Travel need not always be about reaching a particular destination and spending a week or two there. You might have noticed that the more you stay in a place, the more people you meet there, and the greater your appreciation for the various facets of its culture and dynamics. In addition, you also make deeper connections with that place, the people that live there and that splendid something about it that you can’t name. After all, the place you call “home” and the magnificent sensations associated with it has come due to the fact that you spent a lot of time there. Although there might never be a replacement for home, you can make a pace your second home. And volunteering through the various projects that Sublime Trails is a part of is one of the ways you can do that.
At the core of Sublime Trails is much more than just the experience of “travel” to a place. It is more or less traveling into the “heart of the place”. But more often than not, the places that are considered to be amongst the best in terms of the preservation of its natural beauty are the ones that are cursed in some ways. The people in the remotest travel destinations of Nepal are poorly educated in terms of modern schooling as these places are not the go-to places for qualified teachers. In addition, the health and hygiene of the people are not up to the standards- with some people in certain parts of Nepal not even realizing that water is needed for proper maintenance of sanitation. Sublime Trails is a part of a wide network of projects that are being implemented in order to ensure that education and health- two of the strongest pillars for a healthy life- are ensured in the places where you travel.
There are numerous projects in the remotest travel destinations in our country that we are a part of. You can choose to volunteer in any of these. And there are various ways you can do that too. You can opt to volunteer on-field by spending weeks to a few months in these places and assuming either administrative roles or working with the community. This gives you a chance to realize the hardships in the lives of underprivileged people.
There have been numerous people who have come to Nepal to volunteer and make the lives of others better. While doing so, they fell in love with the places, the people, the environment, and the “feel” of the place and decided to make this country their second home.
With the various non-profit organizations that Sublime Trails closely work with, you can choose to volunteer as a teacher to educate the most underprivileged students of our country. You can also work in close proximity with organizations that help fight gender inequality. There is also a rising issue of the protection of rights of animals. For instance, there are numerous organizations in the capital of our country which help stray dogs or abandoned cattle get proper shelter. Sublime Trails partners with private, governmental, non-governmental, and international organizations to ensure that we don’t forget our responsibility to the community.
A school in Dolpa, one of the most serene places in the country and unfazed by modern travel and tourism, boasted that the people there didn’t even know how to use firewood or heat to cook food before contact with the outside world. Similarly, there are schools where a lack of skilled manpower has led to students who have recently graduated from grade 10 to volunteer as teachers for the lower secondary and even the secondary level.
You don’t always have to be physically present as a volunteer to make your contributions. Sublime Trails makes sure that a part of the earnings that we get from the travel go to the people who volunteer for these projects. This makes sure that qualified, skilled human power goes to these places and deals with these problems like a consummate professional.