Often we get cheers from people about our courage to take on such a big project with such little resources. Many tell us that we are crazy, jaws often drop when Steve Bouey tells them that he cashed out his whole retirement fund to put into this dream. I have put a great deal of my savings on the line and dug a nice little black hole of credit as well.
When the project first started we went back and forth on the idea of starting TWBR as a non-profit so that we could have an easier time raising money. This was based on the idea that our objective was to work with schools when we return educating youth about what is really happening in the world and inspire them to follow after their dreams like we have. Again, the majority of people are very supportive of us and these goals. We don’t expect to change the world, but we certainly hope to change as many minds as we can about what is happening out there. This is why we ultimately decided to not make this whole thing about a cause like everyone is doing these days. Many races, expeditions, and adventures are about raising money for something, we did not want to make this about that.
Since both of us decided to pour our entire lives and financial security on the line for this project, it seemed reasonable to at least have the option at the end of this of turning a profit and maybe actually getting paid for the risks we have taken. Still there are those few out there that take offense to this, as though we are selfish people. Perhaps someday some of these angry people out there can realize that just because someone is trying to make money, doesn’t mean they cannot also be helping someone. The most recent and anonymous comment on the blog writes as such:
“Let’s see…..there are hundreds of thousands of children starving, abused, homeless, uneducated, orphaned and generally unhappy every day. 30,000 USD would change the lives of an entire village. I could help them, or help this group put more gas in their SUVs drive around the world. Hmmmmmmmm……….”
This fine anonymous reader of the blog is from Milton, Queensland in Australia based on the IP address. My question to him/her and anyone who feels the same way is, “What did we ever do to you?” We are a couple of guys that believe just throwing money at poor, less fortunate people does not solve problems. As we state in our mission statement and all the info on the site explaining what we are doing- Only 20% of Americans hold valid passports and an even smaller amount of them actually using them in a given year (some years less than 5% of Americans leave the country). The statistics are very similar in most developed countries. Although the statistics may be a little better in other countries, not many people who donate money to the Red Cross or the countless other organizations out there trying to help people have even been to the countries where the money is going. From what we have seen, a majority of this money is misused or never even makes it to the people it was meant to help.
Man on his Soapbox - Courtesy of Wikipedia
There are still many upstanding organizations out there helping people, but saying that giving money to a village is more important than educating youth is crazy in my opinion. If we can fill the world with more young people that are truly aware of world issues, then we will more quickly solve problems like starvation, illiteracy, corruption, disease, pollution and more. The majority of people I have met on this journey, American or not, do not know where half of the countries in our route lie on a map. Before we all fill ourselves with guilt because we are privileged or stand on our soapboxes about sending money abroad, remember that education and understanding are our most important tools to creating real change in the world. Between Europe, the USA, and the other developed countries pouring billions of dollars each year into foreign aid and influencing countless decisions of other countries governments, it should be our duty as citizens of these countries to make sure that those dollars are spent responsibly and the decisions are made well. Without ever even getting near these places, who are any of us to say where the money is best spent or whether the decisions being made are responsible?
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PS. Anonymous, if you are looking for a village that has a really great program helping locals, The ETC in KhaoLak, Thailand is a place I would recommend. Our friend Reid Ridgeway runs the program and it is a place that makes an unbelievable difference in the lives of Thai people and helps to preserve their environment at the same time. Also, if you were interested we also filmed with AUSAid in Indonesia, and your Australian dollars are being well spent there building schools.
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6 Comments
June 20 monologue, Quote is from Steven “before anyone says that giving money to a village is more important than educating youth is crazy in my opinion” - I ask that you consider this - water and a toilet come before education. I invite you to learn want Rotary Club LoDo and Mid-Town Mumbai are doing in cooperation with village people in India and what Rotarians are doing all over the world. Rotary came to the Baste people to help with the sustainable clean water and what followed was a school built with bricks the women, who no longer had to carry water daily for their families, made. In India when a village has sustainable water, and no longer migrates seasonally for water, the government will provide a teacher. The Baset people now have sustainable water, an elder woman donated her land for the school, the women made the bricks, the Rotary donated the roof. Now!! Education!!! Now they have a teacher (a person willing to move out to the village, who has two years teaching degree from college) Now education goes on in a meaningful way. Water comes before education in the hierarchy of needs (Maslow theory on the Hierarchy of Needs http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.htm
I sense that you would like to join the Peace Corps as a teacher or teach English as a second language somewhere, or work at Rotary International helping assure the donors money is well accounted for.
For me working and being rewarded monetarily is a privilege. That combination gives me the opportunity to give (the sum in excess of my sense of comfortable life) to others, supporting activities that will enhance lift lives to economic freedom, which we must have to a degree before we can reach self-actualization.
My work entails educating families to express their values and appropriately use the systems for charitable giving. You may find my workshop interesting “Kings, Benevolent Dictators, Philanthropists” We believe that everyone on this planet can make a difference with their lives and with there wealth. The American Zang Planning System provides a clear path for families to define and make this difference. There can be no greater legacy than to integrate the purpose of your life with the purpose of your wealth.
I also have a workshop “Getting Out of the Rat Race” educating individuals with the fundamentals of financial planning. Economic Education leads to Economic Freedom
I look forward to meeting you and having a discussion on the needs we have seen in the world and the ways to meet them.
Janet Greiner
In your face anonymous.
I’m envious. I think you guys are great to undertake an adventure like this and have some cause for it too. Good luck and stay safe….
Mystery critic from Queensland, Australia does bring up a good point that should open dialog that begs the question: given each individual’s time and resources, how can we make the largest impact to better the people who need it most whether from our local communities or from our global community?
I may be a little biased when it comes to TWBR but I can’t support its mission more. In order for a difference to be made of say a village in Africa, there has to be awareness of it. Instead of just soliciting money for the village that then becomes diluted in the clutter of every other cause bombarding people for money, why not use the adventure and excitement of traveling the world to entice people to join an epic story. And within the epic story educate them and bring awareness of global issues in a profound way. The World by Road Expedition at its core then becomes a catalyst to inspire others and especially youth to work towards solutions to global problems. I think $30,000 is a small amount to ask for given the amount of youth and people that TWBR crew can inspire. In the end instead of just one village in Africa benefiting, a multitude of other causes from around the world will benefit.
While there are numerous ways for an individual to make an impact, mystery critic from Queensland should be happy that others like TWBR are trying to make an impact at all whether it is or isn’t the way that you’d go about doing it rather than doing nothing at all.
Have you guys calculated the environmental impact of this trip?
Assuming 12 miles per gallon for your vehicles, you’ve put more than 70 tons of carbon into the atmosphere! That’s more than three times the average total emissions for an American…….about 6 times that of a European and 20 times that of an average Japanese citizen. That’s only for your driving, not taking other activities into account which would increase that number significantly.
Are you doing anything to offset these emissions?
while i commend green bill for researching the environmental impact of the average america/european/japanese, are you taking into account the carbon footprint of the majority of tourists and even backpack travelers through flights to multiple destinations or even staying in non-local owned resorts? i’ll let steve address your question but my question to you is, how might these impacts be offset? does throwing money (that is generously donated and hard earned by the expedition crew) into carbon credits actually do anything? if it did, i would happily be a hypocrite and build a 7000 sq/ft house and fly from place to place on my private jet just as america’s environmental hero al gore….