December 17, 2019 • 33 mins
Most people know Stephanie March as the actress on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” or the beauty entrepreneur behind the Shespoke custom cosmetics company. In fact, she’s the ultimate globetrotting philanthropist, who works with Planned Parenthood, World of Children, and One Kid, One World. Through her advocacy in Kenya, India, Uzbekistan, among many other places, she's helping to make the world a better place for everyone — especially women and children.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Charity isn't charity. It is human gifting. It's a It's
a gift that you owe yourself and you owe the
world and you get so much back. And you know,
I didn't I feel sorry for people so much, as
I had so much respect. I have seen some smart, sourceful, tough, interesting,
inspiring people, and I came back with a lot more
(00:27):
than I left there. Welcome to A Way to Go,
a production of I Heart Radio and Fathom. I'm jaral
And Garba and I'm Pavio Rosatti. Our guest today is
Stephanie March, who mainstream TV fans know for her longtime
role as Alexandra Cabot, the beloved assistant district Attorney on
everyone's favorite hard boiled TV show, Law and Order, Special
(00:49):
Victims Unit. Indie comedy fans know her as the mayor
on Ni and Joe Werewolf Hunter. Beauty fans know her
is the co founder of She Spoke, the custom lipstick
and makeup company based in Soho in New York City,
but Glyn and I and many others around the world
know her as the ultimate globe trotting philanthropist. Stephanie travels
the world doing humanitarian work on behalf of such groups
(01:11):
as One Kid, One World and Planned Parenthood where she's
a board member, and World of Children, where she's also
a board member. Not to put too fine a point
on it, she is helping to make the world a
better place for everyone, though especially for women and children
through her advocacy and her travels. Stephanie, Welcome, Pavia. That
was such a nice introduction. I think I'm gonna cry.
That was slowly. I'm just reciting the facts, ma'am. We
(01:34):
should also add that Stephanie has been a big part
of Fathom since the beginning, both as a supporter and
a contributor who shared her stories about humanitarian trips and
other kinds of trips to Kenya, Cambodia, India, where else.
Stephanie send a lot of writing for us. Um, let's
see for Planned Parenthood. I've been to Bolivia and Uganda
(01:57):
and India and Nepal and Chile with a World Children Award,
Kenya with One Kid, One World, which was very, very
meaningful for me. And when and how did charitable endeavors
become a big part of your travels? You know, I've
always loved traveling. My parents were excellent travelers and my
sister was a traveler where we have a little nomad
(02:18):
in US, and so when I started to travel UM
two places like India, I became acutely aware, as one
is of UM, how disproportionately lucky we are to live
in the United States. You know, I think to be
born loved in the twentieth century in America to an
upper middle class family who had health insurance, I mean
(02:39):
that's you know. I mean, I live better than probably
most people have ever lived since people have been living
on the planet in terms of what I have and
the care I have, and the facilities that are available
to me in this country, and the disparity is is
not something that you can ignore. And so I always
felt when I was traveling that there needed to be
away for me to both contribute to the place I
(03:00):
was visiting as a tourist, but as a as a person,
as a human being. And so I really became involved
with these organizations where travel was a significant part of
my board membership because I felt it was a great
way for me to get perspective on my life and
to contribute both financially and in person two places that
mattered to me, and did these particular organizations find you
(03:23):
or did you find them? You know, I found one
and then the rest found me. Um. My great grandmother
founded Planned Parenthood of West Texas. Actually, so my family
in so my family has a I know isn't see
the best. Then they closed it, then they reopened it. Incredible. Um,
So she really that that is the beginning of a
(03:46):
multi generational involvement in Planned Parenthood and girls in education. Actually,
I found One Kid, One World through my best friend
is named Robin Fenner. Her husband is John Fenner, and
he is a Hollywood writer and his writing partner is
Josh by Se And so I have come to know
these people over the years as friends. And Josh and
Tracy mccobben founded One Kid, One World by themselves. That's
(04:07):
a volunteer organization. Josh did it because he went to
the Sudan with his uncle when the in the height
of that terrible conflict. Josh found himself in one of
the refugee camps and he saw that all of the
larger organizations that shall remain unnamed, although I am dying
to name them, we're fighting over who got to have
(04:27):
top billing on the sign that was in front of
the refugee camp while no one else was really doing anything,
and he thought, you know, if you show up with
a teacher and a couple of soccer balls, you could
change these kids lives. Meanwhile, these larger institutions are sort
of paralyzed by bureaucracy and deeply entrenched, and unless you
are involved in making your own organization obsolete, you are
(04:50):
not really in flanthathy. So Josh took it upon himself
to get into girls and education, specifically in Africa and
Central America, because he felt that's where he could make
the greatest difference. And he was so inspiring to me,
and he and Tracy were so impressive to me, and
I thought, I really have to see what they are doing.
And so I went to Kenya with them in two
(05:10):
thousand seven. And I remember saying to my sister the
night before I left, you know, I'm kind of nervous,
and she said, why Because we're going to Africa with
a bunch of complete strangers for two weeks and you
don't have a cell phone and you won't be able
to talk to anybody or communicate back home. And I thought, yeah, yeah,
that's that's why I'm nervous. That that's it. I had
a travel kit that I now always have stopped. You know,
(05:30):
it's got the Z pack and the sip ro and
the liquid band aid and the you know, I have
every kind of conceivable medication that I just keep in
my back because you know, you can't, I can't get
can't be too safe, and you can't get any help.
I actually my appendix burst once when I was visiting
my sister in San Francisco. Once upon a time, my
(05:51):
appendix person I happened to be visiting my sister in
San Francisco, and while I was in the hospital, I
did a mental rundown of all of the places I've
been where I would have died if that had happened.
And I mean I could only think there was one
clinic I went to in Nepal with the World of Children,
and I thought they could have helped me there. They
could have helped me there, but otherwise I would have
(06:12):
been in some pretty big trouble. So you don't I
got rid of it on purpose. Maybe I willed it
into an obsolescence. So tell us about that trip that
you took to Kenya with one Kid, One World, because
I know that was a really important trip for you,
It was so so meaningful for me. Um. First of all,
I made some terrific friends on the trip who have
now been my friends for over a decade, and it
(06:34):
was exceptional to me, and that I thought I was
going to help them, meaning the schools that we were
visiting in the communities we were supporting through the schools,
and instead I learned a really important lesson and that
it was really humbling and that they helped me just
as much. And charity isn't charity, it is human gifting.
(06:59):
It's it's a gift that you owe yourself and you
owe the world and you get so much back. And
you know, I didn't I feel sorry for people so much,
as I had so much respect people who live in
conditions that are considerably less luxurious than ours. I have seen.
I have seen some smart, resourceful, tough, interesting, inspiring people
(07:21):
and I came back with a lot more than I
left there, and it began a lifetime love affair with
that kind of travel and that country in particular. I
don't want to play favorites, but I did go to
the Ukraine with a world of children one year and
it was in on the Russian border and it was
in October, and the hospital we're visiting, the doctor's bathroom
(07:42):
did not have so in it, and it was gray
and it was dark, and it was Eastern Europe in October.
And I was in Kenya in November and it was
beautiful and the music was spectacular, and the people were
gorgeous and smiling and wonderful, and I thought, this is
the cradle of the civilization that I want to think
(08:03):
of as civilization. I fell in love with it, and
I've been back since time. I'm getting choked up. I
have been back about six times, both in that capacity
and as a part of my honeymoon, and I just
think it's it just changed my life forever. Do you
find that it's difficult to travel without without a humanitarian purpose? Now?
(08:26):
Do you find that it's um, it's difficult when you
know to kind of put that aside. In a way,
it's funny, you know. I just I just went to
Paris with my husband earlier this year, and I thought,
I have such an asshole. All I'm doing shopping and eating,
and I have to tell you, it felt impossibly luxurious.
(08:46):
I mean, it was a lot of fun, and boy,
I'm I have so much gratitude for my life. And
I don't think that you you know, you don't get
any points for for not being happy and not taking
advantage of wonderful moments. But it is different. I always
feel like I have to kind of balance it out,
if that makes sense, Like if I have one trip
like that, I have to have another that is has
a more more serious capacity and the other thing I
(09:08):
will stay aside from just charitable giving um. Traveling to
another country in the capacity of visiting a school or
visiting a hospital or visiting is the most wonderful way
to see a place because you are exposed to people
and sites that you would not otherwise be a part
of you kind of you kind of get to live
(09:29):
a life and everyday life in that in that country.
No museums, um, no special hotels, and it is you know,
you're often in people's homes and it is the most
incredible way to experience another country. It's very as a traveler,
it's really satisfied. Stephanie, tell us what you're doing though,
(09:56):
when you go to these places and you go to
the hospitals and you go to the schools, are you
like walking up and guest teaching a class. Are you
helping kids with their arithmetic? Are you putting band aids?
Or is it tell us? I mean, what are what
are you actually doing for the two weeks that you
are in Kenya and wherever you are, you know, it
varies from place to place. If you're visiting a clinic, say,
(10:18):
and that's a lot of what I've done with World
of Children. It is giving the people who are running
the clinic, the doctors, the opportunity to demonstrate what they
do and how they help and their programming. I've been
in operating theaters three times now, not for the faint
of heart, and it's almost um, it's a presentation in
order to get other people on the trip to you know,
(10:39):
donate financially. Yeah, it's like a site visit is the
most powerful way to attract new board members and more
money because when you can see what your dollar is
doing in action, not being at the top of the
sign at the refugee camp, but when you can watch
a medical professional explained to you how they are fixing
spinal injuries with piece is a PVC plastic they have
(11:01):
found and sterilized and created a new way to We
saw a clinic in Nepal. Dr Ben Scota is his name.
His son is Dr Ben Scota as well, and they
fixed children who suffer from muscular deformation. And they have
fashioned tools from something you would find in a hardware
store to straighten people's spines and legs and arms. Now,
(11:23):
when you see somebody doing that in the middle of Nepal, that's,
by the way, the place I would want my pendexs.
You you cannot help but be astonished, give money and
encourage others to participate in that capacity to And so
much of being a person working in the field trying
to change somebody's life is being seen and being recognized
(11:47):
and being appreciated for all that you're doing. These schools
that we go to with one Kid, One world, it's
so much fun to be in a science lab with
a group of girls who have their first science lab
and they show you what they're working on, and you
go through their school work with them, and they show
you their dorm rooms and their bunks, and you know
they don't have parents who have visiting day. They don't
(12:07):
have a brand new soccer field and a fancy bus
to take them to their tournaments. They don't they don't
have a lot, and so to be able to be
seen and to share that with somebody who's traveled a
long way. Is it matters to people just to be
a human being and be kind and to bear witness.
So this is different from a volunteerism trip that somebody
(12:29):
could sign up for, say with Habitat for Humanity, where
for two weeks they go to Nepal, as one of
my friends does, and build homes. You're there more in
and advocacy capacity, so that you then come back home
and then help raise the money that these organizations need
(12:50):
to continue to do the work that they're doing. It
sounds very much like they're there to be a witness.
You're there to be a witness. Now, I will say
with planned parenthood, it's different because there is a significant
advocacy component to planned parenthood. So we are advocating at
like when we were in Stegal, we went to the
Court of Justice and we advocated on behalf of lawyers.
(13:11):
We did the same thing in Bolivia, so that active
legal advocacy is a huge part of my role of
Planned parenthood, as well as sex education and sex education
to the students the young women we meet. It's also
a part of my role in One Kid, One World
when we visit our girls schools. You know, there are
a lot of restrictions when you receive aid, specifically from
(13:31):
the United States, on what you can and cannot talk about.
The global gag rule is a really, really big problem
right now, especially with planned parenthood. I'm guessing it's a
it's a nightmare. It's a total nightmare. And so as
I am not when I am not traveling with Plan parenthood,
when I'm traveling with One Kid, One World, I have
the freedom to discuss things that like birth control, birth
(13:51):
control for instance, and condom usage. And why is that?
Why do you have the freedom to do it with
one kid? Because because I'm not there for plan parent hood,
So I'm not violating any kind of financial Because they're
just a private, small exactly focused on different things. They
don't have the same restrictions imposed upon them that PLANT does,
which is such a hot button group. So Tracy and
(14:13):
I can stand in a classroom and say you will
get pregnant if you do not use birth control, and
you could possibly get AIDS if you do not use
a condom in a way that people cannot do when
they're officially operating with Plant Parenthood. The restrictions right now
on family planning and girls education about their own bodies
is it's appalling for a lot of reasons, but it's
(14:36):
going to take a whole generation of young women and
completely change their lives for the worst. And the fact
that women are not allowed access to information, just basic
information science, health biology infuriates me. It takes us back
two hundred years. I mean, it's crazy. So that has
become something that is really at the top of my
(14:59):
to do is to knock off in terms of what
I'm what I'm aggressive about right now. Can you talk
a little bit about how one kid win World or
Planned Parenthood or any other organization you've traveled with showcases
um the dichotomy in how people are living in a
way that feels good to you and useful to you
(15:22):
versus what we sometimes hear volunteurism can look like and
what we can hear disaster tourism looking like. First of all,
with the exception of Planned Parenthood, for a variety of reasons,
familiar and political, I really do prefer smaller organizations, and
I give charitably too. Smaller organizations. I think that they
(15:42):
have more flexibility I think they have less bureaucracy, and
I think they are more manageable, especially in these trips.
They're very selective with who is who goes on these trips,
and I think that's an important part of it. This
isn't a show we're putting on to feel good about ourselves.
This is a commitment you make to get involved with
a community and stay there. You are a guest in
someone's home, and you are a guest in someone's country,
(16:04):
and you must treat them with that kind of respect.
If that clarifies a little bit of the attitude that
I think should absolutely be a part of somebody who's
on a trip like that. This isn't so I can
go and check it off my list and and make
myself feel good. I'm a guest in someone's home. Can
you paint a picture for us of an experience or
(16:26):
in exchange that you had that really changed the way
you think about travel? Oh? Yeah. From my first trip
to CanYa, we went to an area in the north
called Samburu. And when you think about the beautiful exotistism
of certain parts of Africa, these women in these incredible
color beated necklaces and and brightly colored shawls and skirts.
(16:49):
I mean it was like we're in the desert. I
means the desert. It's the spindley acacias and and red
sand and dirt. And these women emerged ice where God,
they emerged from the ether like butterflies, floating towards us,
and they were singing and they were chanting, and they
were welcoming us in the traditional samburu song and greeting.
(17:11):
And I remember I was standing with my the friends
I met on the trip. There were six of us,
and we were wordless for a full two minutes after
and it was we looked at each other, and I
cannot and never will be able to explain to anybody
else with the four of us understood in that moment
to be so overwhelmed by this hospitality and this miraculous
(17:34):
beauty in the middle of I mean, it took us
six hours to get there by car from the nearest
place we could spend the night. And it was astonishing.
And they served us a wonderful meal, and you know,
you're prepared not to eat. I have no expectation that
I should be fed when I'm coming to visit a
school in the middle of nowhere, So I had a
(17:56):
seven hundred kind bars in the car, and um in
stead there was there was goat, and there was manioc vegetables,
And I mean they really made such an effort to
cook us a beautiful meal. I mean I can I
can barely make a peanut, but our sandwich, you guys,
I'm really kind of not kidding. It's not my forte cooking.
(18:16):
And to be transported to this magical place and this meet,
I mean it was like brigadone or something. I can't
explain it. For the rest of my life, I will
hear that song in my head, and I will hear
their music, and I will see them coming forward, and
I will know that something um in me change forever
(18:37):
and and I can never go back to the before.
And I love that. Oh my god. That's so we're
all going to sit here and start crying. And it
was pret iPhone for me, because you don't have a
bunch of idiots holding up their phones. Take I mean,
it just happened, do you know what I mean? It
just it just happened, and we watched it and we
felt it, and you lived it, lived it, you lived it,
(18:59):
and you have the memory of it. I have a
two parter question for you, Stephanie. Have you ever found
yourself on the other side of the world meeting with
a government minister talking to lawyers, thinking this is doing
no good whatsoever? And I do not feel like I
am wasting my time. I have definitely felt like they
didn't give one damn about what I was saying. And
(19:22):
not to be too controversial, but when you were in
a room full of men who run a country, and
that's most places around the world, but when you're when
you're in a room full of government officials and there
isn't one woman there and you're talking about girls and
birth control and their rights, you can tell that they
are mentally figuring out what they're gonna have for dinner.
What they I mean, they don't care at all. And
(19:42):
that is why you have to go. You just have
to keep showing up and showing up and showing up
and showing up and not shutting up until they cannot
ignore you anymore. So now let's go positive. Tell us
about a moment when you felt like you and the
people you were traveling with really were making a difference.
This is sort of complicated. I have so many and
I have so few because every time you every time
(20:02):
you make a step forward, you realize, oh my gosh,
we got we got a long way to go. We
gotta keep going. I will say when we started with
our primary school, nam as sorry at one Kid, one World.
It's our founder, it's our flagship school. This is This
is in Kenya. Is in a small town called me
Beta on the shores of Lake Victoria. Paint a picture
for us when you say school, grammar school, high school,
(20:24):
how many students As it's a secondary school, it's for
it's technically children are all children, but they mostly send
their boys go to school. The government sponsor school through
what would be the eighth grade. Here in the United
States there is no public secondary school. So this is
a secondary school for girls. And you know, I'm forty five,
(20:45):
so most of the people my age in Kenya are
are not alive. You know that hits the AIDS epidemic
at just at just the time where it wiped out
almost an entire generation of people. So our students are
largely orphans. They're being raised by their grandparents and um.
Obviously it's a struggle for any family to send a
(21:06):
child to a private school. But if you have to
pay for a private school. You know, it's almost it's
almost undoable. We find and refurbish existing schools. We can't.
You can't create a community out of the ether, it
doesn't work that way. But you can build and support
an existing community. That's where you have the most success.
And when we started our school, I would say about
of the girls who attended were pregnant. Now ten years later,
(21:30):
eleven years later, actually not one girl is pregnant. And
we have started a new program to support financial aid
for college because now twelve women have been accepted to university.
That's amazing. Yeah, I'm we're very proud of that. That's great.
How many students are in that school at any given time.
About that's a big school. It's a big school, and
(21:52):
we have you know, and a lot of what we
deal with. You know, you start raising for one thing
like a science room, and then you realize girls often
don't go school for a couple of reasons. There it's
not safe, it's not safe for them to walk to school.
So a dormitory is absolutely mandatory. And um, a clean
bathroom because bathroom and dealing with your period or what
(22:13):
it is very embarrassing for young women, particularly when there's
not a dialogue in the country about it, and there's
a lot of shame. A lot of girls miss school
because they're having their periods and they don't know what
to do, and they don't have the they don't have
the sanitary items that they need, and there's a lot
of shame and there's a lot of stigma around it.
So providing an environment in which that is okay, there's
a school clinic with a nurse who can tell you
(22:34):
about what to do, and where they even know, Oh,
it's okay, I just have my period, here's a pad,
here's a exact protection, here's so getting those students and
retaining those students is largely dependent on being able to
house them and provide them with the facilities they need
to take care of their bodies. Are there ever, any
issues with the family doesn't want the kids to go
to boarding school? Or are the families grateful and happy
(22:56):
to give their daughters? I would say there there are
so many men, There are so many fearsome, amazing women.
The biggest barrier is financial, of course, because it is
you know, you can send a girl to school for
an entire year for two hundred fifty dollars, but that's
absolutely out of the question for a lot of people
in that part of the world. And if they have
two hundred fifty dollars and they have those son and
(23:18):
a daughter, you know, very often it's the son that
gets so by virtual. The fact that these families are
are pushing for their girls to get in the school
tells me a lot about the slowly changing tide around
the value of women in a community and the value
of girls in in various parts of the world. And
is everyone at the school being supported by the organization
(23:41):
or some people paying their way, some people being some
people are paying their way, and some people are on scholarship,
and some people there's a there's kind of a sliding scale. Yeah, amazing.
I wanted to talk for a minute about an article
you wrote for Pav and I at Fathom a few
years ago where you outlined your travel giving principle, which
we love of and we reference all the time and
(24:02):
put in our book called the Humanity Tithe. And we're
wondering if you can explain what the humanity tithe is? Well,
it does help me feel a little bit better about
my moral luxurious trips. I'll tell you that of the
humanity tithe is. I believe that there is a certain
percentage of what you spend on a trip that should
go towards supporting something in that community in which you
(24:24):
were visiting. And it started I really started thinking seriously
about it when I went to Cambodia purely for pleasure.
This is many many years ago now, and in our
hotel room there was um I've never seen it before.
It was a piece of paper. It said, our hotel
supports the school and supports the students of the people
(24:44):
who work in our hotel to attend the school. If
you were interested in participating in helping with the education
of the people who work in this community, we would
be happy to donate a portion of your hotel bill,
or you can choose to donate a portion of your
hotel bill towards the school. And I thought, this is
why does that everybody do this? This is amazing. It's
of course I would like to I don't need your
(25:07):
soap or your conditioner or that strawback. I could just
take a certain percentage of my money and put it.
And I do prefer schools because I think it's education
is one of the few silver bullets. You know you can.
It always works. It's always no one suffers from an education.
You know, we handle um, you know, knowledge, knowledge exactly.
They're not swapping out the vaccines for something else. You know.
(25:29):
It's a school you can really get behind. And I
thought about that, and I just started to do that
everywhere I go. So I asked the hotel if there's
a community that they support. It's actually a really good
place to start, because so many people I was in.
I'm all over the place right now, but I'm specifically
thinking about human trafficking. I have visited a couple of
(25:50):
places where it's to rehabilitate people, generally young women who
have been trafficked. And one of the ways in which
not only is it incredibly psychologically scarring, but you need
to give people a skill, a job skill, in order
to transition them back into a world that is more
supportive and healthy for them. And so often it is
(26:10):
working in hospitality. A lot of the people who work
in hotels are people who have been through programs like that,
and so I have found that increasingly a hotel is
a great place to ask where you can donate, because
they're so often associated with organizations like that, and they're
employing people who are directly from them exactly exactly, and
so the humanity tie. I mean partly it's money. But
(26:32):
one of the things you go into in this article
is you can find out beforehand do they need pencils,
what do they need in the community that we're going to,
they that you're going to, and then just put this
stuff in your suitcase. That is exactly right now. I
will tell you when I started, it was so much harder.
I mean, the world has really the interwebs have really
(26:53):
changed the world in the last fifteen years. So bringing
things physically used to be a much bigger part of
my level because it was so difficult to get goods
and services to places. It is less true now. I
I like to ask an advance in case there's something
that's very specific, but more often than not, it's actually
more cost effective to give them bring the money for
(27:14):
them to go. Like like we used to bring things
for one kid one world from the States all the time,
and now actually it's more cost effective for us to
go to Nakamat, which is the Walmart of Kenya, and
spend our money there so that we can buy more
in Bolk and and and support NAMA and not you know, Walgreens.
So I want to say I was absolutely influenced by
(27:35):
your article when I went to Cuba when the people
to people visas were being opened up, and I got
in touch with the local charity there, and what I
brought down was really high quality tampons, a whole suitcase ful.
That's what they're you cannot get. I'm just gonna stay
it right now. You cannot get a tampon anywhere but
(27:55):
the United States of America. An awesome pharmacy in France
or the UK, No, And that's it. Yeah, there are
no tampons in the world. There are no tampons. So
I am laughing, but I'm complete understanding for bringing down
a suitcase of high quality temple. It was got a
few raised eyebrows at the airport, but but they want
but you know that they will barely make out contact
(28:18):
with you, which is the great part. You can always
get it through. I do bring Candy a lot, actually,
and and our country director and one kid one World,
Peter Nicodita, who's amazing. He's probably going to be the
President of Kenya one day. He says, Stephanie, don't bring candy.
They don't need candy, they need an I'm like, what
fun person doesn't bring candy? Come on, get a little candy.
I want to just quote something that you did, that
(28:40):
that you wrote in this article, which, as Jarlin said,
we also put in our book. I'm going to plug
our book right now. Our book is called Travel Anywhere
and Avoid being a Tourist. But the reason why I'm
also plugging the book is it's relevant what we're talking about.
There's an entire chapter on volunteer travel and traveling when you,
as we say on Fathom, travel for the good. But
you wrapped up this article so quently. I want to
(29:01):
quote it, and you say, quote A little real help,
donated locally and used immediately is a great way to
express your gratitude. After all, you, the traveler, have been
so thoroughly enriched by your host country good manners dictator.
Thank you, Stephanie. That's such a nice way of thinking
about things. Oh I didn't lie. I feel like that
(29:23):
about it. Think thanks for saying so, Stephanie. What's one
thing that our listeners can do, which one small way
that they can take a step towards becoming philanthropists when
they travel. I I say, start with your own version
of the humanity ties. Ask your hotel call ahead and
see if you can put one thing in your suitcase
(29:44):
or make one donation locally, and just it's so easy.
It takes you, guys, it takes ten minutes. And like
so many things, like with jobs or friends, or one
thing generally leads to another. That first step, that first
interaction you make, will it will will only lead to
more and probably greater involvement, because inevitably you're going to
(30:04):
meet somebody or some person who is so inspiring that
you can't get them out of your head, that you
just have to make them a part of your life. So, Stephanie,
what do the travel plans on the horizon look like
for you? Okay, my travel plans are the following. I'm
desperate to go to India. I'm planning to go to
Kenya with one Kid, One World in the spring, and
to put to Peru with Planned Parenthood Global. And that's
(30:27):
for work. Do you have any India is going to
be part work, part fun. Peru is probably going to
be part work, part fun too, because Machu Picchu is
not included in the clinic tour. Rather unsurprisingly, but I
cannot go to Peru and not see that. And Kenya.
I always, I finally figured it out. Always add two
(30:49):
or three days on to the trip that you're about
to take in whatever capacity, because I call it while
you're there, I mean, while you're there, you've you've got
seventy two Nothing in America is so important. I mean
I don't have children, so nothing in America is so
important that I can't spend an extra seventy two hours
and see, say Lamu or the New World, World Creator
(31:10):
or whatever. Take take a minute to take a minute
to have a little fun and appreciate just how beautiful
the world is. Definitiely, if people want to find out
more about One Kid, One World or what you do
with planned parenthood, where should we send them? You should
absolutely send them to One Kid, One World dot org.
And you should send them to Planned Parenthood. Just just
google planned parenthood. There are a thousand different ways to
(31:31):
become involved, either in your local organization or at the
federal level, or in global. You know, global is my passion,
of course, and it's not the most popular thing to say,
but you know, money really helps, it really doesn't. It's
very popular it's it's you know, it's a really it's
a It's a great way to start and it's the
most immediate way to help somebody. So if you're at
(31:52):
all curious about more information or possibly donating, I would
suggest that you go to those two websites. And let's
also add that you don't need to be a kajillion
are in order to donate some money. Every little bit helps,
right absolutely, what we what you can do with a
hundred dollars around the world would shock you. It goes
very far. Stephanie March, you are an inspiration as ever
(32:13):
and a gracious woman and a dear friend. And thank
you so much for being on our podcast and for
sharing your stories and your heart around the world. I
will tell you that my involvement with Fathom has been
one of my absolute favorite parts of my life. So
I have this I have to thank you too. Also,
thank you, thank you, And that's our show. Thanks for listening.
(32:34):
If you like what you heard, please subscribe and you know,
leave us a five star review. A Way Ago is
a production of I Heart Radio and Fathom. You can
find the details we talked about in the show notes
and on our website. Fathom away dot com. Don't forget
to sign up for our newsletter. When you're there. You
can get in touch with us anytime at podcast at
fathom away dot com and follow us on all social
(32:56):
media at at fathom Way to Go. Please tag your
best travel photos hashtag travel with Fathom. If you want
to really go deep on the travel inspiration, pick up
a copy of our book, Travel Anywhere and Avoid being
a tourist. I'm Jarrelen Gerba and I'm Pavio Rosati, and
we'd like to thank our producer, editor and mixer Marcy
to Peanut and our executive producer, Christopher Hastiotis. For more
(33:16):
podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Charity isn't charity. It is human gifting. It's a It's
a gift that you owe yourself and you owe the
world and you get so much back. And you know,
I didn't I feel sorry for people so much, as
I had so much respect. I have seen some smart, sourceful, tough, interesting,
inspiring people, and I came back with a lot more
(00:27):
than I left there. Welcome to A Way to Go,
a production of I Heart Radio and Fathom. I'm jaral
And Garba and I'm Pavio Rosatti. Our guest today is
Stephanie March, who mainstream TV fans know for her longtime
role as Alexandra Cabot, the beloved assistant district Attorney on
everyone's favorite hard boiled TV show, Law and Order, Special
(00:49):
Victims Unit. Indie comedy fans know her as the mayor
on Ni and Joe Werewolf Hunter. Beauty fans know her
is the co founder of She Spoke, the custom lipstick
and makeup company based in Soho in New York City,
but Glyn and I and many others around the world
know her as the ultimate globe trotting philanthropist. Stephanie travels
the world doing humanitarian work on behalf of such groups
(01:11):
as One Kid, One World and Planned Parenthood where she's
a board member, and World of Children, where she's also
a board member. Not to put too fine a point
on it, she is helping to make the world a
better place for everyone, though especially for women and children
through her advocacy and her travels. Stephanie, Welcome, Pavia. That
was such a nice introduction. I think I'm gonna cry.
That was slowly. I'm just reciting the facts, ma'am. We
(01:34):
should also add that Stephanie has been a big part
of Fathom since the beginning, both as a supporter and
a contributor who shared her stories about humanitarian trips and
other kinds of trips to Kenya, Cambodia, India, where else.
Stephanie send a lot of writing for us. Um, let's
see for Planned Parenthood. I've been to Bolivia and Uganda
(01:57):
and India and Nepal and Chile with a World Children Award,
Kenya with One Kid, One World, which was very, very
meaningful for me. And when and how did charitable endeavors
become a big part of your travels? You know, I've
always loved traveling. My parents were excellent travelers and my
sister was a traveler where we have a little nomad
(02:18):
in US, and so when I started to travel UM
two places like India, I became acutely aware, as one
is of UM, how disproportionately lucky we are to live
in the United States. You know, I think to be
born loved in the twentieth century in America to an
upper middle class family who had health insurance, I mean
(02:39):
that's you know. I mean, I live better than probably
most people have ever lived since people have been living
on the planet in terms of what I have and
the care I have, and the facilities that are available
to me in this country, and the disparity is is
not something that you can ignore. And so I always
felt when I was traveling that there needed to be
away for me to both contribute to the place I
(03:00):
was visiting as a tourist, but as a as a person,
as a human being. And so I really became involved
with these organizations where travel was a significant part of
my board membership because I felt it was a great
way for me to get perspective on my life and
to contribute both financially and in person two places that
mattered to me, and did these particular organizations find you
(03:23):
or did you find them? You know, I found one
and then the rest found me. Um. My great grandmother
founded Planned Parenthood of West Texas. Actually, so my family
in so my family has a I know isn't see
the best. Then they closed it, then they reopened it. Incredible. Um,
So she really that that is the beginning of a
(03:46):
multi generational involvement in Planned Parenthood and girls in education. Actually,
I found One Kid, One World through my best friend
is named Robin Fenner. Her husband is John Fenner, and
he is a Hollywood writer and his writing partner is
Josh by Se And so I have come to know
these people over the years as friends. And Josh and
Tracy mccobben founded One Kid, One World by themselves. That's
(04:07):
a volunteer organization. Josh did it because he went to
the Sudan with his uncle when the in the height
of that terrible conflict. Josh found himself in one of
the refugee camps and he saw that all of the
larger organizations that shall remain unnamed, although I am dying
to name them, we're fighting over who got to have
(04:27):
top billing on the sign that was in front of
the refugee camp while no one else was really doing anything,
and he thought, you know, if you show up with
a teacher and a couple of soccer balls, you could
change these kids lives. Meanwhile, these larger institutions are sort
of paralyzed by bureaucracy and deeply entrenched, and unless you
are involved in making your own organization obsolete, you are
(04:50):
not really in flanthathy. So Josh took it upon himself
to get into girls and education, specifically in Africa and
Central America, because he felt that's where he could make
the greatest difference. And he was so inspiring to me,
and he and Tracy were so impressive to me, and
I thought, I really have to see what they are doing.
And so I went to Kenya with them in two
(05:10):
thousand seven. And I remember saying to my sister the
night before I left, you know, I'm kind of nervous,
and she said, why Because we're going to Africa with
a bunch of complete strangers for two weeks and you
don't have a cell phone and you won't be able
to talk to anybody or communicate back home. And I thought, yeah, yeah,
that's that's why I'm nervous. That that's it. I had
a travel kit that I now always have stopped. You know,
(05:30):
it's got the Z pack and the sip ro and
the liquid band aid and the you know, I have
every kind of conceivable medication that I just keep in
my back because you know, you can't, I can't get
can't be too safe, and you can't get any help.
I actually my appendix burst once when I was visiting
my sister in San Francisco. Once upon a time, my
(05:51):
appendix person I happened to be visiting my sister in
San Francisco, and while I was in the hospital, I
did a mental rundown of all of the places I've
been where I would have died if that had happened.
And I mean I could only think there was one
clinic I went to in Nepal with the World of Children,
and I thought they could have helped me there. They
could have helped me there, but otherwise I would have
(06:12):
been in some pretty big trouble. So you don't I
got rid of it on purpose. Maybe I willed it
into an obsolescence. So tell us about that trip that
you took to Kenya with one Kid, One World, because
I know that was a really important trip for you,
It was so so meaningful for me. Um. First of all,
I made some terrific friends on the trip who have
now been my friends for over a decade, and it
(06:34):
was exceptional to me, and that I thought I was
going to help them, meaning the schools that we were
visiting in the communities we were supporting through the schools,
and instead I learned a really important lesson and that
it was really humbling and that they helped me just
as much. And charity isn't charity, it is human gifting.
(06:59):
It's it's a gift that you owe yourself and you
owe the world and you get so much back. And
you know, I didn't I feel sorry for people so much,
as I had so much respect people who live in
conditions that are considerably less luxurious than ours. I have seen.
I have seen some smart, resourceful, tough, interesting, inspiring people
(07:21):
and I came back with a lot more than I
left there, and it began a lifetime love affair with
that kind of travel and that country in particular. I
don't want to play favorites, but I did go to
the Ukraine with a world of children one year and
it was in on the Russian border and it was
in October, and the hospital we're visiting, the doctor's bathroom
(07:42):
did not have so in it, and it was gray
and it was dark, and it was Eastern Europe in October.
And I was in Kenya in November and it was
beautiful and the music was spectacular, and the people were
gorgeous and smiling and wonderful, and I thought, this is
the cradle of the civilization that I want to think
(08:03):
of as civilization. I fell in love with it, and
I've been back since time. I'm getting choked up. I
have been back about six times, both in that capacity
and as a part of my honeymoon, and I just
think it's it just changed my life forever. Do you
find that it's difficult to travel without without a humanitarian purpose? Now?
(08:26):
Do you find that it's um, it's difficult when you
know to kind of put that aside. In a way,
it's funny, you know. I just I just went to
Paris with my husband earlier this year, and I thought,
I have such an asshole. All I'm doing shopping and eating,
and I have to tell you, it felt impossibly luxurious.
(08:46):
I mean, it was a lot of fun, and boy,
I'm I have so much gratitude for my life. And
I don't think that you you know, you don't get
any points for for not being happy and not taking
advantage of wonderful moments. But it is different. I always
feel like I have to kind of balance it out,
if that makes sense, Like if I have one trip
like that, I have to have another that is has
a more more serious capacity and the other thing I
(09:08):
will stay aside from just charitable giving um. Traveling to
another country in the capacity of visiting a school or
visiting a hospital or visiting is the most wonderful way
to see a place because you are exposed to people
and sites that you would not otherwise be a part
of you kind of you kind of get to live
(09:29):
a life and everyday life in that in that country.
No museums, um, no special hotels, and it is you know,
you're often in people's homes and it is the most
incredible way to experience another country. It's very as a traveler,
it's really satisfied. Stephanie, tell us what you're doing though,
(09:56):
when you go to these places and you go to
the hospitals and you go to the schools, are you
like walking up and guest teaching a class. Are you
helping kids with their arithmetic? Are you putting band aids?
Or is it tell us? I mean, what are what
are you actually doing for the two weeks that you
are in Kenya and wherever you are, you know, it
varies from place to place. If you're visiting a clinic, say,
(10:18):
and that's a lot of what I've done with World
of Children. It is giving the people who are running
the clinic, the doctors, the opportunity to demonstrate what they
do and how they help and their programming. I've been
in operating theaters three times now, not for the faint
of heart, and it's almost um, it's a presentation in
order to get other people on the trip to you know,
(10:39):
donate financially. Yeah, it's like a site visit is the
most powerful way to attract new board members and more
money because when you can see what your dollar is
doing in action, not being at the top of the
sign at the refugee camp, but when you can watch
a medical professional explained to you how they are fixing
spinal injuries with piece is a PVC plastic they have
(11:01):
found and sterilized and created a new way to We
saw a clinic in Nepal. Dr Ben Scota is his name.
His son is Dr Ben Scota as well, and they
fixed children who suffer from muscular deformation. And they have
fashioned tools from something you would find in a hardware
store to straighten people's spines and legs and arms. Now,
(11:23):
when you see somebody doing that in the middle of Nepal, that's,
by the way, the place I would want my pendexs.
You you cannot help but be astonished, give money and
encourage others to participate in that capacity to And so
much of being a person working in the field trying
to change somebody's life is being seen and being recognized
(11:47):
and being appreciated for all that you're doing. These schools
that we go to with one Kid, One world, it's
so much fun to be in a science lab with
a group of girls who have their first science lab
and they show you what they're working on, and you
go through their school work with them, and they show
you their dorm rooms and their bunks, and you know
they don't have parents who have visiting day. They don't
(12:07):
have a brand new soccer field and a fancy bus
to take them to their tournaments. They don't they don't
have a lot, and so to be able to be
seen and to share that with somebody who's traveled a
long way. Is it matters to people just to be
a human being and be kind and to bear witness.
So this is different from a volunteerism trip that somebody
(12:29):
could sign up for, say with Habitat for Humanity, where
for two weeks they go to Nepal, as one of
my friends does, and build homes. You're there more in
and advocacy capacity, so that you then come back home
and then help raise the money that these organizations need
(12:50):
to continue to do the work that they're doing. It
sounds very much like they're there to be a witness.
You're there to be a witness. Now, I will say
with planned parenthood, it's different because there is a significant
advocacy component to planned parenthood. So we are advocating at
like when we were in Stegal, we went to the
Court of Justice and we advocated on behalf of lawyers.
(13:11):
We did the same thing in Bolivia, so that active
legal advocacy is a huge part of my role of
Planned parenthood, as well as sex education and sex education
to the students the young women we meet. It's also
a part of my role in One Kid, One World
when we visit our girls schools. You know, there are
a lot of restrictions when you receive aid, specifically from
(13:31):
the United States, on what you can and cannot talk about.
The global gag rule is a really, really big problem
right now, especially with planned parenthood. I'm guessing it's a
it's a nightmare. It's a total nightmare. And so as
I am not when I am not traveling with Plan parenthood,
when I'm traveling with One Kid, One World, I have
the freedom to discuss things that like birth control, birth
(13:51):
control for instance, and condom usage. And why is that?
Why do you have the freedom to do it with
one kid? Because because I'm not there for plan parent hood,
So I'm not violating any kind of financial Because they're
just a private, small exactly focused on different things. They
don't have the same restrictions imposed upon them that PLANT does,
which is such a hot button group. So Tracy and
(14:13):
I can stand in a classroom and say you will
get pregnant if you do not use birth control, and
you could possibly get AIDS if you do not use
a condom in a way that people cannot do when
they're officially operating with Plant Parenthood. The restrictions right now
on family planning and girls education about their own bodies
is it's appalling for a lot of reasons, but it's
(14:36):
going to take a whole generation of young women and
completely change their lives for the worst. And the fact
that women are not allowed access to information, just basic
information science, health biology infuriates me. It takes us back
two hundred years. I mean, it's crazy. So that has
become something that is really at the top of my
(14:59):
to do is to knock off in terms of what
I'm what I'm aggressive about right now. Can you talk
a little bit about how one kid win World or
Planned Parenthood or any other organization you've traveled with showcases
um the dichotomy in how people are living in a
way that feels good to you and useful to you
(15:22):
versus what we sometimes hear volunteurism can look like and
what we can hear disaster tourism looking like. First of all,
with the exception of Planned Parenthood, for a variety of reasons,
familiar and political, I really do prefer smaller organizations, and
I give charitably too. Smaller organizations. I think that they
(15:42):
have more flexibility I think they have less bureaucracy, and
I think they are more manageable, especially in these trips.
They're very selective with who is who goes on these trips,
and I think that's an important part of it. This
isn't a show we're putting on to feel good about ourselves.
This is a commitment you make to get involved with
a community and stay there. You are a guest in
someone's home, and you are a guest in someone's country,
(16:04):
and you must treat them with that kind of respect.
If that clarifies a little bit of the attitude that
I think should absolutely be a part of somebody who's
on a trip like that. This isn't so I can
go and check it off my list and and make
myself feel good. I'm a guest in someone's home. Can
you paint a picture for us of an experience or
(16:26):
in exchange that you had that really changed the way
you think about travel? Oh? Yeah. From my first trip
to CanYa, we went to an area in the north
called Samburu. And when you think about the beautiful exotistism
of certain parts of Africa, these women in these incredible
color beated necklaces and and brightly colored shawls and skirts.
(16:49):
I mean it was like we're in the desert. I
means the desert. It's the spindley acacias and and red
sand and dirt. And these women emerged ice where God,
they emerged from the ether like butterflies, floating towards us,
and they were singing and they were chanting, and they
were welcoming us in the traditional samburu song and greeting.
(17:11):
And I remember I was standing with my the friends
I met on the trip. There were six of us,
and we were wordless for a full two minutes after
and it was we looked at each other, and I
cannot and never will be able to explain to anybody
else with the four of us understood in that moment
to be so overwhelmed by this hospitality and this miraculous
(17:34):
beauty in the middle of I mean, it took us
six hours to get there by car from the nearest
place we could spend the night. And it was astonishing.
And they served us a wonderful meal, and you know,
you're prepared not to eat. I have no expectation that
I should be fed when I'm coming to visit a
school in the middle of nowhere, So I had a
(17:56):
seven hundred kind bars in the car, and um in
stead there was there was goat, and there was manioc vegetables,
And I mean they really made such an effort to
cook us a beautiful meal. I mean I can I
can barely make a peanut, but our sandwich, you guys,
I'm really kind of not kidding. It's not my forte cooking.
(18:16):
And to be transported to this magical place and this meet,
I mean it was like brigadone or something. I can't
explain it. For the rest of my life, I will
hear that song in my head, and I will hear
their music, and I will see them coming forward, and
I will know that something um in me change forever
(18:37):
and and I can never go back to the before.
And I love that. Oh my god. That's so we're
all going to sit here and start crying. And it
was pret iPhone for me, because you don't have a
bunch of idiots holding up their phones. Take I mean,
it just happened, do you know what I mean? It
just it just happened, and we watched it and we
felt it, and you lived it, lived it, you lived it,
(18:59):
and you have the memory of it. I have a
two parter question for you, Stephanie. Have you ever found
yourself on the other side of the world meeting with
a government minister talking to lawyers, thinking this is doing
no good whatsoever? And I do not feel like I
am wasting my time. I have definitely felt like they
didn't give one damn about what I was saying. And
(19:22):
not to be too controversial, but when you were in
a room full of men who run a country, and
that's most places around the world, but when you're when
you're in a room full of government officials and there
isn't one woman there and you're talking about girls and
birth control and their rights, you can tell that they
are mentally figuring out what they're gonna have for dinner.
What they I mean, they don't care at all. And
(19:42):
that is why you have to go. You just have
to keep showing up and showing up and showing up
and showing up and not shutting up until they cannot
ignore you anymore. So now let's go positive. Tell us
about a moment when you felt like you and the
people you were traveling with really were making a difference.
This is sort of complicated. I have so many and
I have so few because every time you every time
(20:02):
you make a step forward, you realize, oh my gosh,
we got we got a long way to go. We
gotta keep going. I will say when we started with
our primary school, nam as sorry at one Kid, one World.
It's our founder, it's our flagship school. This is This
is in Kenya. Is in a small town called me
Beta on the shores of Lake Victoria. Paint a picture
for us when you say school, grammar school, high school,
(20:24):
how many students As it's a secondary school, it's for
it's technically children are all children, but they mostly send
their boys go to school. The government sponsor school through
what would be the eighth grade. Here in the United
States there is no public secondary school. So this is
a secondary school for girls. And you know, I'm forty five,
(20:45):
so most of the people my age in Kenya are
are not alive. You know that hits the AIDS epidemic
at just at just the time where it wiped out
almost an entire generation of people. So our students are
largely orphans. They're being raised by their grandparents and um.
Obviously it's a struggle for any family to send a
(21:06):
child to a private school. But if you have to
pay for a private school. You know, it's almost it's
almost undoable. We find and refurbish existing schools. We can't.
You can't create a community out of the ether, it
doesn't work that way. But you can build and support
an existing community. That's where you have the most success.
And when we started our school, I would say about
of the girls who attended were pregnant. Now ten years later,
(21:30):
eleven years later, actually not one girl is pregnant. And
we have started a new program to support financial aid
for college because now twelve women have been accepted to university.
That's amazing. Yeah, I'm we're very proud of that. That's great.
How many students are in that school at any given time.
About that's a big school. It's a big school, and
(21:52):
we have you know, and a lot of what we
deal with. You know, you start raising for one thing
like a science room, and then you realize girls often
don't go school for a couple of reasons. There it's
not safe, it's not safe for them to walk to school.
So a dormitory is absolutely mandatory. And um, a clean
bathroom because bathroom and dealing with your period or what
(22:13):
it is very embarrassing for young women, particularly when there's
not a dialogue in the country about it, and there's
a lot of shame. A lot of girls miss school
because they're having their periods and they don't know what
to do, and they don't have the they don't have
the sanitary items that they need, and there's a lot
of shame and there's a lot of stigma around it.
So providing an environment in which that is okay, there's
a school clinic with a nurse who can tell you
(22:34):
about what to do, and where they even know, Oh,
it's okay, I just have my period, here's a pad,
here's a exact protection, here's so getting those students and
retaining those students is largely dependent on being able to
house them and provide them with the facilities they need
to take care of their bodies. Are there ever, any
issues with the family doesn't want the kids to go
to boarding school? Or are the families grateful and happy
(22:56):
to give their daughters? I would say there there are
so many men, There are so many fearsome, amazing women.
The biggest barrier is financial, of course, because it is
you know, you can send a girl to school for
an entire year for two hundred fifty dollars, but that's
absolutely out of the question for a lot of people
in that part of the world. And if they have
two hundred fifty dollars and they have those son and
(23:18):
a daughter, you know, very often it's the son that
gets so by virtual. The fact that these families are
are pushing for their girls to get in the school
tells me a lot about the slowly changing tide around
the value of women in a community and the value
of girls in in various parts of the world. And
is everyone at the school being supported by the organization
(23:41):
or some people paying their way, some people being some
people are paying their way, and some people are on scholarship,
and some people there's a there's kind of a sliding scale. Yeah, amazing.
I wanted to talk for a minute about an article
you wrote for Pav and I at Fathom a few
years ago where you outlined your travel giving principle, which
we love of and we reference all the time and
(24:02):
put in our book called the Humanity Tithe. And we're
wondering if you can explain what the humanity tithe is? Well,
it does help me feel a little bit better about
my moral luxurious trips. I'll tell you that of the
humanity tithe is. I believe that there is a certain
percentage of what you spend on a trip that should
go towards supporting something in that community in which you
(24:24):
were visiting. And it started I really started thinking seriously
about it when I went to Cambodia purely for pleasure.
This is many many years ago now, and in our
hotel room there was um I've never seen it before.
It was a piece of paper. It said, our hotel
supports the school and supports the students of the people
(24:44):
who work in our hotel to attend the school. If
you were interested in participating in helping with the education
of the people who work in this community, we would
be happy to donate a portion of your hotel bill,
or you can choose to donate a portion of your
hotel bill towards the school. And I thought, this is
why does that everybody do this? This is amazing. It's
of course I would like to I don't need your
(25:07):
soap or your conditioner or that strawback. I could just
take a certain percentage of my money and put it.
And I do prefer schools because I think it's education
is one of the few silver bullets. You know you can.
It always works. It's always no one suffers from an education.
You know, we handle um, you know, knowledge, knowledge exactly.
They're not swapping out the vaccines for something else. You know.
(25:29):
It's a school you can really get behind. And I
thought about that, and I just started to do that
everywhere I go. So I asked the hotel if there's
a community that they support. It's actually a really good
place to start, because so many people I was in.
I'm all over the place right now, but I'm specifically
thinking about human trafficking. I have visited a couple of
(25:50):
places where it's to rehabilitate people, generally young women who
have been trafficked. And one of the ways in which
not only is it incredibly psychologically scarring, but you need
to give people a skill, a job skill, in order
to transition them back into a world that is more
supportive and healthy for them. And so often it is
(26:10):
working in hospitality. A lot of the people who work
in hotels are people who have been through programs like that,
and so I have found that increasingly a hotel is
a great place to ask where you can donate, because
they're so often associated with organizations like that, and they're
employing people who are directly from them exactly exactly, and
so the humanity tie. I mean partly it's money. But
(26:32):
one of the things you go into in this article
is you can find out beforehand do they need pencils,
what do they need in the community that we're going to,
they that you're going to, and then just put this
stuff in your suitcase. That is exactly right now. I
will tell you when I started, it was so much harder.
I mean, the world has really the interwebs have really
(26:53):
changed the world in the last fifteen years. So bringing
things physically used to be a much bigger part of
my level because it was so difficult to get goods
and services to places. It is less true now. I
I like to ask an advance in case there's something
that's very specific, but more often than not, it's actually
more cost effective to give them bring the money for
(27:14):
them to go. Like like we used to bring things
for one kid one world from the States all the time,
and now actually it's more cost effective for us to
go to Nakamat, which is the Walmart of Kenya, and
spend our money there so that we can buy more
in Bolk and and and support NAMA and not you know, Walgreens.
So I want to say I was absolutely influenced by
(27:35):
your article when I went to Cuba when the people
to people visas were being opened up, and I got
in touch with the local charity there, and what I
brought down was really high quality tampons, a whole suitcase ful.
That's what they're you cannot get. I'm just gonna stay
it right now. You cannot get a tampon anywhere but
(27:55):
the United States of America. An awesome pharmacy in France
or the UK, No, And that's it. Yeah, there are
no tampons in the world. There are no tampons. So
I am laughing, but I'm complete understanding for bringing down
a suitcase of high quality temple. It was got a
few raised eyebrows at the airport, but but they want
but you know that they will barely make out contact
(28:18):
with you, which is the great part. You can always
get it through. I do bring Candy a lot, actually,
and and our country director and one kid one World,
Peter Nicodita, who's amazing. He's probably going to be the
President of Kenya one day. He says, Stephanie, don't bring candy.
They don't need candy, they need an I'm like, what
fun person doesn't bring candy? Come on, get a little candy.
I want to just quote something that you did, that
(28:40):
that you wrote in this article, which, as Jarlin said,
we also put in our book. I'm going to plug
our book right now. Our book is called Travel Anywhere
and Avoid being a Tourist. But the reason why I'm
also plugging the book is it's relevant what we're talking about.
There's an entire chapter on volunteer travel and traveling when you,
as we say on Fathom, travel for the good. But
you wrapped up this article so quently. I want to
(29:01):
quote it, and you say, quote A little real help,
donated locally and used immediately is a great way to
express your gratitude. After all, you, the traveler, have been
so thoroughly enriched by your host country good manners dictator.
Thank you, Stephanie. That's such a nice way of thinking
about things. Oh I didn't lie. I feel like that
(29:23):
about it. Think thanks for saying so, Stephanie. What's one
thing that our listeners can do, which one small way
that they can take a step towards becoming philanthropists when
they travel. I I say, start with your own version
of the humanity ties. Ask your hotel call ahead and
see if you can put one thing in your suitcase
(29:44):
or make one donation locally, and just it's so easy.
It takes you, guys, it takes ten minutes. And like
so many things, like with jobs or friends, or one
thing generally leads to another. That first step, that first
interaction you make, will it will will only lead to
more and probably greater involvement, because inevitably you're going to
(30:04):
meet somebody or some person who is so inspiring that
you can't get them out of your head, that you
just have to make them a part of your life. So, Stephanie,
what do the travel plans on the horizon look like
for you? Okay, my travel plans are the following. I'm
desperate to go to India. I'm planning to go to
Kenya with one Kid, One World in the spring, and
to put to Peru with Planned Parenthood Global. And that's
(30:27):
for work. Do you have any India is going to
be part work, part fun. Peru is probably going to
be part work, part fun too, because Machu Picchu is
not included in the clinic tour. Rather unsurprisingly, but I
cannot go to Peru and not see that. And Kenya.
I always, I finally figured it out. Always add two
(30:49):
or three days on to the trip that you're about
to take in whatever capacity, because I call it while
you're there, I mean, while you're there, you've you've got
seventy two Nothing in America is so important. I mean
I don't have children, so nothing in America is so
important that I can't spend an extra seventy two hours
and see, say Lamu or the New World, World Creator
(31:10):
or whatever. Take take a minute to take a minute
to have a little fun and appreciate just how beautiful
the world is. Definitiely, if people want to find out
more about One Kid, One World or what you do
with planned parenthood, where should we send them? You should
absolutely send them to One Kid, One World dot org.
And you should send them to Planned Parenthood. Just just
google planned parenthood. There are a thousand different ways to
(31:31):
become involved, either in your local organization or at the
federal level, or in global. You know, global is my passion,
of course, and it's not the most popular thing to say,
but you know, money really helps, it really doesn't. It's
very popular it's it's you know, it's a really it's
a It's a great way to start and it's the
most immediate way to help somebody. So if you're at
(31:52):
all curious about more information or possibly donating, I would
suggest that you go to those two websites. And let's
also add that you don't need to be a kajillion
are in order to donate some money. Every little bit helps,
right absolutely, what we what you can do with a
hundred dollars around the world would shock you. It goes
very far. Stephanie March, you are an inspiration as ever
(32:13):
and a gracious woman and a dear friend. And thank
you so much for being on our podcast and for
sharing your stories and your heart around the world. I
will tell you that my involvement with Fathom has been
one of my absolute favorite parts of my life. So
I have this I have to thank you too. Also,
thank you, thank you, And that's our show. Thanks for listening.
(32:34):
If you like what you heard, please subscribe and you know,
leave us a five star review. A Way Ago is
a production of I Heart Radio and Fathom. You can
find the details we talked about in the show notes
and on our website. Fathom away dot com. Don't forget
to sign up for our newsletter. When you're there. You
can get in touch with us anytime at podcast at
fathom away dot com and follow us on all social
(32:56):
media at at fathom Way to Go. Please tag your
best travel photos hashtag travel with Fathom. If you want
to really go deep on the travel inspiration, pick up
a copy of our book, Travel Anywhere and Avoid being
a tourist. I'm Jarrelen Gerba and I'm Pavio Rosati, and
we'd like to thank our producer, editor and mixer Marcy
to Peanut and our executive producer, Christopher Hastiotis. For more
(33:16):
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