My friend James and I have had the good fortune to travel extensively around our beautiful world. In our visits to many countries, we have met many interesting people, learned some fascinating things about each individual culture and national history, and we have experienced a variety of levels of socio-economic life styles.

When we plan to visit underdeveloped countries, whenever possible, we seek out ways to offer and provide direct aid to people in remote villages, and to specific groups of people who unfortunately are rejected by their particular society. The aid we provide is simple, and may seem small and inconsequential, but it is greatly appreciated and welcomed by the recipients.

Here we wish to share our discovery of how to directly assist people in need, and to encourage other travelers to do the same, for the cost of doing so is meager in comparison to the cost of travel overseas.

We named our type of personal foreign aid assistance:  Suitcase Diplomacy!

Suitcase Diplomacy is truly inexpensive and fairly easy to accomplish – and it begins within your own home!

Many people have old suitcases, various size pieces of luggage that they have no plans to ever use again for a trip. They could be a few different size carry-on bags or backpacks, or a mid-size hard-shell or soft-shell suitcase, or a large cargo-hold-size suitcase. The bag or suitcase can be slightly damaged, having a broken handle, or a missing caster, or a minor cut or rip on the surface material, or an inconsequential broken zipper – just not badly damaged bags or backpacks or suitcases. It does not matter the size, and it does not necessarily matter the appearance – most any type of old luggage in decent travel condition can be used for Suitcase Diplomacy.

Whichever bag or suitcase you use in this endeavor, you fill it with any number of the following items:

• CLOTHING – Pack any clothing you will not wear again. No matter if the clothing is out of style, or missing a button, or has a small hole in a knee or elbow – as long as the clothing is clean and has usable life, they can be packed in the suitcase for distribution in an underdeveloped country. Tip: When packing the clothing, we have included packages of buttons, zippers, safety pins, needle and thread kits & various size cloth patching kits bought in a fabric store. These are all items people can use to mend clothing. Our experience has been that people are not offended by clothing needing minor repairs, for these clothes maybe used as work clothing. AND PLEASE – DO NOT DONATE USED UNDER GARMENTS, WHICH ARE CALLED “smalls” IN MANY UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES – REGARDLESS OF BEING LAUNDERED & SANITIZED IN ADVANCE. HOWEVER – NEW UNDERGARMENTS WITHIN THE ORIGINAL WRAPPER ARE ACCEPTABLE.
• SHOES – Any and all sizes and types of used shoes and shoelaces can be packed for distribution. Tip: spray disinfectant in the shoes several times, let them air out, then pack each pair individually in large ziplock bags. The people who receive the shoes will reuse the ziplock bags.
• • ADDITIONAL CLOTHING & SHOES – You can also include clothing and shoes purchased at a Salvation Army Thrift Store or a Goodwill Store or a Yard Sale or an Estate Sale. Be sure to launder the clothing before packing. Again the cost of such generosity is minimal.
• TOILETRY ITEMS – Unwanted clean combs, hairbrushes, hair clips are acceptable – AND – new items – shampoo and soap  – are even more appreciated. Tip: Spending $25 at a Dollar Store buys LOTS of stuff you can pack!
• DENTAL SUPPLIES – New toothbrushes and toothpaste are greatly appreciated. Tip: Floss string may confuse people, small floss bristle brushes are not a good idea, but dental picks are acceptable. Tip: Again spending $25 at a Dollar Store buys LOTS of stuff you can pack!
• NO MEDICATIONS OF ANY KIND !!! – Whether the medications are OTC or doctor prescribed, people in underdeveloped countries do NOT understand how to follow dosage directions. Even if they do understand, say, take one pill per day, they may think: “If I take all of the pills at one time I will get better sooner!” … NO !!! … People can make themselves sick, or possibly damage internal organs, or even die from an overdose! Tip: It is best advised and safer for everyone, do NOT donate any type of medications – even seemingly harmless cough drops can be misused and be harmful!
• SCHOOL SUPPLIES – Pens and pencils and erasers and notebooks and paper pads are always welcome at remote schools or small educational gatherings of children. Rulers and protractors and compasses may also be donated for math instruction.
• LUGGAGE & SUITCASES – Here is the kicker! When you donate the packed items – you leave the luggage and/or suitcases with the recipient of your aid! You do not need to lug an empty bag around throughout the remainder of your trip and drag it home! The recipient will certainly find some use for the suitcase or bag.

How to Succeed with Suitcase Diplomacy

It should be understood that any act of generosity cannot be accomplished without the assistance of the travel company you book your international adventure with, be it an individual excursion, or you are a participating member of a group tour.

Some travel companies welcome trip members to bring donated items for distribution to schools, or clinics, or villages, because your locally assigned tour guides may personally work with needy persons, such as homeless street children, also schools or clinics or villages, because they themselves are from that locale or they have contact with and provide assistance to the people whenever possible.

HOWEVER – it is possible that the booking travel company has never received such a request from a generous traveler, so, a bit of coaxing on your part for them to make inquiries for recipient contacts may be necessary. In all, it may not work out – BUT – nothing ventured, nothing gained!

REMEMBER – Distributing any types of personal use items directly to needy people in any underdeveloped country has greater immediate impact in their lives – compared to – you donating the same items to Goodwill or the Salvation Army for resale purposes and you receiving a small tax deduction – or even disposing the items into a landfill – which is bad for our natural environment!

• DONATING MONEY – This is a bit trickier. If you have what we call leftover currency, that is, too much foreign currency in your pocket before you depart a country, and you cannot re-exchange it back into your home currency (which is quite possible – whether there or back home), why not give it away to the recipient of your aid, or your local tour guide. The only thing you must be comfortable with is this: The person receiving your financial generosity may not spend it as to how you wish advisable, but rather, spend it on themselves and their family. But this is not a bad thing, for the cost of all items in any country is relative to its rate of inflation.
  Meaning: The greater the exchange rate, the greater is that country’s inflation, and the more expensive all items cost for all local people.

At times during foreign travel it can be difficult – to do the exchange rate math in your head – because when a foreign item seems to cost so much more, in reality, for us, it actually costs much, much less!

PLUS – You are donating money directly to a needy source, which is not the same thing as donating money to a large foreign aid organization, where you do not know how that donation will be spent and on what it will be spent.

IN CONCLUSION

Please remember! When you buy a copy of any book written and published by my friend James, he collects 100% of his total earnings into a single charitable fund to help pay for life-saving Polio and Measles Vaccines for Malagasy children!

So, click on this button and you will be taken back to the Lonnie Lemur Vaccinates Madagascar Home Screen where you can choose any book or books so to begin learning about life on Madagascar, or learn ways to help your children better understand their family’s present difficult life circumstances, or have a funny & whacky adventure with a hypochondriac movie monster prop while meeting people of different ethnicities.