IT wasn't what they planned to do in Cambodia, but when a group travelling with West Vancouver's Travel Concepts left the country in February, they left behind enough money to build 21 wells, and buy whiteboards and contributed $1,000 to a solar power system for a school.
Travel Concepts and their specialty program, Women With Wings, offer "high touch" tours to destinations around the world, but whenever they visit a developing country, they donate a portion of their profits to a humanitarian project, according to a written statement.
When they took a group of 54 people (mostly North Shore residents) to Vietnam and Cambodia earlier this year, Cindy Horton and Ellie Hender, partners in Travel Concepts, decided to build a well and dedicate it to the group.
Travel Concepts worked with Uniworld River Cruises and a Cambodian aid organization called The Future of Khmer Children, which provides free education and primary health care education to Cambodian children and youth, to pick an appropriate project.
Representatives of Future of Khmer Children took them out to see the well that had been built with their money, said Horton, in the statement. They were struck by the abject poverty of the people, for example, one three-generation family that was living in one room on a small platform and had no income and so were dependent on foraging and food donations to survive.
When Horton and Hender went back to the tour group, they shared the story and pictures from their visit to the well. They also mentioned that the area needed 14 more wells. North Shore resident Shelagh Henderson stood up and asked how much it would cost to build a well. Horton told her: $300. Henderson and friend, Carole Halle, also a North Shore resident, immediately offered to pay for the well to be built. Then, another guest stood up and offered to pay for one, and another.
By the end of their weeklong river cruise on the Mekong River, the group had raised enough money to build 21 wells, as well as purchase whiteboards and make a contribution towards a solar power project for a school.
For more information on Travel Concepts, visit trvlconcepts.com.
For more information on The Future of Khmer Children, visit khmerchild. org.
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