Passports with Purpose drive to build school launches today

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.

Those familiar with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof may know of his personal effort to build a school through AAfC.

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!