1 developing country, 4 weeks, 3 other talents to learn from, 1 project and endless possibilities to make an impact. What do you say? Are you in?
Do you have an extra 1500 euro, a thrill to explore new culture from different than touristic perspective and an obsessive urge to share your knowledge from the digital world with those in need? If you answered yes, then you are exactly the person Martin Andrle is looking for! Join his project Impact travelers and expect 8 hours of work per day, probably some workshops during evenings and well-deserved traveling at the weekends. In Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, India or Brazil. All of this for the period of 4 weeks that you will spent in the destination. Are you saying it’s just for fools?
„I’ve got quite positive feedback on the project. What more, I have even found those 3 fools that traveled with me for one month to Cambodia where we helped to train staff in one company,“ Martin describes.
Martin’s friend „hired“ them to the Codingate, Cambodian company that specializes in the making of websites, web applications and databases for clients from the West. Boys were training local stuff from dawn to dusk and led evening workshops on top of that. It was not yet under the patronage of Impact Travelers but it was more like a test and impulse that gave Martin the idea to start the project.
„We are basically exporting a technological know-how,“ he explains shortly what the project Impact Travelers is about. The desirable output is an application that is supposed to help in the country. „There might be one upcoming project now in Vietnam. A tablet application for children with cognitive teaching methods that should help them with learning,“ Martin continues. According to him, people in the countries to which he wants to export his know-how are very well educated but they have usually no idea about the digital world. „That’s why it is good to send there some people who are able to pass their knowledge so the locals can later work on the application by themselves,“ he explains.
The advantages for the companies in third-world countries are obvious. But what is in there for the teachers? „It’s definitely an incredible experience for them. Even when you travel as a tourist to a developing country, it changes your view of life. And this is even more in depth because you work with the locals side by side, you understand their culture much better than as a tourist. I have moreover felt extremely needed there and our coworkers were blazing with joy that we could help them..“
And all this even though that for the first time in Cambodia it did not work out as it should.
„The whole Cambodia experience was really funny. We were originally going to work on a project ‚database solutions‘ which did not work out so we focused much more on the workshops. In the end we created a project with schedules of the local public transportation. This kind of system doesn’t exist there at all,“ Martin continues.
On the trip to Cambodia, Martin was accompanied by his friends, Tomáš Niederle, Pavel Slabý and Ondra Janus. „He said come, so I did,“ Tomáš jokes about his selection process. Ondra on the other hand originally wanted to make an internship in the Philipines but Martin convinced him to join them.
„It was a completely different world, we obtained different perspective of life when we saw the conditions in which the locals live,“ Ondra gives answer to the question what did he get most out of the project.
The most powerful experience for both of them was a visit to local village on an isolated island. „You are just relaxing in a hammock, chickens are running under you, nobody is dealing with anything, everything is really laid-off,“ recalls Ondra. „They didn’t have TV so they had to chat with each other in the evenings,“ he continues.
„People barely spend time at home so they don’t feel the need to furnish or decorate their flats. When they want to eat they just toss the cooker on the ground, put some food on it and fry it,“ Tomáš adds. „Children were playing with ordinary rubber bands and it amused them for the whole day,“ he describes. If someone owns a bed with mattress, he can be considered lucky. „But they can really do with just a little, it made us think,“ agree both Ondra and Tomáš.
Martin is of the same opinion. According to him, man partially abandonds the materialistic way of life after experience like this. „We were passing a tuktuk repair every day, the workers slept at the work place, showered when it rained. Those things are incomparable for us but over there, majority of the people lives this way.“
Tomáš and Ondra are glad they participated in the project. Exactly like Martin promised, they met the local culture from a different than touristic perspective and experienced unexpected adventures. They both now have a stable job but if they were to search for a new one, they would definitely point out their experience in Cambodia.
At the moment, Martin is choosing candidates for a new project. He interviews the applicants once or twice through Skype and tries to find their motivation. „If someone takes it just as a vacation, he is not my man. A while ago I interviewed an Italian guy who told me he really loves to pass his knowledge to others. That was exactly what I needed to hear,“ Martin explains.
Impact travelers is currently a non-profit organizations. You buy a package and Martin gets you the plane tickets, insurance and visa. And in most of the cases, the living expenses decrease quite a bit because the local companies are providing a place to stay. „I go first to the country and the company to check if everything is alright. Then I spend the first week with the attendants to help them settle and manage everything important,“ Martin concludes.
Photo credit: Tomáš Niederle