5 Reasons to Travel Alone at Least Once in Your Lifetime

October 11, 2022

Whether it’s a yearlong round-the-world expedition or just a weekend getaway during a study abroad semester, there is something indescribably liberating about traveling to new places alone.

Solo travel abroad presents the kind of life experience that cannot be properly described without actually experiencing it for yourself. However far too often these types of adventures are stopped in their tracks by factors such plans for the future, the opinions of family and friends and simple fears about what traveling alone entails.

What follows is a shortlist of five reasons to ignore each of those influences and to break away from the rat race—and instead find what can easily be one of the most formative experiences of a lifetime.

1. No Friends? No Problem

One of the biggest concerns of prospective solo travelers is the notion that there will be no one to talk to while traveling alone and that loneliness will quickly and inevitably set in. For the vast majority of solo travelers, this is entirely false. In fact, traveling with other people can often trap you within a social bubble that envelops your small band of travelers, and goes no further.

The whole point of world travel is to see unfamiliar places, meet new people, and try different things—at least one major part of the reason you came all that way can be negatively impacted by bringing friends along for the ride. A nice compromise might be to consider booking a tour or traveling alone, where you’ll meet new people in a safer, more intentional space.

2. Hostels Can Help You Socialize

Socializing is always as easy or as difficult as you want to make it while traveling. If you are feeling particularly adventurous and want to make some new friends, hostels are some of the best places on earth to do so. Group bunk rooms are almost always the cheapest accommodations in town and provide a fantastic environment to meet and get to know fellow travelers, many times from countries all over the world.

Regardless of where each person calls home, the simple fact that each of you is far away from that particular place provides a unifying experience around which you can easily and quickly start a conversation. Many encounters you have with strangers will last no longer than several hours, but it is also more than possible to make lifelong friends in the same types of situations. This means that solo travel combined with hostel living may possibly be the quickest and most effective way to diversify a Facebook friends list known to man!

Pro safety tip: Never tell a stranger you’re alone! Find more important solo travel tips here.

3. No Compromising

Seeing and experiencing new places with old friends obviously has its advantages, but far too often these other people can delay, alter, or outright cancel even the best laid plans. Traveling alone means that none of these burdens are even a possibility. Trying to organize a trip around one life—yours—is hard enough, but doing so around several lives can often be nearly impossible.

Even if you somehow manage to coordinate schedules and find an ideal time to travel with a group of friends, everyone will have slightly different goals for their time abroad, leading to logistics issues and disagreements on how time should be spent. If you were to travel alone, even just once, every possibility would remain open to you as you make your way around the places you visit. It is this freedom of choice in your movements that makes solo travel so liberating. You decide the course of your day and you write the story of your trip! Your adventure is entirely up to you and you get to make your experience exactly what you want it to be.

4. No Mountain Too Tall

To pretend that any kind of traveling can be done without its fair share of challenges is unrealistic. There will always be some kind of obstacle or adversity to face when you venture out from home, whether it’s to the other side of the world or to the grocery store down the street. These problems will simply have to be solved in order to move forward, but the sense of accomplishment one can achieve when facing them alone is indescribably empowering.

The memories of “that one time I was completely lost in Madrid and still managed to make it back to my hotel by using broken Spanish and a rousing game of charades with a few locals” will stick with you for the rest of your life. These types of experiences leave you with a sense of being able to handle almost anything once you return from the trip, with vivid recollections of the challenges faced and subsequently defeated while traveling. If you can deal with your problems in a strange country where they speak an even stranger language, why wouldn’t you be able to overcome just about any issue at home?

It is this empowerment through experience that makes travel so important in life, and solo travel is especially adept at forcing individuals to learn to solve problems as they come, a valuable and applicable life skill to say the least.

5. No Fear, Just Faith

Dorothy Thompson, perhaps the most influential woman in the history of American journalism, once noted that, “Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” This notion served her well as she broke down the gender barriers in journalism, and it is more than applicable to the idea of travelling solo as well. Dorothy had no idea what to expect as she made her way into the unknown realm of an industry consisting almost exclusively of men, much the same as a traveler embarking on a journey has no idea what challenges he or she may face in the coming days, weeks, or months. And that’s the fun of it. Leaving the comfort and familiarity of a place you know well in search of new and strange locales inherently involves a certain degree of fear.

Fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar is an emotion that has been found in humans for millennia. For our ancestors, traveling outside of the areas they knew well meant facing the very real dangers that may be present there—most notably the risk of being eaten by predators—and so they stayed close to home and close to their fellow humans. For them, it was their fear of the unknown that kept them alive.

In today’s world, it is quite the opposite—just ask Dorothy Thompson. There are very few things out there that want to eat you. Rather, the lions and tigers and bears that fueled the fears of our ancestors have been replaced by less tangible things, things with metaphorically sharp teeth rather than literal ones. Concerns about family, friends, finances, and careers left behind will often deter potential solo travelers long before plans can even take shape. But like any good story, an ounce of courage will open up doors you didn’t even know were locked. Take a chance on travel, take a chance on the kindness of humanity, and most importantly, take a chance on yourself.

In conclusion...

While you don’t have to ignore these fears, do your best to acknowledge them without letting them deter you from your grand solo adventure. The collective voices of experience from hundreds of thousands of solo travelers who have faced these exact fears in the past will tell you that they are entirely unfounded. Jobs will be there when you return. Money issues can be handled with disciplined spending. And family and friends can either accept your decision to go or they can face the fact that it is your life to live and consequently not their decision to make.

There’s a lot you can learn about solo travel from group travel and vice versa.

Instead of dwelling on the fears about what might happen, go into the experience with faith in the idea that you, and only you, can control what will happen. Having the proper mindset is the most important factor in the success of a solo trip, and it is perhaps the biggest hurdle you will face. However, once that hurdle is crossed, you will be fully prepared to make your trip exactly what it is meant to be: The adventure of a lifetime.

Meet the Activist and Intersectional Storyteller Developing Data-Driven Humanitarian Tools

July 17, 2021

Melissa Jun Rowley is a journalist, entrepreneur and activist focused on the intersection of storytelling, technology and social justice.

As the founder and CEO of Humanise, Inc., Melissa Jun Rowley is developing TheToolbox.org, a data-driven humanitarian initiative created by acclaimed musician Peter Gabriel. CATALYST had the chance to catch up with Melissa to learn more about Humanise in Detroit and Melissa’s path to social entrepreneurship.

How did your experience with TheToolbox.org inspire you to develop Humanise, Inc.?

TheToolbox.org is an online destination, founded by Peter Gabriel, that connects people to apps that can help them improve their lives and become everyday activists. I first became involved as an editorial consultant, and was developing stories while curating tools that promote social impact.

For example, there’s an app you can scan over a product’s barcode to see if human trafficking was involved in the product chain. While apps like these are interesting and useful, they’re under-utilized given their lack of commercial and entertainment value.

We came to the conclusion that the site itself is a valuable database of tools, but in order to have an impact, we need to go into the field and get people on the ground using the tools, and providing feedback about how they can be improved. That’s where Humanise comes in: It was created to function as the parent company of TheToolbox.org. The tools we curate are now one of three pillars. We’ve evolved into an organization that promotes human rights through technology, storytelling, AND collaboration with local communities.

Can you describe some of the projects that Humanise has initiated since its founding?

We decided to take Humanise to Detroit, primarily because there’s a lot of data-driven development unfolding in the city. Also, I grew up an hour outside of the D and am in love with the entrepreneurial community there. They’re so spirited. They’re the genuine article.

While money is being directed to development in certain districts, such as downtown, the neighborhoods on the outskirts are tragically deprived of funding and resources. Forty percent of the people in Detroit don’t have Internet access, and 40 percent can’t pay their water bills. It’s a first world city crawling with third world problems!

In the year 2015, there are no excuses for letting people in our own backyard suffer like this. We need to meet them where they are, not where we think they should be, and we need to collectively solve the problems from the ground up — not the top down.

So we started thinking of ways we can work with technology providers to foster digital inclusion. We’ve been working closely with community activists in the Detroit neighborhood of Morningside to understand the neighborhood’s needs and aspirations. We’ve connected them with a smart city advisory to see if the area is eligible for some pretty revolutionary technology. Some of the Detroiters we know are going to use TheToolbox.org as their own citizen journalism platform, where they can publish stories about their neighborhood and discuss the tools they find the most empowering.

If we’re able to provide connectivity for this neighborhood, we may be able to do the same thing in some of Detroit’s other hardest hits zones.

Before developing Humanise, Inc., you spent much of your career as a journalist. How did working in journalism influence your interest in social entrepreneurship?

Being a journalist is the way I became an entrepreneur, really. I worked in TV when I was younger, producing business news updates for CNN and then covering entertainment in Hollywood. The red carpet was my second home. But eventually, I started to feel like I was losing my soul. I became a journalist because I wanted to help connect people through storytelling — not perpetuate the dumbing down of the country, which is what I felt like I was doing half the time, particularly when I was asked to start quoting TMZ in stories. I knew that was the end.

I left Los Angeles, and I started focusing on nonprofits and social responsibility movements. I quickly discovered that I couldn’t make any money that way. Two years later, I began developing content for companies that have a social mission. This was when I started to view myself as more of an entrepreneur. But I’m always going to be a journalist at heart, always looking for the truth and humanity in every story.

Do you have any advice for future journalists or entrepreneurs?

These days, if you’re going to be a journalist, you have to be an entrepreneur. By that I mean, you need to think like an entrepreneur. You need to be constantly thinking of different strategies, who you can connect with, and how you can build your brand and business. It was this mindset that led me to TheToolbox.org and Peter Gabriel.

A second piece of advice is that the best way to develop an idea is to collaborate and find some common core or level of connectivity in the heart of why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s only through that kind of commitment that you can build a business that has meaning. It’s not easy. But the people you meet along the way will change your life and expand your heart and mind in ways you’ve never dreamed of. I can promise you that.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HUMANISE, INC. HERE.

Sarah is an undergraduate at Yale University and a content editor for CATALYST. As a traveler who has visited 30 countries (and counting!), she feels passionate about international development through sustainable mechanisms. Sarah has taken an interest in the intersection between public health and theater, and hopes to create a program that utilizes these disciplines for community empowerment. She is a fluent Spanish speaker with plans to take residence in Latin American after graduation.

How Not to Volunteer Abroad: An Interview with Author Pippa Biddle

May 21, 2021

In her new book, “Ours to Explore: Privilege, Power, and the Paradox of Voluntourism,” Pippa Biddle asks travelers and volunteers to look at the ways their actions affect the global community.

Philippa (Pippa) Biddle is the author of “Ours to Explore: Privilege, Power, and The Paradox of Voluntourism.” Her freelance work has been published by Guernica, The Atlantic, Wired, BBC Travel, AMC Outdoors, Maine magazine and more. You can preorder “Ours to Explore” here.

Biddle sat down with CATALYST Sarah Leidich to discuss her latest book and offer her take on voluntourism.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

A: For me, so much of working on the book was trying to call people into a conversation and call out the industry and not the individual. With voluntourism, so much of the critique has been focused on specific people.

It actually wasn’t my idea. I wrote a piece called “The Problems of the White Girls” that went viral and a literary agent reached out who suggested that there was a book in it. I spent about a year working with them on a proposal before I realized the book they wanted me to write was not the book I was interested in writing. They really wanted me to write a how-to-do-it-better, and I didn’t want anyone to do it. So why would I take an entire book to do that? But the process of working with them really showed me that there was a book in this—that there was enough material, enough research, enough interest to have a book.

Q: Before we talk about avoiding it or preventing it, can you define contemporary colonialism? How does it function today?

A: To me, contemporary colonialism is the continuation of colonial ideologies and empires into today. The reason that I use the phrase “contemporary colonialism” as opposed to neocolonialism is because oftentimes, the way we think about colonialism today is informed by and yet somehow held separate from the colonialism of the past and empire-building of the past, specifically empire-building done by Western European and North American powers. In North America, primarily the United States. To me, that differentiation between past and present is completely false.

It actually allows us to de-implicate ourselves, and by ourselves I mean people who are residents of powerful nations, beneficiaries of power dynamics, and travelers and voluntourists. Contemporary colonialism is simply a different phrase that refers to colonialism that I hope better amplifies the fact that there is that unbroken thread between past colonialism and present colonialism—it’s just modified itself for the present-day environment.

Q: Is it possible for volunteers to travel abroad without engaging in contemporary colonialism?

A: I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to travel anywhere without engaging in contemporary colonialism, but engaging with something isn’t in and of itself necessarily problematic. However, you have to recognize it to begin to address the problems with it when it is problematic. Just the fact that some people can travel for leisure and some cannot is an engagement with contemporary colonialism. The fact that I can, pre-pandemic and probably still right now, go to Tanzania and arrive and get a tourist visa for probably $100 and be in the door, but someone from Tanzania cannot reciprocate that action in the United States, is an example of contemporary colonialism, regardless of whether I’m going there to be a volunteer or go on a safari.

Q: What steps can travelers, especially privileged travelers, take to avoid acts that perpetuate the harmful side effects of travel?

A: I think that one of the biggest things we need to ask ourselves before booking a trip somewhere is “why are we going there?” I think a lot of travelers don’t take that moment to ask themselves “why do I need to go to this place?” And once they answer that question, to make decisions that fulfill their “why” in the most respectful way possible, which sometimes means not going. For example, if I were to say I really want to go to Ecuador because I’m really fascinated by Ecuadorian cuisine, then if I were to go to Ecuador, I should be focused on eating at restaurants that are owned and run and staffed by Ecuadorians. This sounds like an obvious thing, but most tourists don’t do that extra step. They go somewhere and eat at the places that are easy, that have the menu in English, that the resort has on their short list. The resort is probably foreign-owned, so the restaurants are probably owned by people associated with the resort.

The whole idea that travel should be something leisurely is really off-base. Travel is not a leisure activity. Travel is an activity that demands conscious engagement and thoughtful consideration, and as long as we treat it as something that is in the same realm as a relaxing day on the beach in your hometown—if you happen to live by the beach—we’re going to be doing it in ways that are disrespectful.

Q: You write about the tension between communities sometimes believing that voluntourists and missionaries are actually doing good work and then the harmful reality of this kind of travel, volunteering and missionary work. Is there a way to reconcile the relationship between intention, perception and outcome?

A: In the book I use the term “pathological altruism.” Pathological altruism really speaks to this tension, because it is the inability to see that something you are doing with the intention of the impact being positive is having a negative impact, and through that inability to see it, insisting on continuing to do it regardless. I think that the intention to do good is a very good core intention and stripping back to that core intention is a really positive thing, but the idea that intention should be immediately followed by action is misguided.

I used to work for the Jane Goodall Institute doing educational programming, and one of the things that we brought into classrooms a lot was a thing we called the “Knowledge-Compassion-Action Cycle.” The Knowledge-Compassion-Action Cycle is basically the idea that when we learn about something, we begin to care about it, and once we care about it, we are able to act in the best possible way, and through action you will learn more knowledge. I think a lot of people are skipping that middle part of true, deep knowledge and care. For example, with children in orphanages, if people who chose to volunteer in an orphanage cared about child welfare, and they’re jumping to the idea of volunteering at orphanage, that shows me that they haven’t gone through the knowledge procession and they haven’t gone through the compassion process, because there is no way you go from child welfare to orphanage if you’ve actually gone through that process. It’s trying to integrate more time and education and slowness into what we care about so that we have that time for knowledge and compassion to develop before we choose to take action.

Q: So if knowledge is developed and compassion is developed, and travelers are moving through the communities with intent, are there changes to the voluntourism industry you would like to see?

A: Something that makes me nervous about suggesting changes to the voluntourism industry is that it could be misconstrued as me saying that if the industry were to make those changes, it would be OK. That is not what I’m saying. However, there are things that can be done to mitigate the harm as we slowly dismantle voluntourism. The first thing, hands down, is to stop working with kids. Unfortunately, a lot of the trip providers that have stopped working with orphanages have simply pivoted and now take volunteers to work with youth groups, so the only thing that’s changed is that it’s not a residential environment, but so many of the same issues still exist. Honestly, if voluntourism stops working with kids, a fair amount of the market for voluntourism will dry up because the number one thing people want to do on these trips is work with kids. If that is not an option, the industry will shrink.

Parallel to that, I am adamant that prospective voluntourists deeply engage in the education around what they’re taking part in. One of the things I write about in the book is the “EdGE” platform by Omprakash, which is a nonprofit. EdGE is their learning platform, and EdGE is not perfect and Omprakash is not perfect, and Willy Oppenheim, the founder, is the first to admit that. But it provides trip providers and educational institutions that are facilitating voluntourism, as well as individual travelers that are going on their own, with a curriculum that attempts to educate them on some issues like White privilege and the White savior complex prior to them getting on the ground, so they go through the learning curve that I had years after going before they even go. Does that mean they will not be part of the White savior complex and White privilege? No, but it is a really important step.

Q: How would you encourage people who are looking to be philanthropic or looking to help? What would you say to them?

A: Think global, act local. Learn about global issues, engage in global conversations, learn about places, travel as a tourist who is respectful and thoughtful, but you have to remember that even the opportunity to travel is a privilege. If we have this idea that the only way to help is by going somewhere else, we are discounting billions of people on this planet who simply don’t have access to that opportunity. So think global, and then when you choose to act, look locally.

Sarah Leidich

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Sarah is currently an English and Film major at Barnard College of Columbia University. Sarah is inspired by global art in every form, and hopes to explore the intersection of activism, art, and storytelling through her writing.

VIDEO: Inner Me

January 18, 2017

While following Jemima, a little curious girl who wanders through dusty roads, crowded markets, slaughterhouses, furnaces and bat hunters, we get acquainted with three women who describe the harsh realities of being born female and deaf in a society that discriminates against both women and people with disabilities. The stories of Immaculée, Sylvie and Stuka are stories of everyday struggle against marginalization, abuse, and oppression, but despite the insurmountable obstacles imposed on them by society, the protagonists show us how their strong and undefeated will allows them to take hold of their fate every single day and reveals the beautiful resilience of the human spirit.

The Truth about Socialized Medicine around the World

December 7, 2016

In 2010, I moved to Australia from the United States and stopped in Thailand to go diving. While walking back to my hotel, I started to have trouble breathing. When it didn’t go away, I took myself and my chest pain to the emergency room. It was sparkling clean and almost empty; the young Thai doctor was thorough and gentle, and I walked away with an EKG, a chest X-ray, and a prescription for antibiotics. The total cost of my visit, for which I had to pay out of pocket due to not being a Thai citizen? About $40 USD.

There is a lot of misinformation passed around in the United States about socialized healthcare. You can wait a year without treatment. There are only two MRI machines in all of Canada. Nobody actually likes the system, or uses it. But the one thing most Americans never do is actually use universal health care. So I asked residents of multiple other countries to tell me what their experiences were like.

ISRAEL

Health care in Israel is universal and participation in a medical insurance plan is mandatory. All Israeli citizens are entitled to basic health care as a fundamental right.

Abby: “I never used the medical system for emergencies. Doctor’s offices seemed more like walk-in clinics than private practices, but Tel Aviv is very crowded. Even with an appointment, wait times were often 40-60 minutes.

I paid small co-pays, only to see specialists. Generally, the system was very low-cost and easy to use. I had to pay for prescriptions, but they were very cheap, especially compared to the States. A downside for me was that, while the doctors spoke perfect English, often the receptionists, nurses, and other office workers didn’t, so I had to get my Israeli boyfriend to make the appointments for me.”

ENGLAND

The NHS is the state healthcare provider in the UK. The service is free at the point of use; services are free, and running costs are covered by taxation. Private insurance is used by only 8% of the population of England.

Tim: “I have used the NHS many times, although, where possible, I go to private providers to save resources. Emergency work is almost always done on NHS. My mother was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and the NHS could not have moved faster; she also gets a choice of where she can be treated. She got a biopsy yesterday, the results ought to be back in five days and then treatment will start immediately. You would not receive any better with private insurance (and I say that as Tory).

Going to Emergency (A&E) is usually good, which I know from all my rugby injuries. You can get patched up and sent on your way in a reasonable amount of time. Getting a GP appointment (a general doctor, who will give you a referral), on the other hand, is almost impossible. The waiting time for my area is about three weeks. On the whole, the NHS is a good thing. It still has many flaws, though, and is in desperate need of a restructuring.”

AUSTRALIA

Australia has universal healthcare, called Medicare. It covers all general medical care, but some services are only partially covered and individuals pay a gap fee – this is usually still reasonably affordable, however. Individuals who earn high annual salaries are encouraged to take out private insurance.

Jenny: “I had an abnormal pap smear at my GP’s office, and she sent me a referral onwards to the Royal Women’s Hospital. I’ve had a lot of anxiety about pap smears in the past, and she specifically notified them about these issues. Since my issue was not urgent, she told me to expect a wait of several months for an appointment. The hospital recommended a colposcopy.

I contacted the patient advocacy department at the hospital and asked for assistance with my anxiety and PTSD. On the day of the procedure, all doctors and nurses were helpful and calming, and I managed to get through the experience without too much fear. They recommended that I get laser surgery to remove the abnormal cells from my cervix.

All of this has been totally free -- which is to say, paid for by Medicare. My original appointment for the pap smear was in May, and my laser surgery is scheduled for December...I received the appointment at the hospital in August. The abnormalities that showed in my report were not of an emergency nature; for similar issues, the brochure I received said patients can sometimes wait up to a year for treatment. I really appreciated the personalized care and support I received; it would have been so difficult to worry about payment while trying to deal with my emotional reactions to these procedures.”

FRANCE

All French residents pay compulsory health insurance, which is automatically deducted from paycheques. Patients pay fees at the doctor or dentist, which are then reimbursed 75-80% by the government, except in the case of long-term or expensive illnesses (such as cancer), which is reimbursed at 100%

Aliyah: “My father, who is Kenyan, was on a business trip in Paris. He tripped getting out of the subway and had a nasty gash above his eye. He was rushed to hospital, treated and held overnight for one or two days. When he was released, with medication, I kept bracing for the bill. None came. I told Dad to ask about it and he did. Answer: there is no bill, it is your right to be treated for free under our system.”

SWEDEN

The Swedish health care system is government-funded, although private health care also exists. The health care system in Sweden is financed primarily through taxes levied by county councils and municipalities.

Kelly: “Giving birth, tests, and one ultrasound were free. They charged me for extra ultrasounds and non-essential testing. The only thing they give you at the hospital for the baby is diapers, cream, and formula.

Generally, in Sweden, the health care works if you are dying or having an emergency. As long as everything's normal, no one will look twice at you or even WANT to see you more often than needed. The drop-in clinics (vårdcentral) never have enough staff or resources, so if you need to see a doctor, you exaggerate your symptoms or they just tell you not to bother coming in.

I have been struggling for 3 months to get a pediatrician for my daughter. Since I started trying, we went to the emergency room once, the nurse’s office 4 times, and I called the helpline a million times. No-one wants to actually see her.”

CANADA

Canada's health care system provides coverage to all Canadian residents. It is publicly funded and administered on a provincial or territorial basis, within guidelines set by the federal government.

“Everything is covered, whether it's something minor or surgery under anaesthetic. I've had MRIs, CT scans, x-rays, ultrasound, mammograms, you name it. The times I've had to go to emergency, I've received variable treatment, depending on the hospital. My longest wait was 13 hours. The shortest was ten minutes when I was afraid I had an aneurysm. For that one, I saw a specialist right away, which was also free. When my father had necrotizing fasciitis, he went to the hospital and was treated immediately. If he'd received treatment even 30 minutes later, he may very well have lost his leg or worse. In Canada, vision and dental are not covered by universal health care, and neither are things like physiotherapy, massage therapy, or alternative medicine like acupuncture, chiropractors, and so on. That being said, private medical insurance often covers a certain percentage of these things. Prescription medicine is also not covered by federal system, but between provincial plans and private insurance, can be greatly reduced in price if not free. Flu shots are free every autumn, and I remember getting vaccinated against rubella at school when I was a little kid. If you step on a rusty nail and go to emergency, your tetanus shot is free. Travel vaccinations and more unusual vaccinations, however, cost money. When I planned a trip to South America, I went to a travel clinic. The consultation was free, but I had to pay for my yellow fever and cholera vaccines.
I wish vision, dental, and physio were covered by national health care, but I am so grateful that everything else is covered. If they weren't, there's a chance I might not have survived as long as I have.”

IN SUMMARY

The United States is one of the only developed countries that doesn’t provide universal health care for its citizens. A friend of a friend had a baby at 28 weeks (extremely premature); the baby was in the NICU for several months. Fortunately, they had very good health insurance and ended up only having to pay $250 of the $850,000 bill -- but they were lucky. The United States healthcare system is a labyrinthine mess where insurance administrators make possibly lifesaving decisions about patient care, rather than doctors. The care you receive is based on what you can afford, not what you need.

Even with these astronomical costs to the consumer, the U.S. government still ends up paying more per capita for healthcare than countries with socialized medicine. Citizens of the U.S. have a life expectancy lower than other developed nations, and more elective surgery at higher costs...and paying more does not mean the service is better, as the U.S. also has fewer doctors than comparable countries. The systems elsewhere are not perfect, but the perfect is the enemy of the good: anything would be better than ending up in debt for the rest of one’s life, or worse, suffering (and dying) in silence because the cost of treatment is too high.

CLAIRE LITTON

Clair Litton was born in Canada, moved to the United States, went to graduate school in Australia, and recently relocated to Sweden. She has written for a series of online and offline magazine, and once had a young adult novel picked up by an agent, who then had to back down due to signing a little book called "Twilight." You can most commonly find Claire arguing about human sexuality and watching her toddler open and close doors.

MEET: Nadia Murad, How She Escaped Sex Slavery and Became an Activist for Yazidi Women

September 29, 2016

Global Citizen recently sat down with Nadia Murad to discuss her life, ISIS, and the Yazidi genocide. After escaping sex slavery by ISIS, the brave survivor turned activist became a voice for the thousands of Yazidi women who are still suffering under the Islamic State.

Since 2014, the Islamic State has conducted a mass persection and genocide of the Yazidi people, a religious and ethnic minority residing in Northern Iraq. Nadia was only 19 years old when ISIS members killed her family and abducted her to serve as a sex slave in captivity with over 5000 other Yazidi girls and women. She endured three months of torture before she was able to escape and seek asylum in Germany.

Nadia is now an international spokesperson for Yazidi women who are still in captivity. She's addressed the UN and met with state leaders to speak on behalf of her people. She's also been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and landed on Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People for her human rights activism.

Read the full Q&A below.

Tell me about your life before Daesh arrived. What was your favorite thing to do? How did you see your future?

My life was pretty simple. I was just like any other Yazidi girl that lived with her family in the same home. I was going to school. I was in 5th grade in Iraq, which means I would have been in 11th grade here. My family members were farmers, so I farmed with the family as part of my life.

When I thought about my future, I always wanted to be a history teacher. I also wanted to be a makeup artist. I wanted to have my own salon.

What makes the Yazidi culture unique? What would you want people around the world to know about your culture?

The Yazidi culture has it’s differences but is just like many other cultures in Iraq. We are peaceful people, and we wanted to live in Iraq peacefully with the rest of the other people. Unlike what ISIS claims, Yazidis are not non-believers--we are not what they call “Kafirs.” ISIS wanted to eliminate the Yazidis from Iraq because they think we are “Kafirs.” The other thing that I want other people to know about the Yazidis is that this is not the first time this has happened to our people. That’s why our numbers are small. That’s why we are under half a million people in Iraq. We were always being prosecuted in that region and this is the 74th genocide--if you will--that has happened to the Yazidis throughout the years.

After Daesh captured you, what did you focus on to help your survival?

Because I was under so much pressure and fear, I could not focus on anything, honestly. I was afraid, and I was expected to be taken by some new ISIS member at any minute. I did not think that I would survive this. I always thought, ‘this is unjust and this is unfair and something has to change.’

Even in the darkest of hours, were there any examples of strength that you witnessed that really inspired you?

What gave me more hope and what makes me proud to be a Yazidi and proud of my community is that even when ISIS attacked us from all fronts, as a small minority with no force to face ISIS, we struggled and we survived and we did not give up. We survived in that mountain with no help for days or for weeks from people. Yazidis survived and we fought for ourselves. We did not give up even though we were smaller numbers compared to the forces we were facing from all around us.

After your escape from Daesh, what was your first impression of the refugee camps?

During captivity, I didn’t think much about my people or how they were living. But after I came and saw them living in these refugee camps… And honestly, not many even had a place in the camps, they didn’t even have a tent. Because people were outside at the time, especially under bridges and stuff. I didn’t think I would see my people living in such horrible conditions. And even the women and girls, like me, who escaped ISIS had to live in those refugee camps where they faced many horrible conditions and very limited services.

How were you able to leave the refugee camps?

I stayed in the refugee camps for almost a year. I was able to go to Germany through a German program and receive treatment. But there are thousands of women and girls who escaped ISIS and live there now and have still not received any treatment. They still, as we speak, live in those refugee camps.

After leaving the camps, you were soon seen as a spokesperson, telling your story to the EU, the UN Security Council and other leaders, how have people responded to your story?

Since I’ve been telling my story, people have been positively responding. I’ve been urging people to not only listen to the story but to do what they can to help with the situation.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry called the killing of Yazidis a genocide, do you think this will change the global perspective on the situation?

After hearing the statement from John Kerry and from the United States officially recognizing the genocide against the Yazidis, it was very important to me to hear that and it gave me some hope. Because until now, the Yazidi genocide was not being recognized officially by any government body. This gave us hope to continue and to go all the way with this.

In telling your story and getting world leaders to listen, what do you want to happen? What are the requests you want to make to them?

First of all, I would ask world leaders to stop this terrorism and extremism in the world. Second, I would ask them especially to stop this injustice that is being done to women around the world by these terrorists. Defeat this terrorism and give everyone the rights and dignity they need to live in the world.

People across the world have heard and been affected by your story, if you could ask them to support you what do you want from them?

I urge them now to stay away from the ideology of ISIS and groups like them. Do not get involved in acts like that and do not commit crimes against women and children around the world. Help me get my message to the world so people will stop joining groups like this.

Tell me about your ideal future. What do you want the world to look like, both your place in that world and the world around you?

My future is the Yazidis future. My future is part of the other communities that are suffering. What I want the future to look like for me and for them is that the international community gives them their rights and saves them from the persecution they are facing. I want the world to work together to prevent what happened to the Yazidis and other communities in Iraq from happening again.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON GLOBAL CITIZEN

CARYN CARVER

@carynlcarver

Caryn Carver is an Audio-Visual Content Creator for Global Citizen. She spent a year living and working in South America where she developed a deeper passion for global issues, especially human rights.

MEGHA CHERIAN

Megha is a Digital Content Intern at Global Citizen. Her passion for global issues led her to focus on health policy and international studies in college. After moving back to her hometown of New York City, she has continued to support both local community and international organizations in advocating for the most vulnerable populations. Megha also spends far too much of her time thinking about eating delicious things and sometimes gets paid to bake cakes.

VIDEO: Papa Machete in Haiti

September 20, 2016

"Papa Machete" is a glimpse into the life of Alfred Avril, an aging subsistence farmer who lives in the hills of Jacmel, Haiti. He also happens to be a master of the mysterious martial art of Haitian machete fencing, also known as Tire Machèt. Teaching about the practical and spiritual value of the machete—which is both a weapon and a farmer’s key to survival—Avril provides a bridge between his country’s traditional past and its troubled present. The ﬁlm documents his proud devotion to his heritage and his struggle to keep it alive in the face of contemporary globalization. A Third Horizon Film In Association with Borscht Corp Co-Produced by Coffee and Celluloid and Four Bent Corners Directed by Jonathan David Kane Executive Producers / Writers: Jason Fitzroy Jeffers & Keisha Rae Witherspoon Director of Photography: Richard Patterson Co-Producer: Joey Daoud Sound Design: Joel C. Hernandez http://www.papamachete.com http://www.haitianfencing.org http://www.thirdhorizonmedia.com Toronto International Film Festival '14 (Toronto, Canada) Borscht Film Festival '14 (Miami, FL, USA) Sundance Film Festival '15 (Park City, UT, USA) Sheffield Documentary Festival '15 (Sheffield, UK) Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival '16 (Clermont-Ferrand, France) Miami International Film Festival '15 (Miami, FL, USA) Blackstar Film Festival '15 (Philadelphia, PA, USA) Traverse City Film Festival '15 (Traverse City, MI) Maryland Film Festival '15 (Baltimore, MD, USA) Zanzibar International Film Festival '15 (Awarded "Best Documentary") (Zanzibar, Tanzania) Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival '15 (Awarded "Best Documentary Short") (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) New Voices in Black Cinema '15 (Brooklyn, NY, USA) Nashville Film Festival '15 (Nashville, TN, USA) Treefort Film Festival '15 (Boise, ID, USA) East Oregon Film Festival '15 (La Grande, OR, USA) Indie Grits Film Festival '15 (Columbia, SC, USA) Little Rock Film Festival '15 (Little Rock, AK, USA) Haiti Film Festival '15 (New York, NY, USA) Regard sur La Court Film Festival '15 (Saguenay, Quebec, Canada) Key West Film Festival '15 (Awarded Best Florida Short) (Key West, FL, USA) Minneapolis Underground Film Festival '15 (Minneapolis, MN, USA) Ambulante Film Festival '15 (Los Angeles, CA, USA) Rooftop Films Summer Series '15 (Brooklyn, NY, USA) Brooklyn Museum '15 (Brooklyn, NY, USA) International Festival of New Latin American Cinema '15 (Havana, Cuba) FEMI Guadeloupe International Film Festival '16 (Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe)

Teaching about the practical and spiritual value of the machete—which is both a weapon and a farmer’s key to survival—Avril provides a bridge between his country’s traditional past and its troubled present. The ﬁlm documents his proud devotion to his heritage and his struggle to keep it alive in the face of contemporary globalization.

VIDEO: How to Travel the World with Almost No Money

June 8, 2016

Many people daydream about traveling the world, but all of them have the same excuse - lack of money. Tomislav, after traveling the world for years with almost no money, shows how it is possible for everyone to do the same, if they really want to.

Many people daydream about traveling the world, but all of them share the same excuse — lack of money. After years of traveling with almost no money, Tomislav Perko shows how it is possible for everyone to do the same, if they really want.

Finding Family On the Go in Nepal

April 19, 2016

Foregoing proper family time is one of the biggest sacrifices I make as a professional traveler. It is too easy to go “off the grid” and think that every one just understands a vagabond lifestyle. Far too often it is just assumed that the traveler in the family is out of the country and the conversations go from, “Hey let's grab lunch!” to “When’s the next trip, how long are you gone and why are you leaving me again?” Always absent from the birthday parties, weddings and the impromptu Sunday morning coffee chats with the grandparents. Absent from the little one’s baseball games, grandma’s chemotherapy appointments and the family BBQ’s at my parent's pool. Absent becomes an all too common trend.

When looking at my niece and younger cousins, I think about the close bond I made with my favorite aunt as a kid because of the trips to Chuck E. Cheese’s, the movie nights and always knowing without a doubt that she would be in the crowd at every baseball game. Will I be that awesome uncle or someone for them? I notice that my parents are donning a few more greys these days and my grandparents are having run-ins with illnesses more often. Should I be home reigniting the Sunday family dinner tradition that was so strong throughout my childhood? These questions run through my mind regularly and fill me with a small sense of guilt.

Sometimes, I would do anything for a one way ticket home to surround myself with family and bask in the cheap rent prices of the Midwest. However, that is not in the cards right now and won’t be for a long time. Until then, I will forever appreciate Southwest Airlines for the cheap flights (and 2 free checked bags!) from NYC to Kansas City that I frequent 2-3 times a year. I highly cherish this valuable family time and am incredibly thankful for it.

I finally turned a corner on not feeling guilty for being gone on my most recent trip to Nepal. As a part of my job with buildOn, I get the privilege of living with different host families twelve times a year around the globe. As a trek coordinator, I manage teams of Bronx high school students and volunteers traveling to a community to break ground and construct a primary school. This experience is called trek, and yes, you can get involved. My host families have all been amazing.

However, my latest host family in Nepal was unlike any others I had stayed with. They left me feeling full of so much warm love and happiness that I didn’t want to leave. For 9 nights, I became part of the Sunar family in the Bhagatpur Village. Despite our language barrier, our differing skin tones and our unique understandings of the world, I truly knew I had found long lost family members that I just had not had the opportunity to meet yet.

Every night when I wandered back into my room of their tiny concrete home, I was exhausted. It would have been very easy for me to take my bucket shower, eat my dinner and go to sleep without much interaction. Instead, no matter what time I rolled in, my three host sisters, Joti, Alicia and Aribica were eagerly waiting to greet me with the biggest smile and a “Namaste brother!” I couldn’t help but smile and quickly put my things down to join them for dinner.

Dinner time in Nepal is all about sharing family time. We would all surround a little fire stove while sitting on straw mats on the dirt floor and take our turns washing our hands. My host grandmother proudly served us heaps and heaps of rice, lentils, potatoes and vegetables that she had been preparing for hours in her primitive kitchen. My family never served themselves first and always made sure that I was so full that I could barely move because not taking seconds is simply not an option in Nepalese culture. Most nights we would practice our languages, and without fail they would burst out laughing every time I butchered a Nepali word or phrase. One night, I gave them a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle with the photo of two elephants on it. To my surprise, they had never seen a puzzle and were very confused as to what it’s purpose was. For 45 minutes, we sat and focused on putting that puzzle together and I happily observed as their problem solving wheels turned every time they placed each piece. Most people would have given up, but all 7 family members huddled around to tackle this puzzle. This reminded me of the days spent piecing puzzles together with my mom as a kid and even though I was filled with nostalgia, I knew how proud she would be to see me teaching them our favorite past time.

Piecing together that puzzle was just one of many activities we shared in that small little kitchen. Thanks to my great friends at LuMee, we took hundreds of illuminated selfies and videos. My host sisters sat one night and artistically colored in my henna tattoos with markers I had brought them. We talked about their religion, their family and how education is important for everyone. We laughed and laughed and laughed. We were family. No matter how stressful the day, every night when I went to sleep underneath my mosquito net on my bed that doubled as a table, I couldn’t help but think about how much they have, despite lacking many modern day luxuries that so many of us prioritize. They have family, they have love and they have community - is that not what we are all searching for?

When it was time to finally leave my family in Bhagatpur, I was filled with the usual sadness I feel at the end of my treks because of the unknowing of whether or not I will ever see my host families again. The reality is that I very likely will not. As I walked to the bus with both little sisters palms in my hands and my entire family following behind, I looked at them and grinned and said, “I love you family” and through their tears they said, “Love you brother!” In that moment, I knew that my family has forever grown by seven members.

My family means the world to me. If I didn’t travel that world, I would never find my family members like the Sunar’s, and that to me is more than enough reason to keep traveling. My family will forever grow.

#lucasonthego

MEET: Amber J Lawson, Founder and CEO of Good Amplified

November 18, 2015

Amber J Lawson is an American producer, entrepreneur, and online content and development executive. In another step toward her goal to “do good to scale,” Amber J. is the founder and CEO of Good Amplified, a YouTube Network solely focused on helping nonprofits evolve their donor engagement and retention via storytelling. In anticipation of Good Amplified’s launch, CATALYST connected with Amber J. to find out more about her new project and the future of content marketing.

Amber J Lawson founded Internetnetworksstudio.com in 1999 (after focusing on the performing arts at the University of Missouri). What motivated the transition from acting to developing online content and producing?

When I first moved to L.A. (a few years after college), I loved performing. However, I disliked the way in which an acting career often left my fate to the whims and demands of other people. I wanted to make my own opportunities! So I became a producer and started writing my own content in order to have the roles I was interested in playing. This transition was taking place during the first Internet boom, and my friend said to me: “You know, I think this Internet thing is here to stay.” My initial reaction was, “What? That’s crazy!” Yet he and I (along with an 18 year-old stock market genius we worked with at a restaurant) set out to create Internetworksstudios.com.

Our first show invited people from around the world to submit videotapes of them singing and dancing; the online community then voted for its favorites. We were a little ahead of our time — it was like our own American Idol — but after burning through the initial seed money, we created an hour-long pilot called Alyx. We partnered with Madonna on this program, which helped us sell the show to ABC/ Touchstone.

It was all just a little ahead of its time — a notion that I’d say has defined my career so far. I’ve been involved in multiple projects that were ahead of their time, but hopefully right now (with Good Amplified) we’ll be perfectly aligned with the coming-of-age, millennial generation.

What inspired you to create Good Amplified?

I worked as the head of programming at AOL. It was my dream job! I absolutely lived, ate, slept and breathed it. When I left my position, I thought, ‘I love doing these kinds of things.’ I believe that you can do good for the world and make money, so I contemplated how to strike that balance. I thought about what I love (entertainment), which led me to the idea of helping nonprofits across platforms to raise money through storytelling.

I started looking for a way to do good to scale: a way that would build upon itself. I wanted to help leverage what nonprofit organizations are already doing through a platform (YouTube) that the millennial generation utilizes to consume content. And that’s when I concocted Good Amplified.

What do you think the benefits are for a nonprofit to focus its media campaign on video production/sharing over traditional forms of digital content (e.g. articles)?

A potent form of marketing is storytelling, and every nonprofit has stories to tell. So they already have the key, potent pieces. The piece that’s missing, though, is leveraging the largest video platform (and second largest search engine) on the planet: YouTube. If you’re not there, it’s kind of like you don’t exist.

By optimizing content that nonprofits are already making on YouTube, they can deliver their mission to the next generation. The reason I say it’s critical to be on YouTube is because millennials donate through views. If you monetize your video, and people watch it, they are (in essence) donating through their viewership. The next step in showing their commitment is becoming a subscriber. I look at this as a new donor-retention program: subscribers receive notifications about updates, which helps maintain their connection.

According to standard marketing technique, it takes six to eight “touchpoints” for brand recognition to stick. With YouTube, this is something nonprofits would never have to think about again. All they need to do is continue telling their story to create those touchpoints in an organic way. So both the content and future viewers are present: nonprofits just have to facilitate the connection on a familiar platform. It’s an easier conversion than asking potential donors go to a website, or a new app, or something that’s completely different.

How is Good Amplified being funded?

At first, we set ourselves up to work as a tradition Multi-Channel Network (MCN). Most MCNs operate in three steps: there is a content creator; the creator monetizes its content; when revenue is produced, the profit is shared among creator, YouTube and the MCN. This works for some companies, but with a lot of nonprofits, we found that this was a difficult system to adopt. First off, there needed to be a value in the services we (GA) are giving — it’s human nature to pay more attention to something that costs money.

The second piece is that some nonprofits can’t take what is called Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT). It’s costly (and an accounting headache) to resolve this legality, which is why we have elected to give the nonprofits the option to pay a monthly fee to manage nonprofits’ YouTube channels. We run every aspect of it — titling, tagging, optimizing search algorithms — but we also educate the organization in the process. Over time, the nonprofit builds up a case for its team to start turning on the monetization (through ads) and collecting that revenue.

Has working on Good Amplified changed your perspective at all with respect to digital media and technology consultancy?

I feel like it has because there’s been a bit of an education process. For me, storytelling is the most powerful medium, period. While talking with nonprofits, we have found that they are waking up to the power of YouTube, but they need assistance. Quite frankly, some of the most successful nonprofits on YouTube have been the smallest organizations. In the absence of a complex, institutional process that drives internal operations, these organizations are more receptive to change. I think this is what our social media landscape demands: real-time interaction. This is how lasting relationships with online audiences are formed.

It doesn’t cost a lot of money to get in the game, but it does cost time. A lot of organizations lack the time to curate their YouTube presence, and that’s when they bring Good Amplified onboard. Our goal is to get into the DNA of an organization: every time they create a piece of content, YouTube should be a part of its checklist for sharing.

Most organizations use YouTube as a library or repository for past content. In reality, this material could be doing all the work for them! I use the example of Kobe Bryant, who granted a wish for Make-A-Wish Foundation a while ago. Contrary to popular belief, celebrity videos don’t always get a lot of views. Rather, a video has to be optimized on its platform in order to be picked up by the search algorithm. Once the video of LeBron got picked up, it started to generate 50,000 more views per week. That’s Kobe more people reached with your message! It’s all about the optimization and getting picked up in the algorithm. I know those things sound tedious, but they make all the difference in the world for getting your word out.

What advice can you offer people and organizations that are trying to utilize online platforms for social good?

Number one is that you have to engage with social platforms. This is where the next generation of givers can be found, and the old techniques don’t work for them. I believe that older institutions have to disrupt what they’re doing in order to survive. Every year, we lose various nonprofits because they aren’t receiving enough funding. These organizations were doing great work, but they weren’t reaching that generation of future supporters and advocates.

In addition to social platforms, content marketing is everything right now. What we’re talking about (brand recognition through storytelling) is exactly like branding for companies like Taco Bell or Target. Given that the commercial is going away, brands have to find different ways to engage with an audience through content that is entertaining and relatable. Why should the task of nonprofits be any different?

Good Amplified is committed to doing good to scale. We are looking forward to working with any nonprofit that has an appetite for content, and I think that is the distinction for how we can help. We are committed to making nonprofits successful — that’s our goal — but they have to have the desire for storytelling and content creation. I truly believe storytelling is the way of the future, which is why nonprofits have to embrace it now.

SARAH SUTPHIN

sarah.sutphin@mission.tv

Interview with Taylor Conroy: A New Model for Philanthropy

July 22, 2015

CATALYST speaks with Taylor Conroy about why it's time to abandon the "broken" traditional model of philanthropy and what it means to "devote his life to the world."

Tell us more about your theory that the traditional model of nonprofit fundraising—as you say the one where "organizations use guilt to make people cough up cash"—is broken. Is it time for us to abandon this model completely?

Yes. As in it should’ve ended YESTERDAY. That system has been broken since it was devised in the first place. While it may have started from a place of people really just wanting to help, it has been bastardized and overdone to epic proportions. I believe that though this "model” is in place to raise funds to decrease poverty, it actually increases it. The model perpetuates a separateness mentality by making people who are likely proud, beautiful, wonderful people into "them." It makes westerners look at people in poverty as very different from "us," and they are not.

If we in the developed world knew that one of our siblings was starving, malnourished and exposed to diseases that were easily preventable we wouldn't stand for it. Same as if it was a friend of ours. Why? Because we feel connected to them. We look at our siblings or friends as the same as us—and thus we would never stand for seeing them in unnecessary pain. When we see pictures of people in the developing world, we don't look at them as being the same as us. So we tolerate it. And poverty porn—which is exactly what those images are—is part of the reason we tolerate it.

What made you decide to give 10% of your income away to causes you care about? Especially when you were driving a car with no reverse and only had 3 t-shirts in your outfit rotation?

My life coach told me to. I had just hired her, and thought she was nuts. I had gone to her to learn how to make money, not give it away. She insisted. She had a nice big house on the ocean… I had a crappy rented basement suite, so I took her advice. I thought I would wait till I made money to give it, until I heard this: "If you won't give 10 cents out of a dollar, you will never give $100,000 out of a million."

As you know, social media can be an incredibly valuable tool for galvanizing money and support. There’s been a lot of debate, especially after the Invisible Children’s Kony video, about how social media is used to bring attention to humanitarian issues. How do you use social media/the internet to make a difference, without oversimplifying or stripping the issues of substance?

I don't use it to make a difference, and thus I don't have to worry about over simplifying or stripping anything. I use social media to share what I am up to and to be social because that's what it's for. The Kony 2012 video will be getting analyzed up and down for years. People will use it to hear themselves talk and feel like they know what they are talking about by saying it was positive or it was negative, when really, no one can know. We cannot see what is going to happen in the next 10 years because of it, or what will not happen because of it.

You wrote on your website, “I vowed to devote my life to the world for all of 2012.” What does devoting your life to the world mean?

That I would be of as much service to the world as possible for one year, without thinking about my own profit or advancement whatsoever. I would use, "is this the best thing I could be doing for the world" as my decision maker and only do what was my highest and best use for the world. Keep in mind though, I am a believer that the more fun I am having, the better my work is, and that one needs to be happy personally FIRST, before being able to make others happy. So I concentrate just as much energy on making sure I am very happy.

In your TED talk you mention books that make you think “if everyone read this book, the world would be a better place.” What books have inspired you?

Half the Sky. I am going to leave it at just that one for now.

What’s the one thing you can’t travel without?

Audio books. Do you have any idea how much you can learn while in airports?!!?! I crush an audio book or two on every trip. As soon as I get into the airport, the headphones are in and I am learning about ancient spiritual teachings, world issues, great entrepreneurs, or how to have better sex. I love audiobooks… and if you listen to them on an iPhone, you can double the speed and rip through ‘em.

What advice would you give to a young person working full time with a limited salary who wants to make a difference in the world?

I wouldn't give them advice, because the biggest thing I have learned after doing this stuff is that I don't know anything. Everyone is different, and everyone has their own special thing to give. I just happen to be in a place where I feel I should be doing things on a big scale. But that will pass. I know that within the next 5 years, I will move into a new phase, and to tell you the truth, that phase may involve me meditating in a cave in India for a few years. All I know is I am going to keep doing what I think is right for me to be doing right NOW, ‘cause that's all I got.

Now that you’ve shown the world that you can raise $5000 with a text message, and $10,000 to build a school in 3 hours, what’s next for Taylor Conroy?

Raising $10,000,000 to build over 1000 schools, libraries, water projects, and more to improve the lives of 1,000,000 deserving people in 10 countries. Then I’m going surfing.