October Meet-Up: Passports with Purpose

If you’ve ever attended Toronto Travel Massive you know that we are passionate about travel. Each month we can’t wait to share, learn, and give each other tips about the places and cultures we’ve experienced. But there is ONE thing we do love more than travel and that is giving back to the communities we visit.

This October we partnered with Passports with Purpose to help build education in Africa. Passports with Purpose is a worldwide travel bloggers’ initiative that helps raise funds for much needed charities and communities around the globe. Last year, hundreds of travel bloggers participated to raise an incredible $115,000 to build wells in Haiti via Water.org. This year, PWP wants to surpass that goal for BuildOn.org which will help construct 3 schools and fund 3 literacy programs for children in the Sikasso region of Mali, Africa.

Janice of Solo Traveler and one of the original members of Toronto Travel Massive encouraged bloggers to get involved. She says, this year is as important as ever and building something as simple as education can be the solution to eradicating poverty.

According to UNESCO.org,

• An additional year of primary education can add about 10% to a person’s average income in low-income countries.
• More than 60 million primary-age children were out-of-school in 2010
• About 53% of out-of-school children in 2010 were girls.
• Mali is the 5th poorest country in the world according to the UN’s Human Development Index
• Mali suffers from one of the world’s lowest literacy rates. Only 31.1% of males and 20.3% of females are literate.

How YOU Can Help:

• Head over to the Passports with Purpose website and browse their prize catalogue to donate.
• Donate $10 to be eligible for your prize until December 9th 2013 11:59PM EST!
• Help promote PWP on social media and your blog. Follow the hashtag #PwP
• December 16: Prize winners and host bloggers are notified

Massive thank you to the Windsor Arms Hotel for offering us their beautiful space to host our meet up and get the word out about this amazing cause! The Windsor Arms spoiled us with their luxurious hospitality and delicious catering that included local wines and over 50 of their unique craft beers!

The Windsor Arms Hotel gave away an opportunity for Afternoon Tea in their Tea Room as well as t-shirts and Canadian Whiskey care of Canadian Club. Our friends at Expedia.ca also provided two lucky winners with $500 travel vouchers!

MASSIVE thank you to Michael McCreesh for snapping these shots. To see more of his pics and the event, head over to our Flickr page.

Our next meet-up is sponsored by HI Toronto. Tickets will be LIMITED so sign up for our newsletter to be the first to RSVP!