My name is Lamees Hafeez and I am NOT an alcoholic (lame joke, I know), but I am taking 5 months out to travel the world a little. My itinerary will include Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the USA.

I always planned to volunteer in the Philippines and will be out there for almost 2 months working with local people on the island of Mindanao on peace-building projects. I am also hoping to do a little voluntary work in Pakistan looking at women’s projects, community education and orphanages. But originally, for the rest of my trip, I just planned to have fun and explore.

However, thinking of it as just a holiday has made me feel slightly hypocritical so I have made a few crucial decisions. The Israel and Palestine situation is probably a slightly more extreme example than anywhere else I will be going; I recently wrote an article criticising people for holidaying in the area while a complex political dispute and conflict is unfolding down the road.

'In every country I visit I plan to try and seek out something- a project, an NGO, media, a person- that is development related. I want to learn something, and share something in each place I visit'

I feel like we often holiday in many locations where there are still deep-rooted problems to do with poverty, inequality and development and yet we ignore them and refuse to address them or think about them whilst we are there. Now, I am not saying we are not entitled to some time off, and I intend to have that too, but I feel I must practise what I preach, so here is my plan:

In every country I visit I plan to try and seek out something- a project, an NGO, media, a person- that is development related. I want to learn something, and share something in each place I visit. So, if you have any links, be they charity related, political, or personal in any or all of the countries above, please share them with me. I want to make as much use of this trip as I can and you can help me do it.

Let me know your thoughts on this. The more ideas the better. Let’s make this interactive!

Words and photo: Lamees Hafeez