A Merry “Bedly” Christmas in Bali
...
09 July, 2020
The Wandering Samaritan enables international travelers to create random acts of kindness and small scale humanitarian projects along their journeys
TRAVEL
Every year 1 billion people travel outside their own borders. That's a lot of opportunity to do more than take selfies!
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
Unlikely pairings of people coming together to share an experience of kindness. Simply because we can.
INSPIRATION
We'll share every single story (Miracle) on the website and use media to inspire An Army of Good.
SEEKING INTERNATIONAL, DO GOODING, INDEPENDENT MINDED ADVENTURERS? UM, YES PLEASE!
OUR WORK IN ACTION
Watch Wandering Samaritan Casparo in Action in Namibia!!
This is Casparo’s wrap up video from his Permaculture Project completed with th...
24 July, 2017
Permaculture in the Namibian Bush
Back in 2014 I traveled to Namibia with the idea of visiting various San communities ...
08 July, 2017
11 in 1 in Malvinas, Argentina
Well off the typical tourist track in Argentina, about 45 minutes outside of Cordoba ...
25 August, 2015
Creating Perspectives in a Polytechnic in Kenya
In 2009, when I visited the Sigul Youth Polytechnic in Anyiko (West Kenya) for the fi...
26 May, 2015
New Wheelchairs in High Places
Another Wandering Samaritan, Emilia Epperly from Arizona , ventured out to the hills ...
27 October, 2014
FEELING INSPIRED? JOIN US AND NEVER MISS ANOTHER MOMENT OF GOOD!!
HOW IT WORKS
Think: CHOOSE YOUR OWN (HUMANITARIAN) ADVENTURE because it’s all about YOU. We think it’s more effective to enable people to act quickly in the field, rather than overanalyze opportunities from a distant office. We give you a framework, and you fill in the color.
APPLY
Submit your application online and then we'll have a Skype interview. Apply Now!
EXPLORE
Travel your way. It's your trip. And now you'll have some extra tools in your backpack.
ACT
Erase "I wish I could have done something" from your vocabulary. We fund Miracles.
DOCUMENT
Pictures, video, and writing to document and inspire. Don't worry, we'll do the editing.
SHARE
We'll tell everyone, and inspire others to join The Army of Good!
OUR CRITERIA
We’re setting up a platform where there’s really no limit to what you can do. We can’t wait to see what Wandering Samaritan #97376 will come up with that we never dreamed of! That said, we take our donor’s money very seriously and there are some rules. So here’s our six criteria.
- INTERNATIONAL IN NATURE – You are outside of your home country, and the person or group you are helping is native to the place you are visiting. In the case of an organization, they should be primarily serving the area you are visiting with staff on the ground.
- UNDENIABLY GOOD – It should be really hard to question the validity of the Miracle as in 99.9% passing the proverbial “sniff test.” Pay for an emergency surgery for an otherwise terminal child? Distribute warm coats to homeless on the streets when it’s cold? Undeniably good. Take your new local friends and their families for a fancy dinner to “learn” about Michelin stars? Not so much.
- WE DEAL IN MASS MICRO – We focus on “one to one” or “one to few” type interactions. We do not address societal problems. We don’t tackle projects requiring engineers and scientists. We’ll leave that to the big guys.
- IMMINENTLY SOLVABLE – You should be able to complete the Miracle either on the spot or within a short period of time during which you are willing to stay, oversee, and act as the field liaison to ensure completion. We will not start projects that require ongoing maintenance, repeat payments, nor extensive follow up.
- STRONG COST VS TRACKABILITY RATIO – While we fully encourage you to get off the beaten trail and recognize that communications can be challenging and at times opportunities will be transient, we track every Miracle and financial spend we make. The more we spend, the more approvals and substantiation we will need to provide. Advance communication with your TWS liaison is required on larger spends.
- AWESOME FACTOR – Well everyone likes cool stuff, and we do too. We pay special attention to ideas that are truly out of the box and original. So bring it on!
FUN FACTS
6
SAMARITANS IN THE FIELD
10
MIRACLES PERFORMED
9
COUNTRIES INVOLVED
9375
COFFEE CUPS DRANK
OUR TEAM
THE WORLD
Jason Mandl
Founder & Executive Director
NYC
Erin Wells
Chairman of the Board
MUMBAI
Vivek Ranjan
Treasurer & Director
LA
Tom Jennings
DirectorA NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER
International travel has, without question, impacted my life more than anything else. As the world becomes more and more accessible, I hope to share a few of the learnings I’ve made along the way, encourage a way of adventuring that brings us all a bit closer, and make the magic of unbelievable, ridiculous good become an everyday occurrence.
I guess it all started ten years ago when a local friend in Chiang Mai, Thailand took me to an orphanage and we met 30-40 HIV+ infants, quite literally piled up in a corner with no diapers, let alone other essentials. We brought back as many diapers as we could carry, but I remember thinking how little impact this would have on the overall problem, wondering how this could exist in today’s world, and feeing I wish I could do more than my 24 year old backpacker budget would allow.
Fast forward a decade and after leaving a string of paycheck jobs it was time to pursue my greater passions. The plan was to travel for a year and launch a Kickstarter campaign with the concept of “I’ll pay 100% of my travel expenses and I’ll donate 100% of your donations to people in need along the way, and share every story back through a travel blog.” One of my closest friend said it was a great concept but challenged me to make it bigger than just myself. And thus, after a long brainstorm in the mountains, The Wandering Samaritan was born.
With the organization, I hope address a few key realities. 1) There are people who need help who fall through the cracks of traditional aide. 2) There are many people who want to help, but won’t necessarily give two years of their life The Peace Corps or can’t afford pay thousands of dollars for a Voluntourism trip (nor do I think they are effective). 3) There are many donors who do give, or would give, if they believed more of their donation was reaching the people in need. 4) There is room to improve the type of stories we consume in social media.
Samaritan spirit is about seeking that ingenuity and innocence of life that we all crave. It’s about co-creating an exchange, where both the “visitor” and the “visited’ get entwined in a moment of sharing of inner spirit and inner humanity. It is not, a one direction experience. At it’s heart, I believe travel can bring unlikely pairings of people together in ways larger humanitarian efforts simply cannot. That’s not said to invalidate, but rather to acknowledge that we can work from the bottom up, while the bigger organizations work top down. And together we can change the world, one good deed at a time. I hope you consider joining the effort.
– J
WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE. CONSIDER A DONATION TODAY!
MEET OUR WANDERING SAMARITANS
We want travelers to think about their trips as opportunities to contribute to, and not only take from, the places and communities they visit. To bring inspiring stories to life based on who they are and who they meet along the way.
WHO’S IN?
Whether a Wandering Samaritan, donor, recipient of a Miracle, or community ambassador, we want to get every country involved in making it happen. Will you get your country on our map?
CHANGING THE WORLD BEGINS WITH YOUR EMAIL