I’ve been doing a lot of online holiday shopping and recently picked up some nice travel gifts at Magellan’s Travel Supplies. When my items arrived, the box also contained a flyer about Magellan’s partnership with a nonprofit organization called SEE International.

According to the organization, 75 percent of the world’s 37 million cases of blindness are actually treatable, making the loss of sight a humanitarian emergency.

SEE International puts together teams of volunteer ophthalmologists to go where their help is needed, including places like Thailand, Mexico, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Since 1974 SEE’s eye surgeons have performed more than 360,000 sight-storing procedures.

Magellan’s has been a corporate partner of SEE International for over 20 years, providing travel kits for surgeons as well as advertising outreach to its customers.

Expeditions to the following countries are scheduled for 2010: Swaziland, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Ghana, The Gambia, Nigeria, Namibia, and Kenya.

Donations are tax deductible and may be made online via a secure server. Visit See International’s website or call 1-(805)963‑3303 and mention that you heard about the organization from Magellan’s Travel Supplies.

Surgical Eye Expeditions (SEE) International is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization. Tax ID #31–1682275.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of Maasai woman and child courtesy of iStockPhoto.com

Project in Zambia with Plan Australia

Do you remember the 1999 movie Office Space with Jennifer Aniston and Ron Livingston? It’s a favorite of mine and if you haven’t seen it, I’ll need to explain one of the plot lines in order to set up this blog post.

Do you remember the 1999 movie Office Space with Jennifer Aniston and Ron Livingston? It’s a favorite of mine and if you haven’t seen it, I’ll need to explain one of the plot lines in order to set up this blog post.

Livingston plays Peter Gibbons, who works in an administrative role at a computer company called Initech. When his friends are laid off, they conspire to devise a way to skim fractions of pennies off all financial transactions being handled by Initech. Consider it micro-embezzling.

Think about it… fractions of a dollar seem like chump change on its own, but combine all those fractions together and we’re talking big money.

That’s sort of the concept that The Footprints Network, based in Australia, has embraced to fight poverty across the globe. They believe that micro donations—between $1 and $5—made by consumers during online transactions can help fund community development projects.

The network funds programs that upgrade farming, education, access to clean water, and sight restoration—all in an effort to eliminate poverty. One of the current projects on the docket focuses on improving farming in Zambia. This will, in turn, increase access to food for the poorest families in the region. Plan Australia is overseeing the training program.

Founded in 2004 by WorldNomads.com after the Asian tsunami, 302,278 individuals have raised more than $785,383 for 53 projects around the world.

“Alleviating the extreme cycle of poverty and the ills that accompany it is everyone’s moral responsibility,” said Chris Novel, general manager of WorldNomads.com. “Yet the extent of world poverty can seem so overwhelming that many of us are left feeling helpless and that the problems are just too big for any one person to make a difference.”

In just five years, WorldNomads.com has developed an independent network of e-commerce businesses that share the same ethics and values and, through technology, seek to change the world by asking customers spending money online to make a small donation to charity at the same time.

WorldNomads.com supports all administrative costs of the program so 100 percent of donations go directly to the projects.

While the network is small, it is growing. “We’re looking for more online e-commerce business partners to integrate the Footprints mechanism into their shopping carts and, transaction by transaction, help make a difference,” said Noble.

This is definitely a program worth watching. For more information, visit The Footprints Network.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

What Else Will You Do During the World Cup?

Are you heading to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa? You’re going to enjoy a few games and maybe go on safari, but have you thought about doing some service work while you’re there?

Elevate Destinations has put together a few customized community tours in South Africa that will show travelers some of the challenges facing communities in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town. Special tours can be organized for a minimum of one to two days.

Suggested Tours in South Africa

• Johannesburg—Visit community projects in Soweto with former soccer players such as Andre Arendse and Linda Buthelezi.
• Cape Town—Tour three different city community empowerment projects on a one-day tour.
• Durban—Head to the Indigo Skate Park in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, a rural area in Durban where skate boarding has brought hope to this community.

Download Elevate Destination’s World Cup Community Touring pdf.

For more information, visit Elevated Destinations or call (617) 661‑0203.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com