For those of you who have been keeping up with Traveling Project for some time now, you might know that I’ve been setting aside some of the income this travel blog generates and have been donating it to those who are in need of a loan on the Kiva website.   When I first started this little side project, I thought it would be a great idea to see how many people I could help around the world by making loans – a perfect fit for a blog which is about traveling around the world.  So today I can add the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Mali and Uganda to the list of places I have made loans too as you can see in the picture above.

A complete list of countries/places around the world I have made loans to can be seen in the image below:

It’s the 40th year of celebrating Earth Day for our planet!  April 22 is the official day of Earth Day all around the globe, and I thought it would make a great post to help increase awareness for a good cause.  Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 to inspire awareness for the planet’s environmental issues, and to help promote a greener and cleaner earth.  Earth Day tries to increase awareness for such topics as climate change, conservation, biodiversity, environmental education, clean energy, recycling, waste reduction, sustainable development, and anything and everything which helps promote a greener economy.

I really believe each and every one of us should do our part in trying to take care of the world we live on.  As the world’s population keeps growing it is only in our best interest, as the human race, to keep the planet we live on a healthy planet.  Do your part this Earth Day by spreading the word and taking part in local Earth Day activities in the local community where you live!

If you’ve been reading my blog for sometime you know that I’m a huge supporter of non-profit organizations who help people in need around the world. I received a message through email from Bloggers Unite about an online awareness campaign for refugees.

On November 10, 2008 bloggers from all over the world are uniting to raise awareness on behalf of more than 40 million refugees. To ask the world to face the atrocities so many human beings must endure and to join together to help bring forward awareness and action for these problems.

Bloggers Unite along with Refugees United are asking bloggers to participate by blogging about the campaign or placing a campaign badge on your blog to help spread the word. The core cause of Bloggers Unite and Refugees United is sharing of information which leads to empowerment. Your actions matter, and your words can help change lives! Here’s more information about Refugees United which was taken directly from the Bloggers Unite website:

About Refugees United

Refugees United is a non-profit organization that helps refugees relocate family and friends through the use of the internet.

Refugees United provides refugees with an anonymous forum to reconnect with missing family. By registering with nick- names, scars, former locations and other markers only identifiable to family and close friends, everyone can remain ‘invisible’ to all but relatives.

• All refugees are welcome, regardless of conflict, place or time.
• Refugees United is an independent, non-political, non-religious NGO.
• No third party is involved. No official papers need to be filled in.
• The service is free of charge, easy and safe.

The Refugees United search engine is the first of it’s kind. Visit Refugees United to see how it works and to learn more about the work that Refugees United is doing.

Donating to EDN yesterday for Earth Day put me in a giving mood, and I remembered coming across a micro-lending site called Kiva.org where normal people like you and me could help finance small loans to needy entrepreneurs located around the world, usually in third-world countries.

I decided to head on over to the site and open an account. After opening up an account I funded it through my Paypal account and made three loans of $25 denominations each to people from Nicaragua, Samoa, and Tajikistan! You can see my profile page here: http://www.kiva.org/lender/TravelingProject. The loans are usually used to help these entrepreneurs start up a new business or make improvements to their existing business.

I think helping people through Kiva fits perfectly with this blog, not to mention it makes me feel good knowing I’m helping less fortunate people. Being an entrepreneur at heart and the focus of this blog being about traveling around the world, I think there’s no better way than to help other entrepreneurs from around the world through a non-profit organization like Kiva! In fact, I think Kiva makes such a perfect fit with this blog that I gave it a permanent section on my sidebar to help promote it to my readers!

Maybe in the future I can travel to see some of these countries, and actually meet the people I have helped face to face; documenting the whole trip to share with readers of this blog! This is something I just might have to really think about and look forward too!

Today, April 22, 2008 is Earth Day 2008!

A brief history: Earth Day was first started in 1970 as a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. At a conference in Seattle, Washington the Senator first proposed the nationwide environmental protest to thrust the environment onto the national agenda. On April 22 of that year, 20 million Americans took to the streets to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values; and the movement took off! Fast forward to the present, Earth Day 2007 was one of the largest Earth Days to date, with an estimated billion people participating in Earth Day activities from places all over the world! -Excerts from Wikipedia

As a travel enthusiast, appreciating our planet and concern for keeping the environment as healthy as possible comes naturally. If we don’t start protecting our beautiful planet, many of the sites and places I have the luxury of visiting on my travels around the world won’t be the same or even exist a few decades down the road. This is why I like to celebrate and spread the word about Earth Day! In addition, it is always good to give a little back to mother Earth on this day! This year I decided to make a little donation to Earth Day Network to do my part in protecting the Earth and environment. The screenshot of the Thank You email can be seen below. Although it was only $50 dollars, as this project grows I’ll be making more donations in the future!

My $50 Earth Day Donation Pictured Above

Earth Day Network (EDN) was founded by the organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970 and promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. Earth Day Network is a driving force steering environmental awareness around the world. Through Earth Day Network, activists connect, interact, and have an impact on their communities, and create positive change in local, national, and global policies. EDN’s international network reaches 174 countries, while the domestic program engages 5,000 groups and over 25,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental protection activities throughout the year. You can check out the Earth Day Network here http://ww2.earthday.net, and I encourage everyone to make a small donation if you can. If your a little short on cash you can still do your part on Earth Day by planting a tree!