Meet Social Entrepreneurs in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Chiang Rai

Sowers Exchange is a new tour operator in Hong Kong focused on creating trips for people to meet innovative social entrepreneurs working throughout Asia. In the next six months, they have two unique trips planned:

21 to 25 May 2010 -- Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (Cambodia) with Pepy

30 June to 4 July 2010 -- Chiang Rai (Thailand) visiting Mirror Art Group, Population and Community Development Association, and Doi Tung Development Project

For details, feel free to email info@wanliluplay.com.

WANLILU Play is a bespoke travel planner that does not normally represent any particular travel product, but we'd like to support Sowers Exchange's innovative tours. So we are helping to spread the good word on these inspiring journeys, and donating the commission that is usually payable to a normal travel agency to the social enterprises visited on each trip. Each trip already has a mandatory donation built into the price, but if you book your Sowers Exchange trip through us, you will increase your impact by another 10% of the trip price.

Cool Fall Trips that will Change Someone's Life: Social Entrepreneurship in Cambodia and more...

I'm always grateful for the many opportunities I have to meet fascinating people doing incredibly interesting things. It's especially wonderful when I get to share in the passion of someone just starting something up. Even better when their passions align with mine. So when Darius, the founder of SOW Asia, a venture philanthropy foundation, introduced me to Paul who was starting Sowers Exchange to create philanthropic travel opportunities, I was keen to help promote their trips.

Paul is an Australian who has been living in Hong Kong since he was 16. He speaks fluent Cantonese and has spent much of his time here working with marginalized and under-resourced people through faith-based organizations. But he realized that there were many well-meaning people outside of religious institutions with an unfulfilled desire to contribute. Most lacked the opportunities for lack of organizational capabilities. That was the seed for Sowers Exchange.

For Sowers Exchange's inaugural trip, Paul has put-together a short 4-day/3-night trip (23-26 October 2009) to connect with the people working at two of Cambodia's ground-breaking social enterprises: Friends International and Tiny Toones. This trip is a perfect primer for anyone who's ever been interested in understanding how social enterprises are different from charities, seeing first-hand how their innovative approaches to solving social problems often have an empowering effect on local communities.

The trip is open to 15 people. To join the trip: Sowers_Exchange_cambodia_Oct09.pdf

In November, there are two other trips worthy of mention. The first actually precipitated a reconnection with Anika, one of my Primary 1 classmates, whom I had not kept in touch with since I left DGJS after Primary 3! I had received an email from Habitat for Humanity calling for volunteers to join the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project from 14-20 November 2009 to build homes in earthquake-affected Qionglai, Sichuan. If you ever wanted to meet former President Jimmy Carter, here's your chance! It promises to be a historic build in scale as well as celebrity presence.

They are recruiting volunteers as well as donations to support student volunteers:
JRCWP_Habitat_for_Humanity_eFlyer.pdf


Last, but not least, is a very rare opportunity to drive (safely and comfortably, I might add!) through some of the most scenic areas of Yunnan through Laos and on to Thailand in brand-new Toyota Prados supplied by Avis. The drive with On the Road in China (a company started by Peter, a fellow b-school alum and former racecar driver) starts in Shangri-La and ends in Chiang Mai, with overnight stays in some of the most luxurious hotels around: