Humanitourism: Saving Dogs and Cats in Greece

Standing together with the local community in a silent vigil for animal welfare and animal rights in Greece
Standing together with the local community in a silent vigil for animal welfare and animal rights in Greece.

Greek Adventure and Help for Animals in Need with Humanitourism

By Steve Flahive

Puppies in Greece. photo by Inside/out. Humanitourism
Puppies in Greece. photo by Inside/out.

Want to visit Greece? Interested in fighting animal cruelty? If so, a Colorado-based company called inside/out offers a unique combination of cultural immersion and cause-based alternative travel.

Exploring Crete in a Shelter Project

Participants of inside/out’s “humanitourism” trip to Greece will visit Crete to provide hands-on help to a project which desperately needs outside assistance.

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands. Participants will be staying at the Souda area of Chania, a location famous for animal activism. In fact, an animal activist sheltered 250 animals in Souda but abandoned them all in June 2016.

The Greek government provides little protection for these abandoned animals, so it is up to volunteers from all over the world to care for them. Luckily, Humanitourism has stepped in to help these animals, and you can join them.

This trip is a rewarding hands-on experience in making a difference in the lives of animals and the people who help them. You will spend the first part of your trip volunteering together with locals at the Souda Shelter, which unfortunately has limited resources and help.

No special skills are necessary to participate in this fulfilling opportunity. The contacts in Souda all speak English, so there is no need to worry about a language barrier.

Following your work with the shelter, participants will embark on an adventure tour of Crete, sampling activities in the local area, including trekking, rafting, sea kayaking/canoeing, culture, and history. These adventures will be lead by local guides who have explored the area extensively throughout their lives and have an intimate knowledge of the landscape.

Overall, this is a 10-day trip that is packed with both shelter work and fun activities exploring Crete. For more information about this trip including how to sign-up, click here.

Travelers will visit Ioannina for the service portion of the trip. Humanitourism
Travelers will visit Ioannina for the service portion of the trip

The Taste of Greek Cuisine

According to inside/out’s founder, Zoe Katsulos, “inside/out arranges trips with a balance of structured activity during the days and free time for people to explore on their own in the evening.”

This way, “people have opportunities to explore local cuisine or check out what’s around.” But if you enjoy the comfort of an experienced guide, such independent detours are simply optional; you can always hang back with the group.

The key is keeping the choice in the hands of each participant. “We allow people as much latitude as they want. Participants can explore a beautiful and unfamiliar place on their terms and at their own comfort level if they wish to do so.”

Eco-tourism and adventure travel will be part of the trip with hiking, trekking, and kayaking

The Outdoors Insider

Zoe Katsulos, is also the guide for each trip. As a professional guide and outdoor skills teacher, she has led outdoor trips and teaching backcountry skills in Colorado for years.

Katsulos explains the benefits of humanitourism as a means of philanthropy where donators not only see the results, they produce them.

“A portion of what each participant pays for to join a trip goes to the project that they are working on” so, participants find themselves “In the trenches with the people they’re helping.”

Because any donations associated with a particular traveler’s trip fees go directly to the cause they assist, “the project money might have funded parts of the project they are working on or may go toward sustaining or providing for further work” and travelers “can actually experience what their financial contribution is going toward, instead of just writing a check”

Finding Projects Responsibly

The locals’ needs play a direct role in the decision regarding any specific jobs participants work during each trip:

“We chose our projects carefully so that no jobs are being taken away from locals; we only want to provide a service or fill a need that cannot be met solely by the community/village or at least does not detract from their local economy. In fact, our goal is to be socially responsible and infuse money into the local economy.

In the case of Greece, a segment of the population has voiced a need to help these animals but the groups tasked with providing aid are drastically short on resources—there simply aren’t enough resources so outside aid is an ideal solution.

While most of the actual work gets done during the time abroad, the cause can be supported once the trip has ended: “Greece, for example, we hope to continue awareness after the trip, maybe raising awareness with the travelers’ home communities, or even continuing to donate to the cause after the trip is over.”

Not an Off-the-Shelf Experience

If groups have their own trip in mind, “inside/out can create customized small group trips. If it is a family of six

Greece Journey
Greece journey.

people, for example, we could create a customized group trip for that.

“If you want to try one of these customized group trips, “depending on what the project might be or where it goes, the lead time could range from 3 months to a year, depending on how uncharted the waters are.”

Whether you jump on a trip with other travelers excited to try humanitourism, or you have a group going together, the mission underlying each trip remains the same.

Zoe explains, “What we really strive to do is to offer an authentic experience by choosing unique locations within a country. Like in Greece, it isn’t the islands like most tourists see, instead it is a very authentically Greek location; this provides more of an authentic experience of the culture.”

One Trip at a Time Katsulos’ experience as a traveler and guide is central to the identity of inside/out. In fact, according to Stephanie Downs, who met Zoe when she was a guide on a fundraising event at the Grand Canyon, knowing the personality and experience level of the tour guide was a big selling point:

“I was impressed with how she handled the program and guided us through the trip. I am looking forward to working with her again.” But as a one-woman show, inside/out can only do so much.

Katsulos describes the benefits and drawbacks of inside/out’s boutique-esque business model: “Right now it is just me leading the trips, so people know that it is not just some kid on a gap year, they know who I am and know who they are getting.”

While this limits the number of trips that can be organized and carried out each year, plans are in the making to expand the operation—but not along the traditional lines of most businesses. Inside/out’s commitment to the local communities is inextricable from the company itself. It is only fitting that plans to expand reflect this.

Greece.Outside Support

Katsulos’ mission in expanding inside/outlooks towards “training local indigenous people into the guide service role so that—not only can they become the leader of the trip at some point — they become leaders in their community by creating an addition to the local economy and hiring others within their community.

That also facilitates our ability to do many more trips and help more people in the world by freeing my time to find and plan more projects and adventures.” She adds, “Once the indigenous guides are trained, I’ll be free to work to plan more trips and help more people.

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