Help Passports with Purpose
Passports with Purpose is a collaborative online fundraiser created in 2008 by four Seattle-based travel bloggers: Debbie Dubrow, Pam Mandel, Michelle Duffy and Beth Whitman, the bloggers behind Delicious Baby, Nerd’s Eye View, WanderMom, and Wanderlust and Lipstick.
Each year, they choose a charity and leverage their online presence to help raise funds for it. This year, 2010, they are building a village in Southern India with Land for Tillers’ Freedom (LAFTI) and their non-profit branch based in the U.S., Friends of LAFTI Foundation.
Watch this video about the founder of LAFTI – a real modern-day hero. It’s a very inspiring, very moving story about women empowering women. Yay!
Build a village for Dalits in Tamil Nadu, India
After successfully raising nearly $30,000 in 2009, this year they are aiming for $50,000 to benefit LAFTI, based in Tamil Nadu, India.
“We really are calling upon travel bloggers to help raise the funds by spreading the word about Passports with Purpose among their networks, readers and social media contacts,” said Debbie Dubrow. “Like last year, we hope that this effort will not only raise money for a very worthy charity, but also help develop a stronger sense of community among travel bloggers, and demonstrate the effect we can have when we work together.”
For more information visit the Passports with Purpose website.
LAFTI’s Mission
For more than 50 years, LAFTI’s founders – Krishnammal Jagannathan and S. Jagannathan – have been committed to helping Dalits (India’s untouchables), especially women, with projects that include land distribution, cultivation, adult training, youth housing and housing construction. For less than $2,000, LAFTI can build a home, for which the land title is given to the woman of the household. Passports with Purpose aims to raise enough money to build approximately 25 homes to create the Passports Village in Karunganni, located in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Krishnammal Jagannathan and S. Jagannathan have been awarded two major humanitarian awards for their efforts. The first was the Opus Prize, presented on November 18, 2008 in a ceremony at Seattle University in Seattle. The second was the Right Livelihood Award presented a month later in Sweden as part of a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament. Since Jagannathan is no longer able to travel, Krishnammal accepted both of these awards on behalf of LAFTI.
According to Krishnammal, “Orathur villagers are firmly determined to build new houses. They are very eager to contribute their labor towards house building.”
Help Passports with Purpose raise funds to help these determined villagers create a better life for themselves and their families.
For more information visit the Passports with Purpose website.
Mariellen Ward is a freelance travel writer whose personal style is informed by a background in journalism, a dedication to yoga and a passion for sharing the beauty of India’s culture and wisdom with the world. She has traveled for about a year altogether in India and publishes an India travel blog, Breathedreamgo.com. Mariellen also writes for magazines and newspapers.
