Travel
bloggers demonstrated the reach and potential of harnessing blogging and social
media to help others with the successful Passports with Purpose last year, tackling
the even more ambitious goal of building a school with the launch the second
annual Passports with Purpose drive today.
Passports
with Purpose founders and travel bloggers Beth Whitman, Debbie Dubrow, Michelle
Duffy, and Pam Mandel, inspired by the success of other blogging groups to
raise money for worthy causes, launched Passports with Purpose in late 2008.
The group raised $7400 last year, with very little lead time or advance
planning, to benefit Heifer International.
This
year, the philanthropic quartet chose American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC) as
the 2009 Passports with Purpose beneficiary. The AAfC is an independent and non-profit
organization dedicated to improving opportunities for the youth and rural poor
in Cambodia.

Passports
with Purpose co-founder, Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby, visited Cambodia and
says that rebuilding the country's economy and intellectual society destroyed
by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s remains a strong desire among Cambodians, but
limited resources to do so in rural Cambodia make those goals ever elusive. Lacking
access to education, children in rural area are at risk of falling prey to
poverty or becoming victims of sex trafficking.
American
journalist Bernie Krisher founded AAfC in 1993, and the group lists the
construction of more than 400 primary and secondary schools in rural Cambodia
as one of its major accomplishments.
AAfC
has a donor pledged to foot half the cost of building a school, and this year's
Passports with Purpose fundraiser aims to raise the $13,000 necessary to
complete the project through raffling some great prizes at the Passports with
Purpose site.
Check
out the Passports with Purpose Web site for more information about the group
and how you can help.
Select
the prizes you'd love to win, and go to the Passports with Purpose link to make
your donation. For each ten dollar donation you make between now and December
21, Passports with Purpose enters you into the raffle for your prize of choice.
Note as you bid for prizes that shipping restrictions, terms, and blackout
dates might apply in some cases.
One
hundred percent of the donations go directly to AAfC, a 501 (c)(3) charity.
Passports
with Purpose will announce the prize winners on January 5, 2010.
Meanwhile,
you can keep track of Passport with Purpose's progress toward the goal of
building a school by checking out the widget on the right-hand side of my blog,
or visit the Passports with Purpose site.
Last
year's prize list included some pretty fabulous items--many things that would
make a great gift for someone on your list, even as you help give the gift of a
brighter future to children whose prospects are dim without the resources to
become educated and build better lives for themselves.
Help
the travel blogging community help others, any maybe find some great travel
blogs you'll continue to enjoy year round in the process!
© Dominique King 2009 All rights reserved







































