Passports with Purpose raised $110,000 from the 2012 travel blogger fundraiser through prizes and sponsor contributions to build five water wells in Haiti. Each water well provide clean water to about 370 people in Boucan Carre and Mirebalais.

The winner of the 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points is from Flushing, New York. Plans for 110,000 points are based around a trip to Park Hyatt Maldives in the near future. Congratulations on making that dream come true at a bargain rate with Hyatt Gold Passport points.

Park Hyatt Maldives – Paradise with an ocean view.

My sincere thanks to Hyatt Gold Passport for their generous contribution of 110,000 points to sponsor Loyalty Traveler blog for the 2012 fundraiser and help Passports with Purpose raise $110,000 for water wells in Haiti.

And the magic number is $110,000

Posted on | December 19, 2012 | No Comments

The confetti has settled on our fundraising efforts and we are happy to report that thousands of donors bid on one or more of the 110 fabulous prizes from November 28 to December 11, 2012. Through donations in $10 increments and the participation of more than 200 travel bloggers around the world, we surpassed our fundraising goal for the fourth year in a row, reaching $110,000 to help Water.org build wells in Haiti.

We hope the phrase “$10 increments” catches your eye, because as always we’re awed by the power of community to do great things. It’s the collective network of the travel-blogosphere that makes this fundraiser more than succeed year after year. Without the hard work and readership of all of these wonderful blogs, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.

We drew the winners for the 2012 prizes and have notified them via email on December 18, so make sure you check your inbox. But even if you didn’t win a prize, we hope you feel rewarded by knowing you played a role in helping bring clean water to people who need it so much in Haiti. Each well will serve an average of 370 people in Boucan Carre and Mirebalais; our goal to build five wells is part of Water.org’s 18-month program to build 20 wells, benefitting 20 communities. And just to make sure you understand why we consider everyone who participated to be a winner, we’ll leave you with this thought from Nicole Wickenhauser, senior development manager at Water.org.

“Congratulations and thank you so very much, on behalf of the entire Water.org team, for this amazing accomplishment! I know we’ve said it before, but we’re honored and humbled to be a part of this. You are doing an unspeakable kindness for the five communities in Haiti that will gain clean water for life – a whole new array of opportunities – as a result of this effort.”

PassportswithPurpose.org

Passports with Purpose is an annual travel blogger fundraiser to finance an international humanitarian aid project. Haiti water wells is the project for 2012. The goal to raise $100,000 in two weeks is within sight. The prize raffle ends at midnight tonight eastern time and the fundraiser meter is at $90,000.

Each $10 donation gives you a chance to win a travel prize.

Hyatt Gold Passport donated 110,000 points to sponsor Loyalty Traveler in this year’s Passports with Purpose fundraiser. That is a huge prize that can be worth as many as 22 free nights at category 1 Hyatt Hotels across the globe.

Other BoardingArea.com bloggers are participating in the PwP fundraiser including Points, Miles & Martinis with a prize for two weekend nights at W Atlanta Downtown, Live from a Lounge with a weekend stay at Four Seasons Mumbai, and Lufthansa Flyer with a Tom Bihn suitcase.

For each $10 donation you can enter one raffle ticket into the prize of your choice. There are over one hundred prizes in the raffle, including many fabulous hotel stays.

Related Post: Haiti, Water and 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points (Nov 27)

Passports with Purpose (PwP) is a non-profit organization created by travel bloggers for travel bloggers as a way to improve the world we see and write about as an expression of our lives. Since 2008 Passports with Purpose has run an annual fundraiser to finance a specific, tangible project for international infrastructure improvements.

This year the Passports with Purpose fundraiser goal is $100,000 to build two water wells in Haiti through the organization water.org.

A $10 donation to Passports with Purpose is a raffle ticket opportunity to win some incredible travel prizes procured by over 200 travel bloggers. It takes a lot of $10 raffle tickets to raise $100,000 over the next two weeks.

Hyatt Gold Passport 110,000 Points prize

Hyatt Gold Passport is sponsoring Loyalty Traveler through Passports with Purpose for the third year in 2012 with a prize for 110,000 Gold Passport points available for a $10 donation raffle ticket entry.

Your $10 donation to Passports with Purpose earns a ticket you can enter into the 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points prize or your choice of 200 other prizes.

110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points are enough for 5 free hotel nights at one of the 25 top-ranked Hyatt Hotels around the world. Category 6 Hyatt Hotels are 22,000 points per night for hotels like Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome, Park Hyatt Maldives, Hyatt Key West Resort and Hyatt Regency Maui Resort; places where the room rates are often over $500 per night.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn, California

Or 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points is sufficient for 22 nights at category 1 Hyatt Hotels. These properties provide upscale lodging for 5,000 points per night in places like Bali Hyatt, Hyatt Regency Kinabalu, Malaysia and Hyatt Regency Kathmandu, Nepal.

Hyatt Gold Passport points may be used for free hotel nights at nearly 500 Hyatt brand hotels worldwide.

Hyatt Gold Passport Prize Terms: You must be a member or join Hyatt Gold Passport to claim the 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points prize. Hyatt Gold Passport membership enrollment is free.

Haiti Needs Clean Water

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. That is a statistic that has been consistent during my lifetime and that line is frequently used in NGO reports about Haiti.

In a country of just over 10 million, more than 5% of the population suffered from cholera in 2010-2011.

One of the largest recent cholera epidemics to affect a single country began in Haiti in October, 2010, just 10 months after a devastating earthquake had struck the nation’s capital. Within a month, cholera had spread throughout Haiti and cases were being reported by its shared island neighbour, the Dominican Republic. In Dec, 2011, 522,335 cholera cases and 7,001 deaths had been reported in Haiti with an additional 21,432 cases and 363 deaths reported in the Dominican Republic. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/domrepublic_61274.html

I have never been to Haiti. I visited the Dominican Republic in 2000. I stayed at a beach resort outside Santo Domingo. The poverty I saw there on the eastern side of Hispaniola was more extensive than I had anticipated. Within 24 hours I had an intestinal illness as a traveler on that trip. I assume it was the water.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti is 200 miles west of Santo Domingo, across the great divide between international banks providing funds for tourist beach resort developments on the eastern side of Hispaniola in the Dominican Republic and international organizations providing humanitarian aid for basic survival on the western side of Hispaniola in Haiti.

Haiti is the most underserved country in the western hemisphere in terms of water and sanitation infrastructure.

In 2008, 63% of Haitians had access to improved drinking water and 17% had access to improved sanitation, such as flush toilets, septic tanks, ventilated improved pit latrines, and composting toilets.

This low figure for access to sanitation had decreased from 26% in 1990, making Haiti one of the few countries where overall sanitation coverage has declined for reasons other than population growth.

By contrast, in 2008, 86% of Dominicans and 93% of people living in the Latin American and Caribbean region had access to improved drinking water, and 83% and 80% had access to improved sanitation, respectively.

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) encompasses a commitment to halving the proportion of the world’s population without access to improved water and sanitation by 2015. Failure to attain MDG targets in Haiti for access to improved water (74%) and sanitation (63%)7 will facilitate continued cholera transmission on the island, placing the entire region at risk.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/domrepublic_61274.html

Donate to Passports with Purpose from Wednesday, November 28 through Tuesday, December 11, 2012. You receive one raffle ticket entry for the prize of your choice with each $10 donation.

Water is fundamental to life and survival. Help us finance the building of a well to provide Haitians with clean water. 

Passports with Purpose (PwP) is an organization founded by four Seattle travel bloggers in 2008 to engage the travel blogger community in fundraising and finance international humanitarian projects. This is totally grassroots organizing among travel bloggers for social good through focused direct action projects like building a school in Cambodia (2009), building houses for villagers in India (2010), and building two libraries in Zambia (2011).

The 2012 project goal is to finance water wells in Haiti through Water.org. Here is the PwP press release describing this year’s efforts.

Passports with Purpose slide presentation at TBEX 2011 Vancouver, Canada.

How Travel Bloggers Participate in PwP

Basically you find a sponsor like a luggage company, camera store, tent manufacturer, backpack maker, a hotel destination or airline to donate an item to be raffled as a PwP prize. A step-by-step guide for travel blogger participation is on the PwP site.

Travel bloggers post on their own websites November 27, 2012 about Passports with Purpose and describe their raffle prize.

The fundraiser begins November 27, 2012 at 11:59pm EST and continues through December 11, 2012 11:59pm EST.

People from around the world donate $10 per raffle ticket and enter for each specific prize they want to win. Last year there were over 100 prizes in the raffle. From a fundraising total of $7,400 in 2008, PwP raised $90,000 in 2011 to fund two library construction projects in Zambia.

The goal this year is to raise $100,000 to build wells in Haiti through the organization Water.org.

Loyalty Traveler and Hyatt Gold Passport as my sponsor

I became involved with Passports with Purpose in 2009 and I have worked three years with Hyatt Gold Passport loyalty program as my sponsor. Our relationship started via Twitter in November 2009 with a simple tweet from Loyalty Traveler asking for a PwP sponsor. Hyatt Hotels responded within hours with a prize donation of 50,000 points. I was ready as a travel blogger for the 2009 PwP project to raise funds for a school in Cambodia.

Cambodia and schools were two topics of particular interest that helped me first notice Passports with Purpose. I have worked in public schools for over 20 years; ten years as an elementary classroom teacher and the past ten years mostly as a volunteer.

Cambodia is a country I have never visited. My interest in Cambodia dates back to my graduate work project on international child labor issues at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the early 1990s. One aspect of my research studies focused on sex tourism and the prevalence of child prostitution in Cambodia. I found the research disturbing as I studied the impact of sex tourism on developing nations like Cambodia and the Philippines where many young girls were spending their childhood in brothels rather than schools.

Helping PwP with Hyatt Gold Passport as my sponsor seemed like a good use of my travel blog to help children in tough economic conditions find better opportunities through education. I know my small contribution to the effort has made a real difference for real people I probably will never meet.

Last year Hyatt Gold Passport boosted their PwP prize to 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points, sufficient for 5 free hotel nights at the top-tier Hyatt Hotel properties worldwide or as many as 22 free nights for category 1 Hyatt Gold Passport hotels.

The chance to win 110,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for a $10 donation to Passports with Purpose is enticing to travelers.

Whether you find a sponsor for a prize valued at $100 or $2,000 is not really the significant issue. There is no disclosure by PwP to the amount of tickets applied to any individual prize. The only disclosures on the PwP website are updates throughout the two weeks on the total funds raised through the raffle prize donations.

So it does not matter whether you procure a prize for a $200 backpack or a $2,000 business class ticket to USA-Europe. All prizes contribute to the good cause of helping people in Haiti have access to clean and safe water.

Got a travel blog?

You can use your travel blog to help build water wells in Haiti.

Please join us for the 2012 Passports with Purpose fundraiser.

Passports with Purpose was founded in 2008 as a project coordinated by four Seattle area travel bloggers Debbie Dubrow, Pam Mandel, Beth Whitman and Michelle Duffy. Meg Paynor serves as PwP’s public relations representative.