Do you wonder if the things you do for others really do make a difference? Whether that check made out to (insert any charity here) trickles down to those who need it most? If the $5 you gave the woman standing on the corner went to really feed or family? What if you could stand shoulder to shoulder with someone and really see the difference you make? That’s exactly what I was able to do last week with Fathom. They are developing a product unlike anything ever seen in the world of cruising. Next month the M/V Adonia will start sailing two very different weekly itineraries from Miami. April 10th they will begin impact sailings to the Dominican Republic, May 1st will begin their people-to-people sailings to Cuba.
I was invited as part of an advance travel team with Fathom to fly to the Dominican Republic last week and take part in the activities they are planning and provide feedback. When they launch next month in the Dominican Republic there will be 8 impact activities offered in over 30 locations, as time goes on they will continue to add activities and additional locations. Our group was able to split up and experience 6 of the 8 activities.
I’ll start this week with our day at RePapel, a co-op in the Javier neighborhood of Puerto Plata, this location is run by 13 entrepreneurs, all women. It was here that I met Marcia, Rafaela, Yelanda, Andrea, Altagracia and Nidia. They each shared stories of how RePapel allowed them to provide for their families. Nidia perhaps said it best when she described all of them as “entrepreneurs who like to fight for our families.” Prior to their involvement with Fathom, the women worked one day a week, usually gathering at someone’s home, which meant they had to transport all of their materials and equipment from location to location. Since their partnership with Fathom they have a new facility to use daily and by working in their own neighborhood they are able to spend more time with their families and be home when their children or grandchildren return from school.
The women collect paper that would otherwise be discarded as garbage. There are not recycling facilities in Puerto Plata as we have here, so this keeps things out of the landfill. The paper is torn into scraps and separated with solid white in one bin and that which has ink in another.
From there, the paper scraps go to my friend Nidia, pictured above. She puts the scraps into a modified washing machine, then into a blender to make the pulp.
Above, is Rafaela, she told us that what motivates her is to “help provide for my children’s education and care for the environment since we live so close to the sea.” She is able to do both of those things through RePapel. Rafaela molds the pulp into what will become sheets of paper. She taught each of us how to prepare the screens, mix the pulp and make our own sheets of paper, luckily, she is quite patient!
After the sheets are formed, they are set to dry in the sun, as pictured below. Once dried they are rolled thin with old metal fence posts that have been filled with concrete, or jars that are filled with sand. As you can see, a lot goes into making this recycled paper! There were times that we questioned whether or not we were slowing down their process, rather than helping. By lunch time it was apparent that we had in fact helped increase production on the day.
We finished the time with these ladies over a delicious meal prepared in the back yard of the facility. The fresh avocado from the tree above was out of this world. While the impact that we made by lending a hand might not have been as immediate as pouring a concrete floor in a home that only had a dirt floor, the impact that these ladies are making on the community and the travelers that visit is long standing. Not to mention the impact they are having on their family.
This is not a “fun ship” cruise for the party crowd, this is a vacation that will let you get your hands a little dirty, let you meet the locals, other than the taxi driver that drops you at the beach, let you work side by side with someone who wants to build a better future for their loved ones. In the end, if that is something that sounds like the vacation you’ve been looking for, but didn’t want to give up all the comforts of home to experience, I would love to talk to you more about Fathom and the opportunity to “Vacation for Good.” Click here and let’s get started.
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