Why do some people love to travel?
I think you already know the answer, because they discover a beautiful place they don’t know, a new culture, new people, they can also discover themselves what do they really like, who they are. Traveling is part of a way of life, and it can be done in many ways. But there is a way you should favor and avoid taking into the mass tourism.

Million of people are tourist every year, but some of them are destroying the planet, and the place they are visiting. They take part in the mass tourism which refers to the movement of a large number of organised tourists to popular holiday destinations for recreational purposes. It is a consequence of globalisation and capitalism; indeed, people want to relax as much as possible during their 3 weeks of holidays, which is understandable. However, don’t forget that this mass tourism plays an important role in climate change. This kind of holidays resort belong to big tourist chains who try to make as much money as possible and prevent the small local shops to survive.

That’s why you should avoid this kind of places and favor small and local hotels or hostels and restaurants even if they are more and more complicated to find. Hiking and traveling by train are also a nice way to discover new places instead of taking the plane.

Personally, it has been a year I have been a tourist and from the beginning of September I’m going to be one again for a year. Sometimes last year I knew that I was eating or drinking in places only made for tourists and I was feeling like I was just there to give them money while I was really living in Greece for a year, and I wanted to be considered as an inhabitant. Obviously, that was complicated because I don’t look Greek at all, and the language is too complicated for me.

Next month I’m going to study in Brazil for a year and everyone would know that I’m not Brazilian because of my European appearance, but I really wish to be part of the culture and to speak the language, which, I think is going to be easier than Greek.
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Being a tourist during the whole year is very nice since I was in Europe, I created my new comfort zone/ routine. Sometimes I wish to speak Greek and felt frustrated because people were not understanding me. Other times when I was a tourist, I felt as prey with money.

Therefore, I can say that after this year abroad, being home is an amazing and weird feeling since you speak the same language, you have the same culture references, the same sense of humor but nothing changed during the year you have discovered so many people and places that you will never forget.

To sum up, you have to take advantage of being young and going out of your comfort zone as much as possible to live incredible moments avoiding mass tourism!

Forced marriage is one of the oldest forms of slavery. However, not all the time forced marriages were considered slavery. Traditions of patriarchal societies and religious prejudices played a pivotal part and had a strong influence on the mindset of many generations. For example - some people still believe that they should strictly follow these “customs” and take someone’s else life decisions.

Why do families continue to force young girls to marry strangers who are 20 or even 40 years older? Why is education not the main target for disadvantaged families?

Forced marriages are still widespread in the backward societies of Asia, in the Middle East. For many individuals who are unable to provide quality education to all their children, forced marriage is considered the norm. The patriarchal society system in some countries has a strong influence on a person's worldview and even forms a mentality.

The dominant position in these societies is occupied by men, they perform the functions of the head of the family, they are considered wiser, and physically stronger, and thus they are more privileged compared to women.

According to this kind of mentality only a son can be educated and later he can provide a sufficient level of support for the parents and afterward create his own family. In such a community male offspring receives a lot of attention, his life matters, unlike the life of a daughter. Additionally, sons can find a job, leave the house without a permit, and are respected by other people. The functions of women in this type of society are giving birth to the children, taking care of them, and being involved in hard unpaid domestic work.

Unfortunately, little girls cannot even hope for support from their families. There is practically no such question as access to education for females and the choice of a life path. They are often illiterate or have only elementary writing and reading capabilities. All important life decisions are taken by fathers or other male relatives who simply sell their daughters into the hands of old and rich men. Many of the fathers who sold their daughters believe that this is better than nothing, because, according to them, women are incapable of what men can do. In such societies, discrimination based on sex, and violation of human rights are the norm.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), unless drastic measures are taken, 70 million girls, neither physically nor emotionally ready for marriage, will get married in the next five years. These dramatic statistics remind us that all forms of modern slavery must come to an end. International society tries to raise awareness about this crucial problem. On the 23 rd of August United Nations established International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Along with that Sustainable Development Goals Targets 5.3 (the elimination of the child, early, and forced marriages), 8.7 (the end of modern slavery), and 16.2 (the end of abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against children) are highlighting the key points in the existing problem.
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Due to collaboration, quality information distribution, work with vulnerable groups, and remembrance some measures can be taken, and humanity can end it.

​What if I tell you that by paying an average of $750 to $1,000 you can travel and simultaneously lend your hand to a community in need?
This is what a voluntourism project is about.
 
It may sounds like a good cause, right? Who would refuse to help someone in a difficult situation and also get the opportunity to travel? But what if I tell you that some of these trips do more harm than good?

Some of these projects promote a reliance mentality, disable the community and harm their confidence and independence. How? In which way? Picture a group of unskilled people called from a different country to solve a problem to which you are trying to figure out the solution. In the long term the feeling of not being capable of finding out the answer yourself will be more and more persistent. This is one of the main problems of voluntourism: disempowerment of the community and low self-esteem.

Given that the solution is found and achieved, doesn’t mean that is the right one. In most of the cases with these projects lasting a couple of weeks, the result is a quick fix. This is the evidence of an attitude that ignores or refuses to better understand and analyze the causes surrounding the issue, that will repeat itself in the long term.
 
What can be the solutions?
The amount of money paid by the participants can be reallocated in the economy of the community by paying specialized people. By stimulating the economy, the community will be supported. Rather than giving a solution that in the long run will be useless, give to the community the tools and resources to sustain themselves and be independent.
 
The main purpose of these projects is helping who in needs. So, before preparing your bag, critically think if those few weeks will really help the community or damage it. Is the main goal trying to help or is it wanting to feel to be needed? Is it just an experience to put in your curriculum? Or is it for those pictures that you’ll upload on your social media?

In recent years, more and more major events (historical or less so) are taking place in the world we live in. Since we live in a time when social networks make it possible for everything to be accessible, information to be easily spread, it is not a secret for anyone and it is no longer very surprising if somewhere a war starts or natural disasters happen, if somewhere there is drought and lack of drinking water, if somewhere politicians are trying to destabilize the situation for personal reasons or if a journalist has been killed, if somewhere human rights are not respected or women still do not have equal rights with men, if some ice caps on which the entire global climate depends are melting or if more and more specialists are worried about the development of climate change, which is why I think it's very imperative that we ask ourselves now: what it still means to be human and where the humanity in us is?  

In October 2021 the estimated population of the Earth was 8 billion people. It's very complicated to see the whole picture in which we all fit and in which we are so small, each of us lives more inside our thoughts, inside our bodies, we build communities where we feel at home, we make friends with whom we share our most intimate moments. Whether we believe in destinies, reincarnation, or anything else, we have life plans, we want quality education, health, wealth, comfort, love, money, the vital things for a good life. We want to believe that each of us matters, and this is undoubtedly true, so I remember the lyrics of a song that says it all:  

“We are the world 
We are the children 
We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving 
There's a choice we're making 
We're saving our own lives 
It's true we'll make a better day, just you and me”  
 
World Humanitarian Day 2022 takes place on Friday,19th August. In 2022, the theme for World Humanitarian Day will be #RealLifeHeroes. The campaign will share inspiring personal stories of the humanitarians that have been heroes during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Whether each of us has felt panicked or indifferent to this pandemic, lost loved ones or simply been affected by the changes in society caused by it, in the fight against the pandemic itself, on the front line were medical workers, so in addition to their personal concerns, they had to take care of others, and for that, they can be called true heroes. 

We can also talk about all the social workers, who whether it's pandemic, or war, or whatever, they provide advice and help to those who are socially vulnerable. 
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I want everyone on this day to ask themselves what makes us humans unique and special, and to realize that to be a hero in real life, you don't necessarily have to be someone famous, to hold an important position, being a hero has begun to mean being a little more human than we used to be. ​

My name is Célia, I’m from France and took a gap year during my studies of political science to come and take part of Praxis organisation.

Being in Serres gave me much more than what I was expecting even if I didn’t really have a lot of expectations. I really like being part of Serres life, some of the local people knew us as the Erasmus living in Serres. But they were all the time asking us “why are you here?”. Personally, I didn’t really choose to be in Serres, I chose the project itself. After a year spent in Serres, I can say that Serres has amazing people and amazing cheap food. Indeed, food took a big part of my Greek life: at the beginning our mentor told us “Everybody gain weight during the time they spend in Greece” and I didn’t really believe her until... I gained weight. Trust me, it’s impossible to resist to the incredible smell of bougatsa...
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More than that, you will meet amazing people, create amazing friendship, live an amazing life aha. Sorry if I’m saying to much “amazing” but it’s the word which describe the best what you will live if you decide to come to the lost city of Serres. We, volunteers, are not only friends, we are a family too, (you will think that’s maybe too much but it’s true), we eat, work, travel together so even if at the beginning you could think “we are very different it’s going to be hard to be friends with them”. Some weeks later you will consider them as your siblings (hopefully). And of course, as a family, you argue sometimes about stupid things but not everything can be perfect. Actually, I lived two different volunteering since every volunteer that I knew left earlier than me, I had to create new friendships and to be their mentor. On one hand I was feeling very sad because my friends/family left, and I was also lazy to get to know more people. On the other hand, I felt very included in the organisation and at some point, I didn’t need to make any effort to be friends with the new volunteers because we directly bounded.

As I said not everything can be perfect, sometimes you could feel frustrated because of the language barriers, or because of the work, feeling useless whereas you came here with the idea to make a real impact. However, when you think again about it you make an impact even if only one person gets to know who you are, what you are doing here and why, that’s already something. For example, I went to a high school in a village near to Serres, with one of the other volunteers, we introduced ourselves and praxis organisation, we explained how and why we decided to come in Serres to the students. And at the end of our small presentation, some pupils came to us, saying that they didn’t know that they could do what we were doing and that they would also like to do the same as us. That is something very meaningful and, at some point, you feel a bit powerful, making them discover the European opportunities.

During this ECS, I did a lot of things that I have never done before like working with the refugees. At the beginning of the volunteering, we were going to the refugees camp every Friday afternoon to help LHI (the organisation who works every day at the camp). The first time we went there, I was not feeling very comfortable, I was feeling a bit useless because everyone was busy, and I was not doing anything. But more the times went by, more the refugees were used to us as we were used to see them every Friday. Going there became a habit, people knew us as we were getting to know them. At some point, I felt very good with the refugees.

To sum up, during a long-term volunteering you cannot stay happy the whole time and it’s normal, you will have some bad time that you would like to spend alone. You have to keep in mind that it’s nothing compare to the amazing time you will have!

Pierre De Chabot