|
Stories from Nonprofit
We work with Wellesley College, which offers a combined
course on Russian language and culture and biology. The course
is team-taught by professors from Wellesley's Russian and biological
sciences departments. After a semester of formal coursework,
the students travel to Lake Baikal in Siberia (the deepest fresh
water lake in the world) to experience firsthand what they have
studied from books. We arrange all transportation, international
and domestic, for students and faculty. We process all the Russian
visas. This year we also arranged additional trips, including
visits to Mongolia, for several individual students.
We are now planning the 2003 trip. We are also working with
individual students who have received fellowships for continued
study in the former Soviet Union.
Another client is a professor in Vancouver working on
environmental issues. He was attending conferences in
Shanghai and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. His scheduled departure date
was September 11, 2001. However, all North American flights
were canceled that day. When flights from Canada resumed on
Friday, we were able to secure space for our client to travel
from Vancouver via Nagoya, Japan to Hakodate, Japan. From
Hakodate there is a non-stop flight to Yuzhno. The Hakodate-Yuzhno
ticket cannot be issued by U.S. based travel agents. Our partner
in the Russian Far East issued this ticket and delivered it
to the client upon his arrival in Hakodate. Although the client
missed the Shanghai portion of his meetings, he was able to
attend the Russian portion. His attendance was critical to
the success of the meetings. Many other North American participants
were unable to attend.
We also worked with a nonprofit organization scheduling a
conference in Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East with attendees
from Russia, the United States and throughout the Pacific
Rim. Flights from Asian countries often go into Khabarovsk
only once or twice a week. We organized flight schedules in
order to optimize the cost and time factors, arranging for
hotel rooms for travelers who were arriving before the conference
or staying after it ended. For those who had to spend the
night in Moscow en route, we arranged for hotels as well as
half-day guided tours.
Other nonprofit clients include the Pacific Environment,
which has extensive programs in Siberia and the Far
East; Earth Island Institute, which runs ecological programs
in the Lake Baikal area; and Heart to Heart, which provides
medical assistance for children in St. Petersburg.
|
