Responsible Tours for Sharing Benefit with Local Community and orphanages
Our Goal:
A small thing we do on our tours can make a big difference, so everyone at iExplore Travel, we strive our best to minimize the impacts while giving maximum enjoyment from your traveling experience.
With our commitment to the communities and environments in which we visit, we seek to preserve the regions’ timeless traditions, cultural heritage, and fragile habitats. This is evident throughout our vacation experiences, and paves the way for unforgettable travel experiences. The vast majority of our luxury vacations are led by local guides using local suppliers for transportation, accommodation in environmentally-friendly Vietnam Hotels and local activities. We also contribute to local charities and reputable projects worldwide.Our main goal is to Promote responsible travel and Eco-tourism, help support sustainable development, educate our travelers and help protect the cultures and environments they visit.
In our quest to support sustainable tourism worldwide, we will do our best to ensure that your children and their children are able to enjoy their vacation as much as the ones we offer you today. We recognize that demonstrating responsible business practices towards the environment and the communities within which we operate is key to our achievement of this long term goal.
Our Responsibility
Every time we travel, whether by car, train, plane or coach, we are burning fossil fuels and contributing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And while there are many ways to travel while on vacation, we are pleased to advise that by choosing one of our many travel experiences, you are opting for one of the most environmentally friendly ways in which to do it.
With constant improvements in technology newer engines offer greater fuel efficiency while also emitting less pollutants. We are reducing the carbon footprints and environmental impact in our offices by introducing recycling, energy reduction and waste minimization projects as well as supporting local community projects where we live and work. Our staff are proud to be involved in making a difference by spending some of their time volunteering in charitable projects.
Great impact:
Community Support: We support the children at the orphanage in Hoi An. Most of children here have physical disabilities, many of them from agent orange (still affecting children from the American war) and some were abandoned. We bought for them: rice, milk, baby formula, yogurt, lanterns, and school supplies.
Environment: It’s our responsibility and also the villagers’ to take care of the environment in this beautiful Bay, we’ve been in partnership with the local authority, local people to clean part of the Bay, at the place they are living and where we are cruising through.
Sharing and understanding: When you book with us, you contribute 2% of tour cost for this school for needy children. You will be also getting detailed report from iExplore Travel team. Please tell us if you like to visit, help the children in Hoi An orphanage directly.
Guest comments on their orphanage experience:
“I spent time with a seventeen year old who couldn’t speak. The workers asked him what his dream was, and he said to be a singer. So he sang a song, and though he could barely talk, he could hold a tune. ”
“I was amazed how resilient these kids are. They have lost everything. The orphanage only pays about 50 cents a day for their upkeep. Their opportunities to get out of the orphanage is not as prevalent as we would hope for. Some of the children couldn’t even stand up, and yet they were so happy to see us. It is incredible that they find true joy in that situation.”
“One student asked me to draw a picture for him. Nearby was a shy girl. He brought her over and asked me to draw the same picture for her.”
“I enjoyed being with the disabled children more than the normal ones. If you didn’t have a present for the normal kids than it was as if you didn’t exist. With the disabled kids all you had to do was pick them up and rub their back and they fell in love with you.”
“I was sad and happy at the same time: sad that there was such suffering, but happy that I could bring some light into their lives.”
“I was kind of wondering what these little kids did all day with so little, ‘cuz I kind of buy my entertainment.”
“I felt so guilty when I saw how their faces lit up with the smallest gift. In America we take so much for granted. When you get something, you want something else.”
“It’s interesting, depending how you were raised, how some people will always want more, while others are content with so little.”
“I walked into the circle and sat down. Immediately a little girl crawled into my lap. I stayed with her for the next hour.”
Mrs. Cong, the director of the orphanage, explained to us that this is a government sponsored orphanage, but they pay the equivalent of about 50 cents a day per person for everything the children need. Thus, the orphanage is very dependent on outside resources. When new children arrive, like the two infants this last month, the orphanage must petition the government for additional funds. In the two months it takes for the government to complete the paper work, all costs for the infants come out of the pockets of the administrators, teachers, and workers. In the 24 years she has worked here, only about 6 or 7 children have been adopted (it was explained to me later by our guide that the Vietnamese are very hesitant to adopt children). The director told us her dream: she would like to build three more classrooms for the children, build a kitchen that doesn’t leak, make the grounds more beautiful with some landscaping, and install a new pump for the well so that the water is safe to drink.
After the evening session, some students offered to donate some of their Vietnamese spending money to help the children in the orphanage. So far they have raised $120. If anyone who is reading this would like to help out, either let me know how much you would like to donate, and I will get the money to the orphanage (you can send a check to my wife Christy, like we did before with Mikel in India), or use the information below to donate directly.
Quang Nam Orphans and Handicapped Children Center
108 Nguyen Truong To Street
Hoi An City
Quang Nam Province
Vietnam
Director Pham Thi Cong
Account No: 065-1-00-048645-2
Joint Stock Commercial Bank For Foreign Trade Of Vietnam
Branch in Hoi An City,
Quang Nam Province
Swift Code: BFTVVNVX065
