Giving back to the world

Since a few years, I feel that I'm making more conscious decisions to donate a certain % of my revenue to charities. My first steps in this domain were triggered by compensating for my flights all over the world. As a global speaker, I have already travelled to 40 countries in the world to deliver speeches and I'm certainly aware that flying has a very bad impact on the environment. Since then I'm making more conscious decisions to travel in a more ecological way but in some cases it's very difficult to avoid the plane. I strive to travel by train if possible. And if I make further trips, I try to combine it with some holiday or being a digital nomad and spend a bit more time in that country to get inspired by its culture. And I compensate the flights - to be honest - I find the proposed compensation fee quite low so normally donate 7 or 8 times the suggested amount.

Together We Can Change The World is a charity started by Scott Friedman & Jana Stanfield who strive to improve the well being of children and women in South East Asia. They organise twice a year a tour for professional speakers to join them to countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines, and Thailand. Next to visiting the charities & interacting with the kids, parents, teachers, ... - TWCCTW organises 1 or 2 bigger events for local business people where the speakers can deliver a talk. Everybody who joins the tour donates an amount of money to participate and you pay for your flights and most of the lodging.

In that way we can maximise the amount of money going to the charities. TWCCTW operates in 7 countries (Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos and Myanmar) and they have a very good, transparent relationship with local charities where the money is going to. I've already been on two tours and hope to be able to join them every 2 years on such a trip. More info about my latest trip with TWCCTW. I've become conscious that every small contribution makes a big difference in somebody's life ...

... And I've decided to donate a certain percentage of my revenues to several charities to give something back to the world. I'm also a street volunteer in the city of Antwerp where I live and try to clean up some streets at least once a month.