Sergiu is a former street kid in Romania who now leads street tours. Peris is an HIV-positive woman in Kenya who launched her own jewellery-making business.
They are just two of the faces of In Focus.
The United Nations has declared 2017 the Year of Sustainable Tourism, and to honour it, we want you to come along and hear the stories only people like Sergiu and Peris can tell. Urban Adventures' In Focus tours are social enterprise tours run in partnership with local NGOs and non-profits around the world. They tell real stories from real people about real local issues.
These are some of those stories...
If there is anything that travelling has taught me, it’s that the path to success lies in resilience.
Facing obstacles in our lives is inevitable, but how we deal with them is within our control. Do we choose to allow our obstacles to define us, or do we compel ourselves to adapt to overcome them? In the end, improving our lives is sustained first and foremost by our ability to push past discomfort and fight for self-improvement.
I was taught a profound lesson about resilience and its ability to create success while travelling through Romania. It was there that I met a young man named Sergiu, a formerly homeless Romanian child turned Urban Adventures guide. I spent the entire day touring Bucharest with him as he showed me the city that he grew up in under the most strenuous of circumstances, and shared stories of what it meant to be a Romanian living on the streets. I was admittedly clueless to the harsh realities of homeless people in Bucharest and how most of them are set up for this path from childhood. Conditions in Romanian orphanages are terrible, causing many of the children — including Sergiu — to run away for a life in the streets. Homelessness is particularly frowned upon in previously communist countries like Romania, where anyone who couldn’t or wouldn’t go to work would be punished. To this day, the homeless in Romania lack credibility in the eyes of authorities and are poorly treated.
The somber and enlightening tour Sergiu gave through Bucharest was unlike any that I experienced. Little did I know just from walking past these locations that metro stations were bustling drug exchange spots; that entire communities could live in underground sewers; that food could be scrounged from restaurants and nearby dumpsters. I couldn’t believe that the young man standing in front of me lived most of his life fighting through horrendous conditions such as drug abuse, sleeping outside in below-freezing weather, and surviving the streets with little to no help from others. Sergiu’s very existence was hardly recognised by the society he inhabited: “When I walked through the streets, people would see through me — it felt like I was invisible.”
Just a few hours with Sergiu completely opened my eyes to the struggles of homelessness. To survive in the streets takes an incredible amount of creativity, resourcefulness, and a strong sense of resilience in order to overcome the arduous challenges that accompany that life. It was in fact Sergiu’s resilient spirit that led him to where he is today: with the help of the Parada Foundation, he was able to overcome drug use, find a temporary merchandiser job, and work on finishing high school. Today, he is a well-travelled, multilingual Urban Adventures guide unveiling the innermost secrets and unusual quirks of Bucharest to any visitor who is curious enough to learn.
Perhaps the most important lesson that Sergiu taught me is that success is accessible to anyone. Everywhere around us there are resilient, strong people who, if they really want it, are able to create success for themselves. As Sergiu eloquently put it: “It all depends on you. If you want, you can succeed.”
My time with Sergiu reminded me that programs such as the Parada Foundation are crucial to giving people the opportunity to channel their resilience into success — resilience is contagious, it can be taught, and most importantly, it inspires others. If a teenage boy can pull himself out of homelessness and teach others how to attain success despite all odds… what’s stopping the rest of us?
Outcast Bucharest is part of our In Focus series of tours and runs daily at 11am. Learn more about this tour.
For travellers, to roam and be immersed in new cultures and landscapes is the stuff of dreams. For others, it’s the stuff of nightmares.
For some, travel to a new land comes with a heavy heart. It is a one-way ticket with no more than a suitcase — if that.
Turkey is one of the many havens for people fleeing war-torn Syria. According to the UN, Turkey is the largest host country, with over 2.5 million seeking refuge. To aid one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time, many centres throughout the country have opened their doors to help displaced Syrians rebuild their lives, especially in densely populated Istanbul.
On the Urban Adventures tour The Olive Tree of Istanbul, it was time for me to get off the tourist trail and into the heart of Istanbul suburbia. We passed by colourful fresh produce stalls along narrow streets until we reached The Olive Tree Community Centre in the Capa District. There, we’d meet with several displaced Syrians who have escaped the unimaginable horrors occurring in their homeland. Citizens are dying and people are trying to escape by all means — and many without a final destination or future plan in mind.
Small Projects Istanbul (SPI) is a not-for-profit foundation helping these people to rebuild their lives in Turkey. The grassroots organisation was established to help fill the void between the Turkish government’s response to the humanitarian crisis and the current state of facilities and services available to assist these individuals. SPI recognises the need for supplemental education for both children and women, to give them a chance to secure a livelihood in Turkey. In the last year, the centre had to move due to the increased number of people participating in the project. The trade-off for finding a bigger space was that it moved to a basement residence with no natural light. But despite the bleakness of natural rays, down below the natural human light shines.
The centre itself is just a few rooms — a kitchen, a crèche, an eating area, and an office. It is nothing glamorous and rather basic, but immediately as I stepped foot into the centre, I felt nothing but warmth from its international volunteers, from the Syrians themselves, and from the aromas wafting from the kitchen.
To support SPI’s operational costs, the centre has opened its doors for visitors to Istanbul wanting to give back to local communities. Travellers are invited in for dinners and meet-and-greets, and can learn first-hand about something that a majority of the world only hears about through the media.
Along with other tour participants, we were all welcomed to the centre as the final touches were added to our home cooked Syrian meal. It looked as if it was festive affair with the amount of food that was freshly prepared and presented to us by the Syrian women who attend the centre’s programmes. We were introduced to the nourishing flavours of Syrian cuisine, with dishes including moujadara (burgal, green lentils, and fried onion), maklube (spiced rice, chicken, and nuts), baba ganoush (eggplant mixed with olive oil, tahini, and spices), and fetteh (rice, crispy bread, chicken, and tahini). The night would fill my stomach with food and my mind with much to think about.
The intimate dinner was joined by a few Syrians and volunteers of SPI and other tour participants, and we heard first-hand experiences of what had been encountered in war-torn Syria. There weren’t any dramatic announcements made about these difficult tales, but they found their way into conversation. As the night progressed, people opened up about their previous lives in Syria, their journeys to get to Turkey, and how the centre has aided them to start new lives in Istanbul.
There are many volunteers that enable SPI to operate the two programs it runs at The Olive Tree Community Centre. There is an after-school program to teach primary school-age children the Turkish language, as well as lessons for adults adjusting to a new life in Turkey.
But the program is not limited to just learning a new language, as SPI thrives on educating women to become self-sustaining business managers. Through the craft collective initiative, aptly named ‘Drop Earrings Not Bombs,’ Syrian newcomers are taught how to make uniquely designed earrings using threading and wire. These earrings are then sold online as well as locally. This project was created to help enable these women to utilise their skills while (unfortunately) their lives sit in limbo due to lengthy immigration processes.
As we wiped the corners of our lips and bid our farewells after dinner, I knew my outlook on the conflict — and the people affected by it — would never be the same. A visit to the centre offered me a chance to come to grips with the true realities of war. But as bleak as that may sound, the experience was far from it. The centre is full of optimism and one thing is for sure: it will certainly make you reassess how you can leave your mark in the world and help map the road ahead for others. And that would be the best reality anyone could ever dream of.
The Olive Tree of Istanbul is part of our In Focus series of tours and runs Tuesdays and Saturdays at 6:30pm. Learn more about this tour.