Packing with a purpose: Travel every week

Jamie Bisiada

Travel consultant Ashley Les, owner of Lisbon-based Postcards, is a travel advocate with a purpose.

“This year I personally plan to travel more intentionally and be more mindful of where I go and the impact of my going,” she said.

Les isn’t just talking the talk, she’s also walking the walk: Last January, she visited Rwanda with 63 pounds of school supplies, including more than 40 sports balls, nets, jerseys and other sports equipment.

It wasn’t her first time. She started on her first trip to Kenya about 11 years ago. Her mother, who works at a school in a small town in Massachusetts, helps Les collect five boxes of school supplies that she donates to an orphanage. After that, on a trip to Senegal, she brought school supplies again.

When she decided to travel to Rwanda earlier this year, she knew she wanted to bring things to local children. She sets up her hotel, the one and only gorilla lodge in Ruhengeri, and meets the headmaster of the local school (the One&Only and the school are so close that Les can hear the children playing in the hotel).

The school serves a total of about 2,000 students from kindergarten through high school, Les said.

The principal was excited about the school supplies and asked her if she would be willing to bring some sports equipment. She put together an Amazon wish list and sent it to clients, colleagues, travel companions, friends and family.

Les ended up bringing too much and limited her own items to a small bag, looking at her donation (“It was a little free”). Les gave herself supplies; A local effect was observed.

“Their parents are controlling,” she said of the students. “Their parents are tour guides, they’re all in that area, they’re working in the hotel. So it’s a direct influence.”

She encouraged other travel advisors to develop similar initiatives.

To begin with, she suggested arriving with travel companions on the ground at their destination; They can suggest local schools and organizations that could use donations.

“We are constantly moving,” she said. “We’re all in the world. It would be great if everyone did a little bit of where they went, to see how that grew.”