Travel plan idea blog

Since I currently have only intermittent internet access, this guest post from Jill came at an excellent time. Plus it sounds like a great way to have a memorable vacation and some good stories to tell about meaningful travel.

From Jill:

I just wanted to tell you about an opportunity for a volunteer vacation opportunity in Belize. I thought you might be interested in putting it on your travel blog. A friend had told me about this amazing woman, Madi Collins, who runs a cat and dog rescue organization in Caye Caulker, which is a barrier island off the coast of Belize City.

When we cruised last week, Sophia and I took advantage of our port stop in Belize City to go over and see her. She is singlehandedly caring for 67 cats and 4 dogs. She spends hours each day, feeding, caring for and cleaning up after the animals, and funds most of the operation from her life savings. She rattles off the names of each and every cat, and can tell you their history, likes and dislikes as easily as most people do their children. I couldn't do that with 67 cats! She is a native of Caye Caulker and returned there after retiring.

On the island, residents don't really care about cats as we do, and believe it is acceptable to control the cat population by taking kittens out to sea or to the end of the pier, putting them in a bag and throwing them in the water. Most residents believe that cats are dirty and malicious, and on several occasions have broken into her compound and released their dogs to kill the cats. The health dept also controls the dog and cat population by periodically putting out arsenic-laced meat. That's a horrible, horrible way for any creature to die. Last year, a young child was accidentally poisoned and had to be airlifted to the mainland for treatment.

Madi is not just focused on caring for individual animals, she is vigorously campaigning to change attitudes and policies. She brings in teams of vets to conduct trap-neuter-return operations on the island. She offers a monthly clinic with FREE spaying/neutering, deworming, heartworm treatments and other vet services. Most residents oppose spaying and neutering pets, especially males. Madi is trying to educate the island residents about responsible pet ownership and trying to change attitudes about cats. She repeatedly offers to the local officials to conduct humane euthanasia in their annual roundups instead of poisoning animals. What impressed me so much was her focus on education and effective, humane animal population controls. Without those, her efforts and money would be just a finger in the dam about to burst.

Anyway, I said this would be about a vacation opportunity. She has a first-floor little studio apartment that she will rent to volunteers VERY cheaply. All she asks is one hour of volunteer time daily while you stay. She also has a little camping bungalow (no electricity or running water, I believe, but you have access to toilets and showers in the main building) that she will let volunteers stay in for free. A lot of students come for a week and stay in the bungalow. The apartment used to be her personal home, so while it is small it has all the comforts you would expect.

Belize is well known for its beautiful snorkeling and diving. I believe Caye Caulker has been featured on the Travel Channel too. It's a beautiful, rustic little island that is about 8 blocks wide and a couple of miles long. If anyone is interested in a volunteer vacation in beautiful Caye Caulker, they can visit her website at http://www.pawanimalsanctuarybelize.com.

Posted by James Trotta at July 9, 2009 12:56 PM