Voluntourism at PEPY

If and when we choose to use the word “volunteer” or “voluntourism” in our writing about PEPY, we often get both internal and external criticism. We know those are the words people are searching for when they look for tours that give back to the places they visit, but we don’t always feel that they give a proper reflection of what we do. Better choices might be educational adventures, traveler’s philanthropy, service learning, or a combination of those words, but none of those feel right either. At the end of any debate we get into about this, we usually end with, WHO CARES! Let’s call it whatever we want to call it, but focus on offering educational experiences which support the community development programs we believe in and which inspire travelers to give, travel, and live differently because of their trip.
This has led us to work on our vision and goals for PEPY Tours, and you will see those up on our site very soon. In the meantime, the “Lessons I Learned” blog (which really should be called “Lessons we are LEARNING”, as we know it is a constant process) discusses more about the types of “volunteer” options we do believe in and how we are going to try integrating those concepts into some of our upcoming tours.