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gl ob a l communi t y serv ice r epor t

Rustic Pathways ™

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our missionWe empower students through innovative and responsible travel experiences to positively impact lives and communities around the world.

Letter from the Director

Our Vision

Community Service at Rustic Pathways

Service by the Numbers

Youth Enrichment and Education

Community Infrastructure

Environment and Animal Welfare

Health and Social Services

Economic Development

Student Engagement

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contents

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When planned responsibly, we believe global service has the power to positively transform both students and partner communities. At Rustic Pathways, we equally prioritize the achievement of sustainable outcomes for community partners and the facilitation of life-changing educational experiences for students.

We work hard to plan quality service projects that reach these dual goals. We determine projects based on priorities identified by our local partners, we collaborate to create well-defined roles for students, and we provide ongoing project support to ensure sustainable outcomes.

Managing volunteer travel programs is challenging and complex, but we work hand in hand with community partners to ensure that these initiatives benefit all who participate. Ultimately, our goal is to create a world where travel is a model for sustainable development and we believe we can be a leader in defining best practices in the field of volunteer travel.

Recognizing we are in an imperfect industry, we are driven to continually improve our model. This year, we plan to undertake a sustainability assessment of our global program operations and our community partnership model. We will continue to support the development of our global team that manages our service initiatives through site visits and workshops. We also look forward to the growth of the Rustic Pathways Foundation, which will amplify the work that we do in communities around the world.

The following pages will provide information on how we approach community service and highlight some of our larger service initiatives from 2014. I hope these pages remind our students and community members of all they accomplished this year and inspire others to join us for another year of positive work.

Sincerely,

Ann FullerDirector of Global Community Service

letter from the director

rustic pathways is committed to creating a world where:

1. Travel is accepted as an essential part of every education

2. Travel is a model of sustainable development

3. All people are connected by a shared humanity and all decisions are made with a global perspective

our vision

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At Rustic Pathways, the impact we make in communities around the world extends beyond our service projects. We have a strong commitment to sustainability and are dedicated to following responsible travel practices throughout the creation and implementation of our programs. Here are some exciting developments we made in this area in 2014.

making travel accessible

As part of our commitment to educating today’s youth through transformative travel experiences, we award both need- and merit-based scholarships for our programs.

154Chairman’s grants awarded based

on financial need and merit

20merit-based Ambassador Grants given to

students from 15 different countries

Scholarship SpotlightPriyanka Bhatt - Muscat, Oman

“I had the very good fortune of being selected for the Ambassador Grant and had the opportunity to visit Thailand for a service trip. Having lived in Oman for

most of my life, I have had limited access to such programs as life here is dependent and restricted. I have always loved being a part of any kind of service because I strongly feel that in the process of helping others, we end up helping ourselves much more than we can imagine. I learned so much not only about different people and their cultures, but also a great deal about myself; my fears, my strengths, and my goals.”

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the rustic pathways foundation

The Rustic Pathways Foundation was established to support development projects around the world and amplify the impact of our work. Since its inception, the Foundation has focused its efforts on support for education initiatives in Thailand, Cambodia and Fiji, including supporting The Rustic Pathways Children’s Home in Thailand.

This year, the Foundation brought on its first dedicated staff members - an interim Executive Director and Coordinator - to lead the organization forward and expand the support that it lends to initiatives around the world. Keep an eye out for the launch of its new website in early 2015 and events in New York and California.

Have questions? Interested in getting involved? Email foundation@rusticpathways.org

global site visits

Our Global Service Director visited nine countries this year to evaluate project sites and run trainings with our in-country teams. These visits are part of the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of our global initiatives and help to ensure the projects we support effectively create positive change.

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job creation and staff development

Approximately 50% of our staff are from the countries where we operate (excluding the USA). We make a concerted effort to employ staff from the communities where we have base houses or with whom we have partnered on service when possible. As we seek to identify potential leaders in these communities where wage employment is often limited, we provide them with medical trainings, English lessons, educational support, and travel opportunities. Stronger, more versatile skill sets allow them to earn higher wages and enable them to reinvest in their communities.

Staff HighlightSenghong Yourk, Cambodia Program Manager

“Rustic Pathways gives me a chance to see different people and learn different perspectives about the world. It gives me new ideas that I want to apply to my own country and government. Especially when I talk with students interested in the same

field of study. I work for Rustic Pathways now to learn more about society before I enter into the political field.”

Originally from a small Cham village in the Kampong Chhnang province of Cambodia, Senghong was hired as a program leader in 2008 and became a full-time program manager in 2012. Rustic Pathways financially supports his university studies and encourages him to build leadership skills inside and outside of the organization. Senghong was selected as a Cambodia representative at the US-ASEAN Young Leader Summit and participated in the Southeast Asian Youth Leadership program sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Outside of Rustic Pathways, Senghong also works with UN Women in Cambodia where he is in charge of leading a team and giving presentations at high schools in Phnom Penh about ending violence against women and children.

medical certifications for in-country teams in 2014

4 Thai staff were certified in Wilderness First Aid

7 Costa Rican staff became official ocean lifeguards

8 Thai staff became Wilderness First Responders

10 Thai staff were recertified as Wilderness First Responders

11 Fijian staff became Wilderness First Responders

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Identify and Design Projects with Local PartnersWe spend time with our local partners and community members on the ground to understand their needs and priorities. In collaboration with partner communities, we design projects that both address needs and build on community strengths.

Provide Students Opportunities to Engage We create well-defined roles for our students that harness their skills and ensure they make a meaningful contribution. Students can select programs based on their personal interests and skill sets, maximizing their experience and the success of our service initiatives. In addition to participating in direct service projects, students also learn from their work and better understand their role in the global community.

Work Together to Achieve GoalsOur students join the efforts of our local partners during their programs and work collaboratively to achieve project goals. Working side-by-side provides an opportunity for students and community members to learn from and about each other. After the summer, our staff and local partners continue to push projects forward and monitor and evaluate their effectiveness.

Monitoring and EvaluationWe constantly work to learn from our experiences and strengthen the impact we have. We conduct regular formal and informal evaluations with project partners and beneficiaries, assess both the process and impact of our ongoing initiatives, and consistently use feedback to improve project design and implementation.

Long-term Partnerships and SustainabilityWe design projects that incorporate plans for how the results will be maintained and sustained in the future. We develop long-term partnerships, link our work with ongoing local initiatives, and support community development.

community service at rustic pathwaysour approach

We take a comprehensive approach to service, working with community partners from the design process through to monitoring and evaluation. Below is the process for designing, implementing, and evaluating our service initiatives.

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community service partnerships

Rustic Pathways builds partnerships with communities, schools, and local organizations. We collaborate with them to design initiatives that harness both the community or organization’s strengths, as well as the students’, to have a beneficial impact at the local level. Through these partnerships we are able to provide comprehensive support and cultivate powerful cross-cultural understanding and lifelong friendships.

41Community Partners

69School Partners

59Organization Partners

Partnership Highlightmonte coca, dominican republic

After outreach to a number of schools, community associations, govern-ment officials, in 2012, Rustic Pathways partnered with the community of Monte Coca in the Hato de Mayor region of the Dominican Republic. Identified as a community with strong leadership and engagement, the people of Monte Coca had a real interest in building a partnership, be-coming educators for our students, and working together to improve living conditions. We held meetings with community leaders, youth leaders, women’s committees, and other individuals to share our goals and learn about theirs. Together, we decided to start with a project to replace dirt floors in homes with cement to improve health and sanita-tion. Both sides of the partnership learned a lot in the first year of the project and after evaluating what we learned, we decided to launch a longer-term project to build new homes for those in the community that were living in substandard conditions where a new floor was just not enough. The community worked together to prioritize those that would be recipients and this summer our students worked alongside community members to complete the first new home. Throughout 2015, two more homes will be constructed and supplemented with an additional latrine construction project.

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north america2 Youth Enrichment and Education Projects1 Community Infrastructure Project2 Environmental and Animal Welfare Initiatives2 Health and Social Service Initiatives

central & south america31 Youth Enrichment and Education Projects13 Community Infrastructure Projects14 Environmental and Animal Welfare Initiatives1 Health and Social Service Initiatives1 Economic Development Project

service by the numbersOver 200 Service Projects Worldwide in 2014

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africa8 Youth Enrichment and Education Projects2 Community Infrastructure Projects1 Health and Social Service Initiatives2 Economic Development Project

asia33 Youth Enrichment and Education Projects13 Community Infrastructure Projects9 Environmental and Animal Welfare Initiatives5 Health and Social Service Initiatives1 Economic Development Projects

south pacific34 Youth Enrichment and Education Projects4 Community Infrastructure Projects15 Environmental and Animal Welfare Initiatives4 Health and Social Service Initiatives2 Economic Development Projects

38%Central and South America

35%Asia

15%South Pacific

7% Africa

5%North America

152,379Service Hours

Completed in 2014

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youth enrichment and education69 school par tner ships in 12 countr ies

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rustic pathways children’s homeMae Sariang, Thailand

The Rustic Pathways Children’s Home (RPCH) in Mae Sariang, Thailand was founded in 2008 to support access to secondary education for students of the surrounding Hill Tribe villages. RPCH provides room, board, and education for the youth of rural villages who are unable to attend school past the primary grades because it is not provided in their villages and their families do not have the means to send them to school in the town of Mae Sariang.

Rustic Pathways students support English language programs at RPCH and at four regional schools. Several students at Baan Rai School, where our efforts have focused over the last six years, have received awards at local English skills competitions. We continued our English language exchange program this year, with over 350 hours of conversation practice, grammar, and vocab review at four schools.

Program Highlightrpch higher education scholarship program

Several years ago we launched a scholarship fund to support higher education opportunities for RPCH residents graduating from high school. In 2014, three of these students became the first to graduate from tertiary programs. Two of our RPCH alumni graduated as nurses aides and are currently employed in the field. A third graduated with a bacherlor’s degree in English studies and is now working with us at our Ricefields Base.

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english classesLa Fortuna, Costa Rica

This year we began English language exchange programs with seven elementary schools in the La Fortuna region. Strong English skills provide opportunities for employment in the tourism sector, the largest industry in Costa Rica, but students at these schools have limited instruction time and few opportunities to practice with native speakers. Our programs are designed to reinforce the on-going lessons being taught by English teachers through interactive activities and individualized support.

Our program leaders work with our students to prepare for each session and design activities around current lessons being taught in school. During the sessions, our students take leadership roles in the activities, teaching the students English lessons and games. The activities also provide an opportunity for cross-cultural exchange. Our students learn about the Costa Rican education system as they are teaching the young Ticos. We are monitoring outcomes from the sessions in collaboration with teachers and will build on lessons learned for summer 2015.

New Partnership refugee youth project usa (ryp)

In 2015, we will launch a new partnership with the Refugee Youth Project in Baltimore, Maryland. Our students will serve as classroom aides during RYP’s summer English camp for youth recently settled in the city and lead bi-weekly field trips to local sites. This project is a part of our program, Beyond Capitol Hill: Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment.

26class sessions during summer 2014

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ghana school facility initiativesUpper East Region and Volta Region, Ghana

This year, we continued to support the development of Beacon Academy, a new school catering to nursery and elementary students in the Upper East Region of Ghana, adding bathroom facilities for the school’s 60 students.

In the Volta Region, construction began on a new school building for the Adakula-Kpatove Junior High School.Three new classrooms as well as a small office and library on a new site will replace the existing facilities that flood during the rainy season, making it hard to hold classes. The new building will provide learning space for about 70 students.

Program Highlight nasivikoso elementary school

We began working with the village of Nasivikoso to complete an elemen-tary school in 2012. This year the project received additional support from the Fijian government. They provided funding to build two additional classrooms, additional toilets, and teacher housing. Combined with the efforts of our students to build the first teacher’s quarters on the site, ma-jor progress was made this year towards the goal of establishing a full elementary school in the village.

54 education facility improvement

projects in 12 countries

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community infrastructure33 communit y inf ras truc ture projec t s in 11 countr ies

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sacred valley water projectSacred Valley, Peru

This summer we partnered with the local community cooperative of Pachar and the regional water board to begin work on a project that will provide safe and reliable drinking water to over 1,000 people in five villages in the Peruvian Andes. We will be working together with community members over the next three to four years to make this goal a reality. The project will include building a fence and water collection system around a freshwater spring at over 13,000 feet above sea level, ten new fresh water reservoirs, 18 kilometers of piping to the different communities, 15 pressure breaking boxes to ensure consistent water pressure, and one large initial water storage tank.

New Partnership save the rain, tanzania

We are excited to announce a new partnership with the organization Save the Rain in Tanzania. Save the Rain is an innovative nonprofit that builds rainwater harvesting systems for families and schools, improving health and education in rural communities. Starting in 2015, Rustic Pathways will join forces with Save The Rain and local families in the Arusha region of Tanzania to build residential rainwater catchment systems that will be able to store up to a year’s worth of clean water. Get involved through our summer program, Save the Rain: Water Conservation Project.

400 meters of fencing complete

25,000+ hours of community and student

work on the project

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housing projects 27 homes repaired or constructed in 6 countries

Access to housing that enables adequate health and well-being is a basic human right. In 2014, we partnered with communities in the Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Fiji, Thailand, Costa Rica, and the United States to build or improve housing. We also upgraded kitchens in Peru to improve ventilation. Each of these projects are part of long-term initiatives working to address housing needs at the local level.

Monte Coca, Dominican RepublicCommunity leaders identified the family with the most need and together, Rustic Pathways students and the people of Monte Coca built them a new home with a tin roof and cemented floors.

Prek Toal, CambodiaIdentified by the community as the family with the greatest need, we constructed a second home to supplement housing for a family of 15.

Before

Before

After

After

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Ban Chiang Yuen, ThailandWe continued to improve housing in the communities around our Ricefields Base, focusing on upgrading the roof and walls of the home below this year. Projects are selected by consultation with local government officials.

Uvita, Costa RicaWe worked with seven families to repair and install roofs, bathrooms, and floors to ensure safer and healthier housing. Each of these families depends on seasonal work that makes it difficult to cover basic needs.

Uciwai, FijiWe worked with a family of eight to extend their home with a structure that will provide adequate space and withstand rainstorms. The family’s children attend one of our partner schools and their teachers requested our support.

New Orleans, United StatesRustic Pathways has supported efforts to rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina since 2006. We partner with the St. Bernard Project every year to continue to help families return to their homes.

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environment and animal welfare24 planting and refores tation projec t s and 15 animal conser vation init iat ives in 9 countr ies

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india dancing bear projectAgra, India

This was the inaugural year for our partnership with Wildlife SOS, one of the premier wildlife conservation organizations in India. Wildlife SOS works throughout India to protect wildlife and their habitats through community rehabilitation, wildlife crime tracking, and animal rescue operations. In 2014, Rustic Pathways worked with and Wildelife SOS on their project to rescue and rehibilitate solth bears.

For several hundred years, the members of the Kalandar community in northern India trained sloth bears to dance as a source of income. In 2002, Wildlife SOS started a project to protect these dancing bears and have since rescued over 1,000 bears from the streets. In addition to rehabilitating the bears, they have worked with the Kalandar families to provide vocational training, education for their children, and seed money to start new businesses. As a result, over 600 bears have been surrendered voluntarily by their owners. In addition to providing training, many former bear owners now work at the bear rescue facility and others are being trained as support staff.

Rustic Pathways students help bear keepers with their daily work, such as preparing and delivering three meals a day for the bears, cleaning the bear pens and enclosures, and monitoring their behavior for research. Students also design and build enrichment structures to keep the bears stimulated mentally and physically and promote natural behaviors.

350 student service hours

at Wildlife SOS

4 new enrichment structures built

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outback wildlife rehabilitation projectThe Kimberley, Australia

Rustic Pathways supports the work of Roy’s Retreat in the Kimberly region to care for sick and injured wildlife. Roy’s Retreat is a sanctuary run by one woman, Barbara Walker, who pours her heart into rehabilitating wildlife. This year, students helped to expand and improve facilities at the center by building kangaroo enclosures and installing simple warning devices along barbed wire fences to protect wildlife from injuring themselves. They also helped to feed and care for wildlife at the center.

870hours of service at Roy’s Retreat

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marine conservation projectSomosomo, Fiji

Rustic Pathways’ Islands Base is located near the village of Somosomo on Naviti Island. In 2013, the village established a marine reserve area to restore fish populations and other marine species that had been depleted from environmental degradation and overfishing.

Rustic Pathways is supporting the community’s conservation efforts through reforestation of mangroves and removal of predatory crown of thorn sea stars, as well as through research and community education initiatives. Our students’ research findings are submitted to the Fiji Fisheries Department as well as local organizations working in the region and back to the community itself. Rustic Pathways marine program leader, Ropate Waqaiquma, is also supporting development of a community marine conservation team, that will lead conservation and monitoring efforts as this project moves forward.

615mangrove seedlings planted

5reefs monitored

12crown-of-thorn starfish removed

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health and social services13 health and social ser vice init iat ives in 7 countr ies

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This year we partnered with 15 social service organizations to lend a hand on a variety of projects. From volunteering at a food bank in Arizona, to cooking meals at elderly homes in India and Fiji, to mentoring special-needs students in Australia, to assisting with health screening in Thailand, our initiatives in this section span a wide range of projects that aid the health and well-being of others.

medical training and servicesBan Chiang Yuen, Thailand

Through our Medical Service Certification and Wilderness First Responder programs in Thailand, our students supported local health care workers with health screenings in eight communities in the Chiang Yuen sub-district. In coordination with the local health clinic, we organized health screening events that promoted health awareness, tested for diabetes and high blood pressure, and increased the number of residents receiving early treatment.

8 communities participated

in health screenings by Rustic Pathways students

796 residents screened

New Program public health in the dominican republic

Students this summer will have the opportunity to learn from local organizations and public health officials about current issues regarding access to health in the Dominican Republic. They will learn how to identify current public health issues in the developing world, and compare varying health care systems. Students will learn from local organizations, help with service initiatives geared towards community health, run workshops, and earn their Wilderness First Aid certification.

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economic development6 economic development projec t s in 4 countr ies

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Through our operations around the globe, we provide employment and economic opportunities to communities. We follow responsible tourism practices and support communities through small-scale economic development and income generation projects. In addition to working with the Rich Earth Growing Company, our economic development projects include other agricultural initiatives in Morocco, Fiji, and Thailand, as well as a tourism project in an indigenous Bribri village in Costa Rica.

rich earth growing companyNausori Highlands, Fiji

We continue to provide support to the Rich Earth Growing Company (REGC), a small business enterprise in the Nausori Highlands of Fiji. REGC was started by four of our Fijian staff from the region with a goal of better utilizing their family’s farmland to generate an income to support basic needs. Rustic Pathways provided support and resources to get the agricultural project off the ground, to construct simple accommodation to host our students, and to purchase a truck to get the crops to the market.

Though our programs, Rustic Pathways students work alongside farmers in the fields tilling land, planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting. Student involvement in the project has helped to increase harvests and has encouraged excitement and commitment from local youth who work on the farm. In 2014, RP students worked alongside the members of Rich Earth Growing Company to plant dalo, corn, long beans, cassava, eggplant, and tomatoes.

Moving forward, our Fiji Service Manager, Isoa Koroiwaqa, will work with the REGC directors to build on the lessons they have learned over the past few years to continue to improve the farm and bring more crops to the local market.

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We design unique programs that allow students to form meaningful personal connections around the world, believing these connections work towards creating a shared humanity across lines of culture, experience, and socioeconomic status. We then engage our students with global issues firsthand, providing the opportunity to experience and examine critical issues and develop an understanding of the complexity of our world. Our students have an incredible capacity for leadership and an outstanding desire to create positive change. The causes and projects they pursue after their programs is a constant inspiration to our team, as our alumni remind us of the power of these experiences in shaping their future.

student engagement

This year, students from 43 different countries joined us to completed a total of 152,379 hours of service.

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Sam Stevens Rustic Pathways Alum, 2007

Sam participated in our Rebuilding New Orleans project in 2007 and was deeply impacted by his experience. When he returned to his hometown of St. Louis, he involved himself in many service projects and received a community service scholarship to return to New Orleans and attend Tulane University. Sam has been in New Orleans ever since, pursuing a career in the rebuilding and emergency management sector. After his undergraduate schooling,

he worked at the St. Bernard Project and was the site manager for a few of the projects that partnered with Rustic Pathways. He recently completed a Masters of Science in Emergency Management from Tulane’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. While earning his degree he worked for a disaster recovery consulting firm reconciling damages from Hurricane Katrina to state-owned buildings. Now he is a program manager for Youth Rebuilding New Orleans, a nonprofit organization that rebuilds homes for locally displaced teachers. Sam can definitely say that his Rustic Pathways program sparked the beginning of a career and we are extremely proud of the dedication he has shown and the important rebuilding work he continues to do in New Orleans.

Alison Flum Rustic Pathways Alum, 2009 - 2011

Alison traveled with Rustic Pathways to Thailand, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, and India. After traveling to Tanzania, Alison raised money to fund the lunch program at the school where her Rustic Pathways group worked. She also spoke with many Rustic Pathways students preparing for their Mt. Kilimanjaro summit and convinced many to find sponsors where the proceeds would go to feeding the local students. Through these endeavors she

was able to raise over two thousand dollars. Realizing her interest in international development, Alison chose to major in development studies at Brown University, where she is a current junior. She has studied Mandarin for four years and will be studying abroad in Hong Kong. Continuing her interest in service work, Alison is the philanthropy director for her sorority. She also volunteers as a judge for middle school debate tournaments and is an English mentor for a 4th grade student that recently moved to the United States from China. For the future, Alison hopes to combine her passions for photography, journalism, and microfinance to make a positive impact on the world.

alumni in the fieldRustic Pathways often sparks student interest in community service and international development work. Read how two of our exceptional alumni are following their passions and developing careers in the industry.

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