At 74, Barbara Threet has visited 77 countries and counting. Along the way, she\u2019s made more than 100 donations to important causes around the world through The Intrepid Foundation<\/a>. We chatted with her to find out why she gives.<\/strong><\/p>\n It was just over 12 years ago, on Barbara\u2019s first Intrepid trip \u2013 a month-long adventure through Thailand and Vietnam \u2013 that her philanthropic journey kicked off. The trip included a visit to a local non-profit in Vietnam called KOTO. Barbara and her fellow travellers learned how the grassroots organisation in Hanoi was working to provide hospitality training and job opportunities to disadvantaged youth in Vietnam.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The way she tells it, seeing how other people lived during her travels and hearing how the organisation worked, triggered a lightbulb moment that changed the way Barbara approached life from there on out.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Many people don\u2019t travel to places where they see the world being really different,\u2019 she says, \u2018and I think that makes it hard to understand what\u2019s really going on in the world. It\u2019s hard to understand what life is like in India, for example, if you haven\u2019t been to Delhi. It\u2019s just, it\u2019s not real \u2013 it\u2019s too different than what it is here.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Here\u2019 in Barbara\u2019s case is the East Coast, USA. Back home after that trip, she made a donation to KOTO through The Intrepid Foundation<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018If you\u2019ve seen how people live in other places and what matters to them, it\u2019s hard not to feel some sense of connection with them,\u2019 she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since that trip, she\u2019s been on nearly 30 more Intrepid adventures and has made over 100 more donations to The Intrepid Foundation, all in the spirit of that moment she had 12 years ago in Vietnam.\u00a0<\/p>\n Barbara hadn\u2019t travelled much out of the US until the early 2000s but had a lifelong desire to see Vietnam. She was in her late 50s when she found an Intrepid trip that would take her there.\u00a0<\/p>\n She says, \u2018So my initial thought was, \u2018This will get me to see Vietnam, and that\u2019ll be cool\u2019, but then I realised there was a whole other world out there.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n She recounts that first Intrepid trip over a decade earlier. Like the current South East Asia Loop<\/a> trip, she tells me her adventure began in Bangkok, Thailand. Before joining the group, she arrived a few days early to get accustomed to the time zones.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I remember I got there late in the evening\u2019, she tells me. \u2018And I\u2019d arranged an airport transfer to my hotel, so I barely saw anything that night,\u2019 she continues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I was exhausted, but I remember getting up in the morning and looking out my window on the seventh or eighth floor and thinking, \u2018I can\u2019t go out there. I cannot, I just can\u2019t do this,\u2019\u2019 she pauses before continuing. \u2018But that whole trip was just amazing. It was mind-boggling.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Fast-forward to today, and it sounds like Barbara\u2019s on the road more than she\u2019s at home. When we connect via video call, she immediately tells me she loves talking about all things travel. The childlike glint in her eye and what looks like years of framed travel mementos hanging on the wall behind her tell me she\u2019s not lying.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n With excitement, she says she\u2019s just gotten back from a trip in Central Asia<\/a>, how she\u2019s joining Intrepid\u2019s Eastern Europe Explorer<\/a> adventure in a few weeks, has plans to visit Laos<\/a> and Cambodia<\/a> at the end of the year and has already locked in a trip to Africa<\/a> in 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Barbara says her donations are \u2018definitely inspired by travelling.\u2019 And, with more than 50 impact partners around the world, The Intrepid Foundation makes it easy to give to the causes that matter most to her. Many Intrepid trips include special experiences where travellers like Barbara get to meet and connect with local Intrepid Foundation partners who are creating an impact in the destinations they visit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Barbara tells me that many of her donations, just like her very first, are inspired by the partners<\/a> she connects with during those trips. Other contributions, she says, have been made because the causes simply \u2018move her heart.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m 74. I get to be an independent woman who\u2019s had a pretty amazing life \u2013 all this crazy travel and family and all that stuff \u2013 but many women just don\u2019t have that. But whatever I can do to make life a little easier for women and kids matters a lot to me,\u2019 she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019re giving 25 bucks a month, for most of us in America, that\u2019s one meal out \u2013 if we\u2019re lucky \u2013 but then over a year, you\u2019ve given $300.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The Intrepid Foundation provides travellers the option to give recurring monthly donations<\/a> to their partners. Something Barbara tells me takes the admin out of giving and allows her to make a more significant difference, sometimes without even realising it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018If you\u2019re giving 25 bucks a month, for most of us in America, that\u2019s one meal out \u2013 if we\u2019re lucky \u2013 but then over a year, you\u2019ve given $300. And it probably makes a real difference in these other countries,\u2019 she says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n She continues to explain why giving to different organisations around the world gives her a particular sense of fulfilment. \u2018One of the things, frankly, that I really like is that if I give $25 a month to an organisation in the US, it makes little difference. It just doesn\u2019t have the scale compared to our income,\u2019 she says. \u2018$25 in Nepal, for instance, makes a real impact,\u2019 she adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I mean, I\u2019m not wealthy. I\u2019m not starving \u2013 but I\u2019m far from wealthy, but I can give what I can give, and in other countries, it makes a real difference,\u2019 she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Intrepid matches all post-trip donations made by travellers as well as all ongoing monthly donations, doubling the difference that Barbara\u2019s generous support makes.\u00a0<\/p>\n I rattle off the list of Intrepid Foundation partners she\u2019s currently set up with recurring monthly donations. \u2018Blue Carbon Lab<\/a>, East African Wildlife Society<\/a>, Blue Dragon Children\u2019s Foundation<\/a>, and MandaLao Elephant Conservation<\/a>, is that right?\u2019 I ask.\u00a0<\/p>\n She nods before interjecting, \u2018I\u2019d like to start donating to World Bicycle Relief<\/a>, too \u2013 in honour of my grandkids who like bikes.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I smile at how simply she puts it and how refreshing her enthusiasm for giving is.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not unusual for travellers to find a deeper sense of connection with the world when they get out there and see it for themselves, but I can tell from our short conversation there\u2019s something truly special about Barbara.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n By filling her spare time with exploration, having an eagerness to learn more about different cultures and doing good for others along the way, Barbara has cracked the equation to living a fulfilled life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Looking to tap into the joy of giving for yourself? Find an <\/strong>Intrepid Foundation partner<\/strong><\/a> that moves your heart and <\/strong>make a one-time donation<\/strong><\/a> or set up <\/strong>monthly giving<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At 74, Barbara Threet has visited 77 countries and counting. Along the way, she\u2019s made more than 100 donations to important causes around the world through The Intrepid Foundation. We chatted with her to find out why she gives. It was just over 12 years ago, on Barbara\u2019s first Intrepid trip \u2013 a month-long adventure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11760],"tags":[12908,1416,2338,4678,5952,4319,542,13154],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-141836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","tag-adds","tag-good","tag-great","tag-joy","tag-memories","tag-times","tag-travel","tag-traveller"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Intrepid-Travel_Vietnam23_Van-long-ricefields-sunset-group.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Intrepid-traveller_Barbara-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>A whole world out there<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
More mind-boggling moments and meaning<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Kazakhstan_Intrepid-Traveller_Barbara.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Kazakhstan_Lake_Intrepid-Traveller_Barbara.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n
From blue carbon to bikes<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n