in with protests against some radical new Dutch laws. We're planning to move on to Kenya around February 20.

Preparing for East Africa

Preparing for East Africa

11. January 2012. Istanbul, Turkey.

We have been living in Istanbul for six weeks and love this city a lot. But if all goes well, we will move south to Nairobi soon. We are, after all, on a mission. Istanbul has treated us very well and we were able to get ourselves more or less organized for the upcoming journey. In this article I present a tentative plan and our readers are very welcome to comment and suggest alternative itineraries or activities.

Xoslu Vision

Xoslu Vision

16-23 November 2011. Dakar, Senegal.

Xoslu Vision is a spirited hip hop and artist collective spreading the mindset of positive thinking and self-reliance among the youths of the poorest part of greater Dakar. Xoslu's take their destiny into their own hands, and hip hop turns out to be the perfect tool to advocate this spirit.

Green Senegal

Green Senegal

October 2011. St. Louis, Senegal.

Kamiel visits the small NGO Green Senegal during a brief stay in St. Louis. The organisation works with local communities on sustainable agriculture and has several projects in rural areas around the old colonial town of St. Louis in the north of the country. Kamiel visits the NGO together with a friend from Spanish NGO Conemund, and visits some well-managed projects on the ground. He supports by doing a few translations, and of course a little promotion for this NGO.

ADAN Street Cat Shelter, RabatO

ADAN - Cat Shelter

September 2011. Rabat, Maroc.

A small stray cat shelter located in the center of Rabat takes care of the animals, gives them vaccinations and antibiotics, and accommodates them on several locations. We visit the shelter and help with painting the logo, repairing a website, and making a small documentary.

Book Publishing - Traversing Africa

Book Publishing - Traversing Africa

29. September 2011. Rabat / Seoul

Yeon and Kamiel have decided to work from different locations for a little while. Yeon will be promoting her book about Charity Travel in South Korea the coming month, while Kamiel will try to travel from Morocco to Kenya overland on a budget. If internet is available, he'll post on www.kindmankind.org; you can follow Yeon by looking closely at the nr. 1 position of your local best seller list.

Tangiers

Getting organized in northern Morocco

August 12-14. Tanger

We have safely arrived in Morocco and found a clean hotel room in a slanted backstreet just a stone's throw away from the new avenue Mohamed VI. Having been welcomed by the kingdom of Morocco, we now enjoy this hotel's wifi to start the planning of our Moroccan charity travel adventure. We are looking for a place to be based for the coming two months, a place from where we can undertake charitable journeys into rural communities in need and further develop our theatrical approach to development. We will keep you posted as we start riding our donkey cart over the Atlas mountains.

West Africa Journey starts on August 1st.

West Africa Journey from August 1st.

July 22, 2011. Berlin

This year 2011 we have launched our new platform kindmankind, the web's largest open resource for independent volunteers and creative changemakers. We have built up our online fb-tw-li-yt "empire" and Yeon is finishing her book on Charity Travel (in Korean). The Schengen-zone now gently forces us to head South - a journey which we delightfully undertake and to which you are invited! We will work at the grassroots to inspire sustainability and kindness through theatre. The journey starts in Berlin on August 1st.

charity travel goes kindmankind

Charity Travel goes Kindmankind.

May 2, 2011. Berlin

We the people of charity travel have created a platform where independent volunteers can find and share grassroots initiatives around the world. Thanks to some amazing people, the collection of free and no-fee "volunteering opportunities" is already huge and our kind community of independent changemakers is contributing more.

Real grassroots change starts here: http://kindmankind.net

Presentation in Khabarovsk

Presentation in Khabarovsk

January 22th. Khabarovsk

For an interested audience of young shipbuilding students at a technical college, we hold our presentation of Charity Travel. We are glad to see that our story inspires, and can become a modest part of a student's motivation to learn foreign languages.

Korea

We have reached Korea

Late January, 2011. Estonia, Russia, Korea

We have taken the train from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok, the transsiberian, good for about 170 hours, crammed in a 'platzkart' waggon together with moderately inebriated Russians - and it's great. Please consider this as a statement for the environment and don't fly unless when strictly necessary.
We supported projects in Ekaterinburg and Irkutsk, and held a presentation on a school in Khabarovsk. (transsiberian.kindmankind.net)
We have safely arrived in Korea and continue working at this, the virtual side of things;-

Transsiberian

Kind of Transsiberian

Early January, 2011. Berlin, Kaunas, Riga

On the road again. This time we are moving to Korea overland and hope to support some project on our way. If you know any charitable organisations working somewhere near the Transsiberian railroad, please do let us know. These projects will of course be published on this charitytravel blog.

If our fingers are not frozen, we will blog about it on transsiberian.kindmankind.net

Thank you for following us!

Yeon and Kamiel

Merry Christmas

News Update

December 8 - December 24, 2010. Mellensee, Berlin

A lot has happened - one year ago we were celebrating Christmas in Kenya as we were building the Rainbow Center. Now we are working on our book and website from a 'datscha' near Berlin.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND AMAZING 2011!

Our Independent Changemakers website is slowly developing and will be launched next year.

We are still looking for a Cause to support along the Transsiberian railroad so please don't hesitate to provide us any useful information.

Yours,

Yeon and Kamiel

Community Website & Korean Book

News Update

November 20-December 7, 2010. Mellensee, Berlin

We are still here, in a beautiful snowy forest near Berlin.
Yeon is working on her Korean book on Charity Travel, Kamiel is working on a Community Website for independent volunteers (soon to be pre-launched).
We will travel overland to Korea soon. If you know of any charitable initiatives *kind of* on the way (in the Baltics, Russia, Georgia, Azerbeijan, Armenia, Mongolia) and we will consider it.
If you know any media that wants to write about the concept of independent volunteering: we have great resources and are always open for an interview;-

Until next time, happy changemaking,

Yeon and Kamiel

News Update

News Update

November 3 - November 19. Berlin, Mellensee.

As the weather turned drizzling dreary, we were working on chapters of the charity travel book, as well as Yeon's children illustration book. Met with betterplace.org but their workload is too high- together we decided a seperate website for independent volunteers is a good idea. We want to keep it simple and started working on a prototype with the help of a good friend and web specialist semanthis.de. It should combine these existing websites into a more powerful and social platforms, maintained by our community: independentvolunteer.org, volunteersouthamerica.org, and many more. For that foundation we visit Groningen briefly this weekend. More information about the platform and the foundation will follow soon.

October 19: News Update

News Update

October 19-November 2. Tilburg, Berlin, Mellensee.

We stayed a few more days in the Netherlands and Kamiel gave a newspaper interview for "Brabants Dagblad". Then we shared a ride to Berlin and saw many of his old friends. We now stay in Mellensee, a quiet village some 30km south of Berlin and are writing our book. We also talked to the people of betterplace.org about a platform for traveling spontaneous volunteers.

October 4 - 18. News Update

News Update

October 4-18. Tilburg, Amsterdam, Utrecht.

After our presentation in New York, we traveled to the Netherlands to attend the wedding of Kamiel's brother and meet his family. On October 15, we presented Charity Travel at the Monticus Montessori school in Amsterdam. Meanwhile, we started writing on the CT-book and worked on the last articles about Koeju, ~nanta, and COMPA.

OCT 4th: Presentation in Manhattan

Our presentation in Manhattan

teatro circulo, 64 East 4th Street. October 4th, 7pm ET

After a year of travelling for the Good, it is time for a presentation.
You can expect a clear TED-like presentation of our idea, an anecdote-packed recount of our journey, tips on how to do-it-yourself, and a discussion about the virtue of independent charity traveling.

Camillus House

Camillus House Homeless Shelter

October 1st, 2010. Miami.

This year, Miami's famous homeless shelter "Camillus House" celebrates its 50th anniversary and moves to a new location. They will continue supporting the people of the street with counseling, medical assistance, activities, education, food and shelter. Kamiel visits and gets a good impression.