(Photo: Flickr / 23rdstudios.com via CODEPINK)

We have a new blogger in town, and her name is Rebekah Olstad. She recently joined Global Exchange as our Cuba Custom Reality Tours Director.

For her first post, Rebekah briefly revisits the impact of a recent delegation trip to Pakistan.

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Global Exchange Co-Founder Medea Benjamin and delegates from CODEPINK recently completed sections of a peace march to tribal areas of Pakistan that have been limited to foreigners in the past decade. Their mission was to protest and draw awareness to US drone strikes in the area.

One Pakistani woman wrote to the delegation:

“Your coming to Pakistan has touched so many hearts that you cannot even imagine! You were able to do what hundreds of millions of dollars spent by USAID in TV ads to win hearts and minds in Pakistan has failed to achieve!“

By showing on the ground solidarity, the women on this delegation made powerful people to people contacts with Pakistanis, which is especially needed at a time where polls have shown that three out of four Pakistanis view the United States as an enemy.

At Reality Tours we want to applaud the efforts of these women and their allies for spreading a mission of support, solidarity, and concern for the Pakistani people.

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To view current Reality Tours to countries such as Burma, Egypt, and Nicaragua, where you too can make a person-to-person difference, click here.

Photo credit: David Deriso

It’s true, you can travel to Cuba this summer with Global Exchange and the Center for Cuban Studies! From August 7 – August 14, 2012 anyone can  join this people-to-people licensed, educational trip to explore the ‘Greening of Cuba’. Sign up here!

Throughout the 20th Century, Cuban agricultural production mainly centered on large industrial farms producing crops (mostly sugar) for export while food has been imported.  Prior to the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the largest market for Cuban sugar was the United States. After the Revolution the Soviet Union became the primary purchaser. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc in the early 1990’s, imports plummeted as did the guaranteed market for Cuban sugar. Cuba began to transform its agricultural infrastructure out of necessity.

Photo credit: Laura Lee

One success of the Cuban Revolution was giving every Cuban the chance to have an education. For the first time children of farmers could aspire to a university education, but this has created unexpected challenges as well. With the movement from industrial, mostly mechanized, farms to organic small farms and cooperatives, there is a shortage of people who want to live and work in the countryside. This delegation will meet with Cuban farmers, experts, and policy makers who will provide an in depth view of the movement towards organic farming in Cuba, its successes, and the challenges it faces.

Program Highlights may include:

• Visit the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation
• Visit with a representative from the Ministry of Agriculture
• Visit to the UNESCO designated biosphere reserve of Las Terrazas
• Visit to the National Botanical Garden
• Visit to an organic farming cooperative in Alamar
• Visit a tobacco plantation in Viñales
• Meeting with National Urban Agriculture Group

Cost:
$2,900.00

Price Includes:

• RT flight:  Miami/Havana/Miami
• Cuban visa and required Cuban health insurance
• Double room accommodations
• Two meals per day
• Conference fee
• Site visits
• Translation
• Transportation (with group)

Global Exchange is thrilled to offer this unique, co-sponsored Reality Tour with the Center for Cuban Studies and hope that you will join us! Please call Carol Steele for more information at 415.255.7296. Sign up here!

Read more about traveling in Cuba and learn more about traveling on a Reality Tour.