7 Ways To Give Back To The Local Community

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We always want to connect with people. Either if we are at home with our friends or when we are traveling and we want to connect with other travellers. You always meet the local community while traveling and I’m sure I am not the only one who loves meeting them. These locals are amazing and always want to help the tourists. So why should we not help them?

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Traveling is fun but responsible traveling is become more and more important. We have to think about the environment, about the activities we do with animals and how we treat the local community. I’ll talk you through these subjects, starting with the local community and I’ll make you the best responsible traveller!

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Eat local

Not only are the local restaurants less expensive, it’s also a great way to get to know the local cuisine. It’s so much fun to try new foods and explore their kitchen! More importantly, the local restaurants are obviously owned by the locals. The more western restaurants are usually owned by expats or even larger international companys. Most of the time, the money you spend in these restaurants aren’t going to the local community. The locals can really use the money, you explore new foods and you’ll actually save money as well. It’s a triple win!

Read more: How To Be A Responsible Traveller

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Shop local

I know it’s tempting to go to your favourite boutique where you always shop at home. However, the money you spend here isn’t going to the local community as well. The money basically goes out of the country into the pockets of international companys. So even though you shop in that country, the money isn’t going to the local community. A better way of shopping is to just shop local! Get your groceries in a local grocery store and shop in local boutiques.

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Stay at a locally owned accommodation

Same thing here! Don’t stay at the big hotels if you want to give back to the local community. Even if the locals are working at the accommodation, it does not immediately mean that the money is actually going to the local community as well. In most cases, the money goes to the international company and the locals won’t profit from it!

Read more: Why I Love Traveling

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Donate what you don’t need

Whenever you’re traveling to a foreign country, the money is usually another currency. The exchange rate isn’t always in our favour so why not donate the money we have left? Try to Google some good local charity’s so you can donate a small amount of money to them! It doesn’t have to be big, every little piece of money helps.

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Live like a local

With living like a local I mean use the local transportation system instead of using a cheaper and illegal taxi service, do you groceries at a local store, have a drink in a local bar and just enjoy the local life really! I think it’s also important to think about their important values and respect their culture and way of living!

Read more: How To Deal With Different Cultures

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Minimise your waste

Obviously this isn’t just about the locals. It’s about the environment and animals as well. I can’t stress this enough: think about the consequences of your actions when you buy plastic bottles or plastic bags. Try to take a cotton bag with you for your groceries or for the outfits you buy. Take a reusable water bottle with you so you only have to buy a big plastic water bottle instead of more little ones.

Every little detail that you can minimise is good. And please don’t drop your waste on the street or in the water. Throw it away where you’re supposed to! We can all help a little bit in minimizing the waste and it doesn’t have to be difficult at all.

Read more: 10 Amazing Places To Visit Now!

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Volunteer

The locals sometimes can really use your help! See where you’re good at and where you can help them. If you’re good in building houses for example, see if you can help with building a new school. Or if you love kids and if you’re good at teaching: give some English lessons! There are many, many more options to volunteer that don’t require any skills. Go along on a clean-the-beach-morning for example.

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These are all little things that don’t take up much time, don’t require any skills or isn’t going to cost you a lot of money. It’s the little things that we often forget about and these little things can really make a difference. If we all do some of these things, it should help them and we can give back to them and say thank you for having us in their lovely country! 

How do you give back to the locals?

Love,

Melissa.

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