Given that the journey began ‘way back in October (while I was too simply too busy dealing with the unfortunate combination of my annual fund-raising trip to Ireland and a family crisis of mammoth proportions to even contemplate trying to blog about it here) most of you will be forgiven knowing little or nothing about travel4more or the current trans-global adventure they’re undertaking – through which they’re also very kindly raising valuable funds for just-one‘s ongoing work in Nepal.
The story began when Tom (a Liverpudlian friend who had come to know of just-one while he was sharing his legal expertise with a human-rights organisation in Nepal which he voluntarily worked with a few years ago) teamed up with Sina, Janne and Patrice (3 young Germans who shared his passion for travel) and together they decided to embark upon a 30,000km overland adventure from Melbourne, Australia to the small Bavarian town of Mömlingen that the German trio hail from.
While the primary objective of the travel4more project is to provide a real-time critique of the varying impacts of global tourism with a particular focus on responsible travel, they also wisely included a socially conscious angle to the trip by offering to raise both awareness of and valuable funds for just-one. Far from being a mere afterthought, their decision stemmed from their strong belief that the trip was not only a valuable opportunity to highlight the positive and negative effects tourism has on the regions and countries they’ll be passing through, but was also an equally valuable opportunity to raise some much needed funds for an organisation tackling some of the negative effects of tourism. This is where Tom’s time in Kathmandu became extremely fortuitous for all at just-one as, having witnessed the unwittingly central role that well-intentioned travellers often play in the sad phenomenon of street-children, it was decided that just-one was to be the lucky organisation to benefit from their novel initiative.
And benefit we have! I’m absolutely thrilled to report that today saw the latest donation, made via travel4more‘s fund-raising page on our site, push the running-total €10 over their initial target of €3,000! We’re obviously delighted to receive such a significant boost to our funding (bearing in mind that €3,000 isn’t a whole lot less than 10% of the current annual budget for our proudly no-frills operation in Nepal) and even happier to know that the travel4more team intend to continue raising money in aid of our work for the duration of their journey! It goes without saying that this money, along with all other funds we graciously receive, is HUGELY appreciated by all at just-one, will be put to the very best use by our incredible team of local staff in Kathmandu and is nothing less than central to the continuing success of our work in Nepal.
Hailing, as I do, from the small coastal town of Clonakilty in Ireland (home to, amongst many other fantastic events, the sporadically annual ‘just-one weekend’ which will have a whole blog to itself in due course…), I was also very happy to learn (as I did recently in an email from a kind donor to travel4more‘s fund-raising drive) that just-one has also become “a little bit famous” around the small Bavarian town of Mömlingen. I think it’s fair to say that, to date, ‘small’ has been the beauty, and indeed the success, of all that just-one is! We know that we’ll never change the whole world nor address all its problems, but we’re happy to simply brighten the world of each of the children we work with by tackling their individual problems one by one. Our entire operation is small enough to allow our staff to personally know each of the children we support and to be considered a close friend and confidant by each of them and their respective families who often struggle against unfathomable odds. Our overall financial requirements are small enough to allow ordinary people like you to become hugely significant contributors to our on-going and important efforts in Nepal.
You don’t have to be a Sina, Tom, Janne or Patrice and contend with the perilous task of traversing the globe to raise much needed funds for us. Their fantastic endeavour is most certainly greatly appreciated (and, needless to say, we are always delighted to hear that someone or other has decided to hold a coffee morning/table quiz/head shave/parachute jump/cake sale/marathon run/dinner party/etc in aid of our work ;o), but it shouldn’t be forgotten that the ultimate success of a fund-raising event like this starts at a much more basic level – with the fantastic support that people like you give so freely. I can assure you that it all adds up and I can doubly assure you that there is no such thing as a donation too small to be of benefit to just-one.
To reiterate that particular point I want to quickly share a random instance that took place in my local supermarket on Christmas Eve just gone. As I queued at the check-out, a boy tapped me on the shoulder and, handing me some money, simply said “That’s for the kids in Nepal.” Turning around to thank him, I saw that he was there with a couple of his friends (one wearing a very cool black trilby hat ;o) buying chocolate and I just thought how wonderful it was that he was willing to share what little he may have had for the benefit of the less fortunate children he hears me taking about when I’ve visit his school every year. I don’t know the boy personally but do want to thank him here again – not only for his incredibly kind contribution towards just-one‘s work, but also for perhaps providing the potential inspiration for you to kindly consider if you might also be able to make a donation of your own and get a head-start on a truly meaningful resolution for 2012! Thanks Oisín – as long as there are people like you and Tom and Sena and countless others in the world, I’ve got no doubt that, economic recession or not, just-one will be able to continue doing all it does and the world will be that much brighter.
