If there’s one shared opinion on the KarryOn publication, it’s that the team behind it likes to approach travel industry news with a light heart and a bit of comedy.
This playful attitude has made us one of your favourite daily travel publications in Australia and your most followed trade website on social media.
But every now and then a serious matter creeps through that calls for our serious attention like when we realised how much of a difference Project Karma was making, when we found out how much our industry friend needed our help and when we promised to stop reporting on terrorism.
Two months ago, after the devastating refugee crisis in Syria received momentary attention from western media, we here at KarryOn knew we had to do something to help, but we just didn’t know where to start.
Two boys walking to their tent at a refugee camp in Syria. Image: Unicef
So, we put a public shout out to the industry asking for any ideas, and one brilliant suggestion came through from TravelManagers’ Graciela Craig Fajardo.
Graciela told us about the Refugee Ration Challenge, an eating challenge she’d taken up herself a year earlier, which requires partakers to eat as a refugee for a week.
Participants not only raise much-needed funds throughout the seven-day process, but also get a mild taste of what it’s like to live off refugee portions.
Image: Act for Peace/Facebook
After some research and a little further encouragement from Wendy Wu Tours’ Emma Prineas, two members of the KarryOn team – Nahrain John and Haley Janssens – decided that sacrificing our favourite foods for a week would be worth the donations we could raise and the attention we could bring to the Syrian refugee crisis.
And now we’re asking you to keep us company by signing up to the Ration Challenge.
All you have to do is click this link, fill out your details, upload a picture and then share your challenge page with friends and family to start raising funds.
Once you’ve raised your first $100, you’ll receive your rations, which include 420g of rice, 170kg of lentils, 85g of dried chick peas, 125g of tinned sardines, 400g tinned kidney beans and 300ml vegetable oil.
That’s right no red meat, no coffee and no alcohol!
It’ll be tough, but it’s a small step towards making a bigger difference.
Image: Act for Peace/Facebook
Once you’ve signed up let us know (email: newseditor@karryon.com.au) so we can share your week through KarryOn.
Alternatively, you can donate to Ration Week participants such as KarryOn’s Haley Janssens and Nahrain John as well as Wendy Wu Tours’ Emma Prineas.
We’ll keep you up to date on our Ration Week Challenge through videos, pics and blogs published to the KarryOn website throughout the week starting 18 June 2017.