This section will eventually be called "Un-Tours." The voluntour option will become one of the Un-Tour options. Please check back or contact linda@sweetmangotours.com for more information about:

“Gross National Happiness is more important that Gross Domestic Product.”
4th King of Bhutan, HM Jigme Singye Wangchuck

Gross National Happiness is a powerful concept from the tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan, often referred to as the happiest country in the world. Bhutan’s constitution mandates consideration of a set of indicators that more broadly reflect the country’s societal values than the heavily-relied-upon GDP. This encourages policy-making aimed at increasing well-being, not just wealth.

Our delegation will include Vermont students, educators and other adults from the private, public and non-profits sectors. Five days of conference activities, with experts and activists from around the world, will be followed by a little sight-seeing (Iguacu Falls - the Niagara of South America) and a stay at the Future Vision Eco-Village, a Sao Paolo slum re-created into a self-sufficient community. There, we will continue the conversations and visioning begun at the conference and design a plan to bring it back to Vermont.

Each year since 2004, students from Montpelier High School in Vermont have organized around the goal of traveling to rural Thailand to live in a rice-farming village. The process begins seven months before the actual journey and involves regular planning meetings, team-building get-aways, fund-raising, language lessons and lots of community engagement in their efforts. Prior trips have been powerful and have launched numerous young people onto highly confident paths of service, more travel and self-discovery.

Sweet Mango staff will work with your group (school, church or other) to create such a journey. The Thailand Projects are much more than your typical group trip - they are grounded in respect - for differences, for cultures, for self and for others.

GNH2010 will launch the Gross National Happiness American Project, an effort to raise awareness and inspire the application of GNH concepts to policy-making in the United States. Join in an intensive week of powerful speakers and rich dialogue with an international group of activists, educators, and others with ambitions to change the world. Representatives from (at least) Thailand, Sri Lanka, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, USA, Brazil and Bhutan are expected to come to Vermont to help move the GNH concept from research to policy-making.

*Pre and post-conference activities will be offered - home-stays, service and touring

Sweet Mango Voluntours are village home-stays with a purpose. Placements are designed around three types of tangible cultural exchange:

• To assist with farming activities and participate in timely celebrations and traditions
• To share and exchange personal skills and interests
• To exchange basic language skills