Feel Good Friday - Destination Hope International Medical Missions

We've kicked off 2014 talking a lot about Adventure Philanthropists - people who donate their skills, time or money while traveling. I like to think of these people as being on an Inspiration Safari.

To learn more about this, you can read the book by Erin Michelson or read my interview with her as a fellow Adventure Philanthropist here.

For today's Feel Good Friday, I want to let you know about a group a learned about from a friend, Destination Hope.

As they explain on their website, it's a group of plastic surgeons who volunteer for medical missions to "treat birth defects and other deformities among individuals in the developing world." Children born with facial deformities "are often disadvantaged when it comes to education, finding jobs, or starting families." The people of Destination Hope want to level the playing field for these children so their primary work is reconstructive surgery for cleft lips and cleft palates though they also perform burn reconstruction and other procedures.

Because the medical professionals donate their time and work with resources in country, costs are minimal. "$250 is often enough to cover the cost of one cleft lip surgery for one patient in most countries." Results, however, can be dramatic.

To learn more about this organization you can watch videos from their missions or like their Facebook page. If you want to support their work, they'd be happy to help you write off a donation of some of your cold, hard cash!

If you know of a person or organization that could use a Feel Good Friday shout, leave the info in the comments section or send a message to me at: kristian@inspirationsafari.com. I really do love learning about and sharing these stories!

Feel Good Friday - Kristian Ruggieri, Adventure Philanthropist

Laying bricks in
Madagascar

Wait a minute. Who starts the new year making themselves the subject of the Feel Good Friday post? Looks like I do!

Here's why.

On December 13th, the subject of FGF was Adventure Philanthropist, Erin Michelson. (You can read the original blog here.) The summary is that she traveled the world for two years donating her money, skills and time. She dubbed it adventure philanthropy and upon her return home, wrote a book to share the stories of the people she met and inspire others.

Painting walls in
Madagascar

I met Erin at a book signing in San Francisco in November. When I told her a little about my Inspiration Safari films, she asked to interview me as a fellowAdventure Philanthropist!

The films I've made and my volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity are what make me an Adventure Philanthropist.

The great thing about this is - if you've ever combined an adventure like traveling with a donation of your money or your time, you're an Adventure Philanthropist too! Now don't you feel good?

You can read my interview with Erin here: http://www.goeringo.com/2014/01/01/inspiration-safari-interview/

Posing for a photo with
Omar in Chile

If you've got a story of your own to share, Erin wants to hear from you. You can reach her at Erin@GoErinGo.com. Like her Facebook page while you're at it so you never miss out on a good dose of inspiration!

Feel Good Friday - Go Erin Go!

I can hear your questions already. Who is Erin, where is she going and why feel good about it?


Erin Michelson is an Adventure Philanthropist who recently returned from two years of traveling around the world, volunteering with local organizations and blogging about them on her website Go Erin Go. Not only did she donate her time, skills and spread the word about the works these groups are doing but she also invited her blog followers to decide how to donate her money. It was voluntourism on steroids!

If you missed that boat (like I did) you'll be happy to know she just released a book that recounts many of these stories. You can read my review here. Even better, you can find photos and short videos of the people she writes about on her website if you want to take your armchair experience to the next level.

Reading her book or her blog, you may realize:

a) you are an Adventure Philanthropist
b) you'd like to become an Adventure Philanthropist
c) you are quite happy as an armchair Adventure Philanthropist

Between the volunteer trips with Habitat, the Inspiration Safari filming in Africa (because even though that wasn't the name at the time, that's totally what it was) and Erin calling me one, I've realized that I'm an Adventure Philanthropist! I'd definitely like to keep it that way. Habitat Mongolia in 2014 anyone?

What next? You can watch two video summaries of Erin's travels below. After that, stay in the loop with her adventures by buying the book, subscribing to her blog or liking her Facebook page. That's what I'm doing!