Changing the World on Vacation 

'Changing the World on Vacation' (click on the link to see the trailer) is a feature length documentary that follows the team of the grassroots NGO PEPY (Protect the Earth Protect Yourself) in Cambodia over the course of one year.

In 2005, PEPY built a school to benefit 540 children in a rural village and sustains this project financially by offering volunteer vacations to the school. This new merger of aid work and adventure travel is the largest growing segment in the tourism and non-profit industry and the original focus of this documentary, which challenges the conduct of NGOs for sustainable development.

The PEPY team and their volunteer-travelers embark on a life-changing journey to the poorest country in South East Asia and confront crucial challenges of insufficient research, disloyal allegiances, corruption and cultural differences. From an initial enthusiasm about their ability to "change the world", they face moral, personal and political potholes that stand in the way of doing aid work responsibly and end up changing themselves.

The film juxtaposes the divergent effects of PEPY's mission for the students and teachers at the school, the volunteers and staff members, revealing an array of urgent perspectives in this exclusive look into the behind-the scenes politics of humanitarian aid and the subjectivity that motivates the goals, the conduct and mistakes of NGO's. For more information about the feature and an interview with the filmmaker please follow the embedded link.

For feedback and further inquiries please contact SDGI at info@sdg-int.org or Daniela Kon, Director/ Producer DEEDA Productions deeda@deedaproductions.com or visit her website by clicking on the partner link in the right hand menu.