Volunteers Voices

The UNWTO.Themis Foundation is proud to celebrate the International

Volunteer Day (IVD) and the work of the UNWTO.Volunteers Corps by

presenting witnesses directly from the field and how tourism and volun-

teering contribute to the UN Millenium Development Goals.

The UNWTO.Volunteers programme has been established since 2007

with the aim to provide young professional with practical training in

tourism as a tool for poverty alleviation and development.

MARÍA JESUS MESÍASUNWTO.Volunteer

My name is María Jesús Mesías, and I was born in a small town in Galicia, Spain, on the 21st of October, the anniversary date of the Glorious Battle of Chiapa de Corzo, an emblematic city of the resistance against colonization and which gave its name to the State of Chiapas. In my homeland we do not believe in the supernatural or in “meigas” (although we know that “as to whether there are any, there are” …), so I cannot think that there is any kind of metaphysi-cal link that predestined me to find myself in a place where I lived through one of the most enriching experiences of my life... what is certain is that from the moment I arrived in this wonder-ful Mexican State the warmth of its people made me feel at home.

I suppose that my father was the reason why I am such an extremely sensitive person who is unwavering in my principles: he was born six years before the terrible Spanish Civil War and lived through very hard times in the post-war period and during the dictatorship, when hunger drove my grandfather to emigrate to Argentina, leaving his eight children to grow up acting as young patres familias, who during their childho-od were forced to scramble for their sustenance any way they could, and who during their youth and adulthood lived under the shadow of political oppression and social injustice. It was him, with his stories, who made me see that there existed other worlds outside my small and comfortable reality, and generated in me the inability to live oblivious of social suffering, in the knowledge that with a little common effort, a better world is possible.

It was due to him that I managed to overcome the vicissitudes of an unstructured family and to believe in my ability to complete a degree that would help me understand how the proper governance of a people can bring prosperity to its members, obtaining a degree in Political Science.

It is hard knowing that you have a goal but not how to achieve it. I specialized in human resour-ces and the protection of groups at risk of social exclusion, and I learned to understand the diversity of needs of human beings. I studied international cooperation and learned the importance of providing people with instruments with which to achieve their own development. I began to work in an institutional consulting firm, and I learned that true development lies in balance among the three facets of sustainability: social, economic and environmental. Thus I discovered the HOW, and I specialized in the areas of tourism and culture, areas in which, for six years now, I have been working, designing and implementing projects on development and competitiveness.

In the year my father died, I was chosen as a partici-pant in the University Course on Tourism and Interna-tional Cooperation for Development, through which I came to form part of the UNWTO Corps of Volunteers. And although I already told you I don’t believe in “meigas”… I do believe that energy is neither created nor destroyed, only transformed.

As a volunteer of the UNWTO my HOW took on a fuller meaning and gained a new dimension. Through the Volunteers Programme, a working global network has been created which has probably exceeded what was envisaged when it was designed, and which reaches beyond the specific competencies of the UNWTO. As for myself, I can be proud of having known eminent experts, with whom I now share experiences and professional collaborations, and of having forged great friendships thanks to this Progra-mme and the Missions in which I have participated.

Without a doubt, this has been the best thing that has happened to me in my life. It gives me the possibility of participating in international cooperation projects without having to give up my daily work and my life plans, giving the most valuable things I have in order to contribute to the development of many peoples and communities: my knowledge, experience and capacity for work.

And upon arriving in Chiapas, my first Mission, I reaffirmed my WHY.

I had the opportunity to contribute all the facets of knowledge that I had accumulated throughout my educational and professional life.

And it made me grow as a person. I came to know behaviours and lifestyles that we have nearly forgot-ten in the “First World”… I came to know Communi-ties that offer and share everything despite having nothing. I met persons who, in their lives of absolute struggle, enjoy the greatest happiness and vital joy that a human being can have. I met people who collaborate, engage themselves, and participate in the planning and management of their families, businesses and communities with the greatest tenacity and enthusiasm I have ever seen.

I shared times of celebration and utter happiness with persons that I had known for just days, but who made me feel as though I was with members of my family or my friends. In a matter of days I went from being “La Gallega” (the Galician), in capital letters, because the enormous affection and respect shown by them in calling me so demonstrated that it is always possible to break down stereotypes, to appreciate what unites us and to ennoble oneself with the diversity of other cultures.

And I was able to see that they live in realities of social injustice, inequality and life goals with very limited time... But the magnanimity and courage of the people I met were such that I did not feel sadness, discouragement or frustration. I felt an eagerness to work with them to contribute to making their goals bigger.

Volunteers and what I experiences in Chiapas and La Rioja answered my questio-ns. I know WHO I am: a driving force that draws and transforms energy in the develop-ment of Communities.

I know HOW to do so: by contributing knowledge, a vocation to serve, commitment and solidarity. And I know WHY I do it: Every minute, thousand of people are born and die all over the World, whom nobody has helped to answer their questions about how to transform the energy of their Communities in order to achieve a better life.

Perhaps some may think that this is a highly unorthodox and extremely romantic way of interpreting a scientific law... but love, both towards others and from them, has always been the “energy” that moves my world.

María Jesús Mesías Rodríguez

Nacionality: Spanish

María has participated in the Missions: Project Chiapas 2015:

Strategic and Tourism Competitive-ness Plan for the Clusters of Tuxtlá

Gutierrez, San Cristobal de la Casas, Palenque and Comitán de Domín-

guez”, of the UNWTO TedQual Volunteers Programme Mexico 2008, and Capacity Building Initiatives for Tourism Administrations: Evaluation and raining Support Mission in the Context of the Course “UNWTO-Excellence in Tourism Marketing Management” Argentina 2009.

ALEJANDRO CALVENTEUNWTO.Volunteer

The peace accords of 1996 put an end to 36 years of armed conflict in Guatemala. Fourteen years have passed, but this small Central Ameri-can country is still trying to overcome many after-effects, principally its indigenous peoples who were especially affected.

Laj Chimel is but one of the many indigenous communities that exist all throughout the country and perhaps the only thing that sets it apart from the rest is that it witnessed the birth of Rigoberta Menchú, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. Laj Chimel means “small lagoon” in the K'iche' language.

The village used to be called just Chimel, in honour of a now extinct lagoon on whose banks the founders of the village had settled. However, the word Laj, meaning “small”, has a much more recent and less romantic origin. Chimel was inhabited by over 50 families engaged mainly in subsistence agriculture and livestock-raising. During the conflict, this region was especially affected and the village of Chimel was no excep-tion.

Accused by both sides of supporting the rival faction, Chimel was bombarded by planes and helicopters, its houses were burned, its cornfields devastated and its livestock stolen. Its inhabitants had to flee leaving behind all their belongings to hide in the leafy forest surrounding the community, where some persons stayed for almost two years in the course of which they ran out of food and clothing and survived by eating roots. Others sought refuge in the town of Uspantán, the capital of the region, where many of them were incarcerated for no reason.

This is the case of María Vicente, who is today a leader of her community and who tells her story in a chillingly matter-of-fact manner. Many inhabitants were not so “lucky” and were either killed or did not survive the harsh conditions to which they were exposed. When the conflict ended, only members of 16 families had survived. It fell to this group of people to re-found Chimel which from then on they called Laj Chimel, “Little Chimel".

The 16 families started out literally from zero, with nothing more than their land which they had finally recovered. But the inhabitants of Laj Chimel became wary and fearful of any people from outside their community, they abandoned much of their traditions and up until very recently many people of the community would shut themselves in their houses when someone would enter their hamlet, especially if the stranger was not indigenous and did not speak K'iché.

Fortunately, this is changing albeit very gradually—there had been much suffering—but today, the residents of Laj Chimel are opening up more and more to the world outside the borders of their community and have placed their hopes in something totally new for them, tourism.

Since 2006, the World Tourism Organization, through its local counterpart Fundación Movimundo Guate-mala, has been supporting the community of Laj Chimel in its initiative to promote community-based tourism as an alternative for its development and the diversification of its economy. And since February of 2010, thanks to the opportunity provided by the UNWTO.Themis Foundation as part of its Volunteers Programme, I have been coordinating the project and living in Uspantán, a small village in the Department of Quiché, in northern Guatemala.

My arrival, as is the case with any sudden change of course in one’s life, was a mixture of emotions that were difficult to tell apart. What motivates me the most when arriving in a new destination is the incredi-ble feeling that your brain is waking up and is starting to work at 100 per cent. One gets away from routine life, from the daily automatisms of life in a familiar context, and has a need and an eagerness to learn all sorts of things, to adapt as soon as possible. It feels as if 5 senses aren't enough to absorb as much new information as one would like.

After 7 months in the field, everything has gradually become familiar and the ability to adapt has already done its job, and so I can devote all my energy to the project on which I am working. The objective is to strengthen Laj Chimel as a tourism destination, which means developing a product that is attractive to visitors, training the community members in areas such as customer service, good practices for sustai-nable tourism, handling groups of tourists, food preparation or how to manage a small business.

The most important thing at this time is to reinforce their capacity to organize and work as a team. This aspect is of vital importance for the success of the project, and is precisely one of the biggest difficulties that we have to overcome.

Nevertheless, this is especially motivating, as it transcends the barrier of what is merely tourism-related, and affects all facets of life. If upon our departure we leave a community that is better organi-zed, more united and with well-established habits of cooperation among themselves, then we can take satisfaction in knowing that they will be better prepa-red to face the vicissitudes of their life, as in situatio-ns as complex as those experienced in Laj Chimel the saying that there is “strength in union” is truer than ever.

The project is making progress little by little, and the context in which it is taking place means that small advances are great triumphs. Despite the fact that, for the time being, tourist arrivals are still scarce, the change experienced by the inhabi-tants of the community constitutes sufficient reason to consider the effort made as a success, and to foresee the achievement of tangible improvements in their quality of life. Economically speaking, it may take some time for significant benefits to materialize, but it is partly thanks to tourism that the community members are now overcoming fears and complexes, and are recovering certain local customs due to the interest shown by visitors in seeing this type of cultural expressions. Another achievement that should not be forgotten is the environmental protection brought on by tourism in the region. For example, community members involved in the tourism project have signed an agreement where-by they undertake not to deforest the zone and thus conserve the attractiveness of the landsca-pe.

It is true that there are many setbacks that have to be faced everyday when working in the field, power outages, lack of water, difficulties in finding the invoices that are so necessary, lack of organi-zation of the beneficiaries, or occasionally, even lack of interest or motivation, etc.; there are many frustrating moments. However, when I find myself in this situation I remember a phrase they told me when I arrived in Senegal some years back and which has served me well since, “if things worked perfectly, we wouldn’t be here and our work would be somewhere else”.

The true reason for our work is to contribute our small part so that things work better, and in this specific case, so that the people of Laj Chimel can live better. It is for this reason that all the effort and enduring conditions that are not always easy is worth it and gratifying.

Alejandro Calvente

Nacionality: Spanish

Alejandro is volunteering in theframework of the UNWTO.Volunteersprogramme in Africa, and supporting

the activities of a UNWTO ST-EPproject “Fortalecimiento de Destinos Turísticos Comunitarios en Quiché”,

Guatemala.

DOMINGO GÓMEZUNWTO.Volunteer

I am a Tzotzil of the Mayan culture. Degree in Tourism, Master-s in Administration with Training in Organizations and Doctorate in Sciences for Sustainable Development, with the doctoral thesis "Local Economic Development through Rural Tourism in the Comunidad Lacandona, Chiapas: Nueva Palestina, Lacanjá Chansayab and Fronte-ra Corozal".

From July 2005 to the present, full-time professor at the Universidad Intercultural de Chiapas in the Alternative Tourism Degree Programme.

In 2007 I graduated from the first university course of the World Tourism Organization, Tourism and International Cooperation for Development, and in 2008 I participated as a volunteer in the UNWTO.Volunteers Programme for the project “Chiapas 2015: Strategic and Tourism Competiti-veness Plan for the Clusters of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Palenque, Comitán de Domínguez and Chiapa de Corzo”. In addition, this course allowed me to complete the academic credits for my Doctorate in Sciences for Sustaina-ble Development at the Universidad de Guadala-jara.

From local to global

My professional training in the area of tourism and my belonging to an indigenous community made it possible for me to join in 1997 one of the three community-based tourism projects in Chiapas called Tourism Centres for Contact with Nature in the community of Frontera Corozal as administra-tor of the Escudo Jaguar Ecotourism Centre. During my stay of nearly two years in this project we managed to position it in the tourism market through agreements with wholesale tour operators in order to attract visitors to the archaeological areas of Bonampak and of Yaxchilán, where this project began to provide food services, accommo-dation and boat transfers on the Usumacinta River, all operated by Ch'ole indigenous people.

However, with the knowledge I gained through my degree in Tourism I felt limited, and so I started to do a Master’s degree in Administration with Training in Organizations, and my thesis to obtain the degree was a model for the creation of tourism centres in the indigenous communities of Chiapas. This was a model for community-based tourism development that was applied in other communities of Chiapas and of Mexico which were promoted at the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century.

With the experience I had acquired in the field regarding community-based tourism, I felt obliged to disseminate it through universities, in courses and in lectures as a professor. It was thus that I entered the Universidad del Valle de México in 2001 and after five years at this institution I joined the Universidad Intercultural de Chiapas through a competitive examination to occupy the post of Full-Time Professor in July 2005.

Being a university professor, it was necessary to continue with doctoral studies and to link myself with other universities abroad such as the Universitat de Girona and the Universitat de Alicante (Spain). Likewise, in April 2007 I submitted by application to enter the University Course on Tourism and Interna-tional Cooperation for Development of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and in late June of that year I went to the Universidad de Valencia (Spain) to start the course, and then to the University of Perpignan (France) and finally to the University of Andorra, where I carried out field work with the aim of acquiring greater knowledge and experience in this discipline in order to be able to contribute in develo-ping countries.

After completing the course, I decided to work as a volunteer in the Maya World (Mexico, Belize, Guate-mala, Honduras and El Salvador) in the area of community-based tourism as a strategy for sustaina-ble development in the region.

From global to local

De lo global a lo local.

In April 2008, the Government of Chiapas, through the Secretariat of Tourism of Mexico, requested from the UNWTO.Themis Foundation of the UNWTO a group of volunteers for the creation of the Strategic and Tourism Competitiveness Plan for the Clusters of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Palen-que, Comitán de Domínguez and Chiapa de Corzo. In this volunteer project I participated with other members of the team who were from different countries such as Spain, Portugal, Guatemala, Brazil and Mexico.

With this volunteer activity I was able to work directly with the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Ch'ole, Lacandona and Zoque indigenous peoples of Chiapas, to understand their needs, as well as their desire to participate in tourism activity, not just as attractions in the destina-tions, but also in the operation of the projects themselves, considering the economic benefits as complementary income for the local populations through the offering of accommodation, food services, handicraft sales and the services of local tourism guides.

When doing field work in a multicultural region like Chiapas, where Maya groups live side-by-side (Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Ch'ole, Lacandona, Tojolabal, Chuje, Kanjobal, Kakchiquel, Mame and Zoque) it was necessary to have local knowledge of these culture, especially their languages, among which I speak Tzotzil, my mother tongue, Tzeltal, Ch'ol and Lacandón. Through these languages, I was able to live together with the population of Amatenango del Valle (Tzeltal), Chamula and Zinacantán (Tzotzil), Palenque (Ch'ol).

It is here that local knowledge becomes important in the research work that brings us closer to the reality. On the other hand, the interdisciplinary and international team I formed part of generated intercultural dialogue in order to seek sustainable propo-sals in the tourism destinations studied, where the participation of each member contributed substantially in the general ideas for the creation of the plan. Furthermore, it is important to note that the team of volunteers was composed of young people with a high degree of commitment, responsibility and respect for the cultures, which helped in the successful accomplishment of the entrusted mission.

The results obtained were presented to the competent authorities in September 2009. Since that date, the Government of the State of Chiapas began to design a marketing plan called Sendero de colores (Path of Colours) which includes the five places studied, and which was launched in July 2010.

Currently, I am taking part in two research projects 1) Cross-Border Tourism between Chiapas and Guatemala with the Universitat de Girona and the Universidad Intercultural de Chiapas (UNICH); and 2) Cultural Diversity, Local Development and Tourism in Chiapas, with the publication of a book and a documentary on the socio-cultural impacts in community-based tourism, a perspective from the peoples involved of the Lacandona Jungle with the Universidad de Alicante and UNICH. Both projects are financed by the Spanish Agency for International Coopera-tion for Development (AECID). Since March 2010, I have been a member of the Interna-tional Network of Researchers on Tourism, Cooperation and Development, based in the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.

Domingo Gómez

Nacionality: mexican

Domingo has participated in the project:Chiapas 2015: Plan de

Estrategia y Competitividad turística para los Clusters de Tuxtlá Gutierrez, San Cristobal de la Casas, Palenque y Comitán de Domínguez”. Mexico

2008.

LORENA LÓPEZUNWTO.Volunteer 2010, the year of my 30th Birthday. An important year, of course, but it is also the year I´ve been sent to África. My first time in África, a big change: from Berlin to a rural village situated in the West Coast of Ghana. Maybe this is the needed step to enter in this new age with a new vision of the world. The kind of change and challenge, that I was long time pursuing.

Ghana, situated in the sub-saharian Àfrica, the Àfrica still seen as the “unknown” continent in the XXI century. Many topics and ideas come into one’s mind when you hear the word África. And those same topics were repeated by the people that surround me before depar-ting to my new destination: heat, desert, hunger, malaria, and mosquitoes... always the same words. A whole continent defined by a few words. Could be África and Ghana be described just like this?

Of course not...my only wish before arriving was to be able to absorb all the new things that for sure were waiting for me. My eyes and every pore of my skin were wide opened during my first walk through Accra. I was overcame by the smoke of cars, the continuous sound of the horns blown constantly by the taxi drivers, the view of all the colourful people arranged along the roads and at every traffic lights selling things that at that moment I couldn´t even imagine. Everything was unexpected, at least for me, a completely beginner in African cities lifestyle. But the most unexpected thing was the kindness with which this people help and welcomes you. There is always someone willing to help you and gives you information about how to get to the different places.

On the way to the Western Region once again you are overcome but this time by the power of nature, all around is green, the landscape is covered with banana trees, coconuts, baobabs, rubber planta-tions... a new world of vegetation domi-nates the way along the road but also the small communities made up with mud huts covered with palm leaves, that shows you the reality of a developing country.

Once I arrived in Busua, the community, which from that moment I became part of the story was repeated again, people look at the new arrival not with indifferen-ce or even curiosity they smile at you and say “Akwaaba” (You are welcome!). And they really welcome you and nothing make them happier than saying that you are staying for a long period, the want you to become Ghanaian! Of course, first I had to ask permission to the traditional Chief and of course I had to offer him a bottle of imported schna-pps.

At that point it was the confirmation that this 2010 was going to be plenty of new discoveries and experiences. And so it´s been until now... From now on I know how a rubber plantation looks like and moreover how it smells, I discovered that the pineapples come from the soil and not from the trees and that it is important the day you were born, because is part of your definition as a person and you carry it along with your name and that relativity means that a taxi can carry more than 8 people at a time!

But all of this does not mean that everything is easy. Of course you have to face the heat, the mosquitoes, and if you are unlucky as me the malaria, to be seen as a Visa possibi-lity, loneliness... but it is not only that, after the euphoric first moments you realise that their beliefs, thoughts, behaviour are different and you have to learn also how to behave and you have to readjust yourself physically and mentally and this is not an easy and quick process. During this path you get through moments of difficulty where lots of questions come into your mind but if you are strong enough... the answer is always Yes... it´s worth it.

It´s worth it when you walk to the office and a child say to you “Obruni (white person), how are you?” and the smile on his face when you reply. It´s worth it when you after three days absence the old lady living just beside you says “Akwaaba, we missed you” and you feel that they let you became part of their lives and of course it´s worth it when you visit any of the community and they say thank you for helping us...when the only thing you are doing is your job, but gives you and additional and powerful reason to wake up every morning and work with them to have more opportunities.

Lorena López Hermida

Nationality: Spanish

Lorena is volunteering in the framework of the UNWTO.Volunteers programme in Africa, and supporting

the activities of a UNWTO ST-EP project Sustainable Tourism – Eliminating Poverty in western

Ghana.

ESTHER MARTÍNEZUNWTO.Volunteer

From the stars I was sent the best of gifts, the opportunity to participate in the implementation of a project to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of the cluster of Leticia and Puerto Nariño, in the Colombian Amazon region.

I travelled from Spain, my native country, to Colombia, which would become my second home. As soon as we arrived in Leticia we started with the meetings to put everyone in agreement—public administrations, enterprises, local communities, residents—and to draw up a plan of action.

We were volunteers and experts from various countries, but we constituted a group that was very united from the start.

In order to get to know the reality of the destina-tion, we visited the indigenous communities from Puerto Nariño to Leticia, riding the current of the Amazon River… and there we discovered Paradise, with unforgettable sunsets…

In the first meeting with the indigenous commu-nities I was moved... I still didn’t believe it... finding myself immersed in a culture that was so different from mine and so special... And to have the opportunity to help them improve their living conditions!!!

In order to get to the indigenous communities we sailed on the river, we hiked several hours through the jungle or went by canoe...We would sleep wherever we happened to be, but always with our trusty hammocks and mosquito nets... we would hear animal noises and the creaking of trees which kept you from closing your eyes...

In our hikes through the jungle there would always be some kind of misadventure, such as boats running aground, having to bathe and wash clothes in the Amazon River because we didn’t want to ask for water in the communities, as well as the experience of thinking we were lost in the jungle... But we always managed to get through all the little mishaps just fine…

Over the course of these days we had the wonderful opportunity of getting to know the indigenous communities, their residents, their culture, traditions and way of life...

The residents of the communities have enough to live on... they fish every two or three days for their families, they grow vegetables, fruits and medicinal plants in the chagras and organize mingas (harvesting groups), they use communi-ty ovens to make yucca, and they also produce handicrafts and even make their own canoes. And those who can, sell the products.

Although unfortunately they do not have enough for other necessities such as health care, schools, gasoline, sugar, coffee...Instead of hospital they are given check-ups by itinerant doctors, which at times, regrettably, is inadequate...

Not all the communities have schools, so the children who can have to go to other communi-ties, and those who cannot, work…They collect rainwater for drinking, bathing and cooking...

Utensils and clothes are washed in the river... They also bathe in it when there is no rainwater... During the three hours per day when there is electricity, the gather in front of the community’s television... In some communities they have a public phone booth to communicate with the outside world...

But even though they lack certain things, they seem happy...

Even if they don’t have television, they play football, basketball or volleyball... If they do not have rainwater stored up, they bathe in the river... They don’t have large kitchens but they make do with a patio and a hearth...They don’t have bathrooms but they get by with latrines... The children don’t have PlayStations but they have tops, marbles...

The indigenous people still manage to preserve part of their traditions, customs, their religion, their beliefs in nature and animals... However, our most difficult objective will be to help them control tourism activity while still appreciating and maintaining their culture and traditions...

And so we came to know their different ethnicities: Tikuna, Cocama, Witoto..... We also learned about their malokas (religious houses)... Their kurakas (or political leaders of the community)... Or their shamans (or religious leaders) who concentrate by chewing coca or “mambeando”...

Old people are highly revered, and they contribute all that wisdom to the succeeding generations: their customs, their stories, their relationship with nature and their ancestors… They have a charm and a hospitality that marks you for life, always with a smile on their lips...

But above all the peloncitos (children)... those looks, those smiles, that shyness (or, as they say, “pena”)…When we would arrive they would run towards us... Then, when they reached us, they would remain silent out of shyness... and finally, after photographing them and showing them the picture, one by one they would tell you their names and blush like tomatoes...

All during all this time that we were swimming in their culture, we continued to work every day, interviewing local communities, enterprises, institutions... Working until our laptop batteries went dead...

Upon returning to Leticia it was an effort for us to get used to being without the noises of the jungle… We felt surprise at having running water, electricity, a telephone... We greatly missed the tranquillity, the friendliness, the smiles of the pelones…

And we continued to work, eleven, twelve hours each day... and also enjoying ourselves, a lot. In the morning, a little break in the pool, and going out once in a while at night to relax...

Until the day when we presented the project to all the stakeholders: the Ministry, municipal governments, enterprises, indigenous communities... honestly, it was a success in terms of attendance, we managed to awaken the interest of all of them.

I myself was one of those who had the honour of defending the preliminary results of the project, on behalf of the World Tourism Organization and of the volunteers...

In this presentation, we tried to convey to them the progress of a Plan for the development of the destination in a sustainable manner, taking into account the points of view of all the actors that form part of tourism activity, and we also expressed the importance that the project involve and be run by the indigenous communi-ties, which are the ones who have to decide the extent to which they want to become involved, and if they do, to control the tourism activity that can help them improve the quality of life of their inhabitants, while always maintaining and valuing their culture and traditions.

The Development Plan would have to be carried out over the course of the following months with the work and the knowledge of all the colleagues, experts and volunteers of the UNWTO, until it materializes in a project that reflects in an integrated way, how to develop the destination of Leticia-Puerto Nariño in a sustainable manner.

Although a lot of work still lay ahead, the end of the field work arrived...

Saying goodbye was tough… At last one of my greatest dreams had come true, to do my bit to help an exceptional culture, getting to know and learning from very special people... I take with me the best and most gratifying experien-ce of my life...

And in addition making great friends...

I truly wish that thanks to our contribution, upon returning to the cluster of Leticia and Puerto Nariño, we will find communities that control their tourism, stronger, where basic needs are covered, where they conserve their culture and traditions and where the smiles of those children will never disappear... because, without a doubt, they all deserve it...

I can only thank these wonderful people for having taught me so much, for making me see the real importance of things, for learning how to put things in perspective and knowing how to live with what life offers you... and also for having offered us what they had...

And of course, more than anyone, I thank my Guardian Angel, my mother, who has managed to make me so happy from so far away.

Esther Martínez

Nacionality: Spanish

Esther has participated in the project: “Voluntarios OMT Amazonas-Colombia 2009: Plan estratégico para el desarro-llo turístico en el cluster Leticia-Puerto

Nariño”. Colombia 2009.

Daniel Imízcoz XiménezUNWTO.Volunteer

Three years ago I decided to study Sustainable Tourism and International Cooperation for Development (UNWTO.Themis), with one objective, link my professional experience with the commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. How? Working us a Volunteer specialized in tourism destina-tion of needed places or poor countries and contributes to its human and sustai-nable development.

Finally, I´m being in Minas Gerais, Southwest Region in Brazil, collaborating with the Tourism Secretary (SETUR) and UNWTO.Themis in the develop of the Project Lund´s Route.

I was selected to work with the Offer Team and my main responsibilities were to coordinate and develop the pilot expe-rience in Cordisburgo, a small and poor village, 100 km away from Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais capital).

Cordisburgo in Portuguese means “Coração da cidade”, the same as “The City’s Heart”.

This place is known for through the cave “Gruta de Maquine”, one of the caves most beautiful in Brazil, and also because here was born, Guimarães Rosa, a genius writer and poet. escritor y poeta.

These attractions provide some tourist and generated a bit of economic activity. But nevertheless, Cordisburgo is a place where 40% of the population lives below poverty.

When we started our mission in the field, we met local people involve in the project.

From the beginning, they offered us their hospitality and their willingness to work and help absolutely in everything we needed. Quickly, we feel at home and we started working us a team.

First able, we plan all activities and then we decided to divide the team into two groups; one group specialized in the outsides of Codisburgo and the other group, in the insides.

We spent several weeks working all day, 8am to 20pm, including weekends. At the end of the day, we use to have dinner together, time to comment and exchange views on the evolution of the project.

Sometimes you were more tired by the complications of hard work but always you find support and encouragement from the rest of the team.

Daniel Imízcoz Ximénez

Nacionality: Spanish

Daniel has participated in the project:“Voluntarios OMT Minas Gerais -

Brasil 2010: Plan estratégico rutas de las cuevas de Lund”, Brazil 2010.

The experience of meeting people in situations very different from you and the opportunity to discover places impossible to imagi-ne, are the main reasons for a Volunteer.

And if you add the love you receive, knowing that you are improving needed places, then you cannot stop Volunteering!