PEPY

As a traveler in the developing world, it can be hard to balance maximum adventure-seeking with minimal tourism impact. Luckily, one freewheeling enterprise is making it possible to do good and have a scrapbook-worthy experience, all in one smooth ride.



PEPY is a hybrid organization that offers quality education to rural Cambodians -- and tourists. It all began when six teachers went on a bicycle ride through Cambodia to support "something good” and encountered misguided spending that missed local hands completely. In response, they started their own program to offer capacity-building with a keen sensitivity to cultural needs and a focus on people: everything from peer-to-peer learning programs for kids to the translation of reading materials into the local language. The kicker? It's all funded by PEPY Tours, which exposes travelers to the complexity of foreign aid though experiential learning-based bike tours in southeast Asia.

We're not the only ones crushing on PEPY. Founder Daniela Papi was chosen as a winner for Ashoka's Geotourism Challenge 2009 and is headed to the Geotourism Change Summit next week. She puts it this way: “Wells don't 
prevent water-borne illnesses. Knowing how to use in-home water filtration devices or techniques does, education does . . . PEOPLE do. Things don't change the world, people do.” We'll bike to that.