Saturday, March 29, 2014

Sorry for not updating regular anymore because my VOLUNTOURISMTIPS group on FACEBOOK getting much better response now. Thanks. So CU rather as a friend on Facebook (Please sent Friend request NOW)  Thanks for your attention here hope to meet you there or in life one day!
PLEASE also watch new website in 2016 http://www.janvandermeer.org/


Monday, January 28, 2013

SIDLA Cultural Dance Group to Europe



Great Show coming to Europe! Gone several times now and millions of views on YouTube and Vimeo!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

They like presents

Still lugage space while travelling to Poor Peole Countries as Tourist with a volunteer haert? Old cell phones, latop, pens, drawing books etc? Kids and schools love it !

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Swazi Cultural Dresses








Swazi Fashion Design is typical Swaziland culture, very beautiful. See several samples what Dudu Swazi Collections is selling to not only many locals but also tourists.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2AdQZm8cIo — with Dudu Ngwenya at Schoemansdal.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

VLNR Jan van der Meer Videoproducer, Sindile Mamba Marketing Manager Swazi Secrets en Volunteer Manager John Pearce (De blauw gearceerde woorden in dit artikel zijn 'links' waar u films of meer informatie vindt!

Tip: Lees eerst alles en klik daarna op de rechtermuistoets om die 'links' te bekijken op een andere tabblad! Anders ben je deze pagina even kwijt,  maar je kunt hem terughalen door linksboven op het linker pijltje te drukken!)   

Jan van der Meer is bekend van Zandvoort VVV promotiefilms en de vele promotie filmpjes op YouTube onder de naam ZandvoortTV. Jan produceerde in 2005 in het zeer arme Swaziland deze videoclip voor 2400 plattelandsvrouwen die één keer per jaar iets kunnen verdienen (héél weinig) met het oogsten van vruchten uit Marula bomen. De noten ervan worden vermalen in een fabriek die mede gefinancierd wordt door de Koningin Moeder. Ze produceren daaruit olie voor huidverzorgende producten genaamd Swazi Secrets. Mede door deze videoclip werden ze wereldwijd populair en kregen een groot geldbedrag in Brazilië uit handen van oa Richard Branson een van de rijkste mannen op aarde.

Kenmerkend voor de vrouwen in Swaziland is de kleding:  een om hun blote lijf geknoopt kleed met als afbeelding de kleurrijke Swazi vlag. Ook de gedragen sieraden zijn bijzonder. Armbanden, halskettingen en oorbellen zijn gemaakte van zeer kleurige kleine kraaltjes. Een heidens karwei om ze te maken. Veel vrouwen verkopen ze vervolgens zittend langs de enige doorgaande snelweg door Swaziland. Wachtend op spaarzame toeristen die op doorreis zijn van het Kruger Park naar de TuinRoute en Kaapstad of visa versa . Ze stappen maar zelden uit hun auto of de bus om wat souvenirs te kopen. Deze prachtige sieraden heten BEAD. Het zijn dus kleine pareltjes van glas in prachtige felle kleuren.  Jan is er al vele malen geweest en is er nu ook weer heen voor een half jaar voor het vrijwillig produceren van promotiefilms voor het land en bedrijven die ook weer anderen helpen. Hij heeft echter de laatste keer wat van die doeken en sieraden meegenomen. De opbrengst komt ten goede van deze vrouwen die zich vaak ook moeten inzetten voor de ongelooflijke aantallen weeskinderen. (Oorzaak Aids)  Er zijn er nog enkele te koop en te zien bij Kunstenares Ellen Kuijl die dit unieke handwerk ook waardeert en ook zelf prachtige sierkunst maakt in de unieke authentieke Smederij  in haar 
aan het Schelpenplein 12, in Zandvoort dat is een zijstraat van de gezellig drukke Kerkstraat in het centrum van Zandvoort tegenover de bekendste lokale ijswinkel (Giraudi).


Jan ontmoette deze Zuid Afrikaanse vrouw op de foto's met de sieraden eerder dit jaar. Zij is Manager in het Cultureel Dorp Matsamo op de grens van Zuid Afrika en Swaziland tijdens een PUM-opdracht. Dat is een door de
Nederlandse Regering gefinancierde organisatie die kan kiezen uit zo'n 3500 vrijwilligers die hulpbehoevende ondernemers in het buitenland ondersteunen met hun gespecialiseerde kennis. 

Jan werd ernaar gestuurd als Senior Video-Marketing Expert. Dit dorp lijdt namelijk erg aan te weinig inkomsten door afnemend aantal toeristen (met 25%) en een grote brand die hun inkomsten uit verhuur van een groot aantal verbrande accommodaties en restaurant verwoestte. Gelukkig kunnen ze nog iets verdienen met hun culturele dansshow en het verkopen van deze souvenirs.

U kunt Jan voorlopig In Zandvoort benaderen van mei tot oktober en hem o.a. volgen op Facebook of op het nieuwe succesvolle Pinterest  en bekijk ook eens zijn andere project voor hulp aan weeskinderen en scholen in Kenya Uganda Rwanda en nu dus Swaziland. Wist je dat je gewoon vanuit je luie stoel thuis een kind daar door even te spreken op Skype héél gelukkig kunt maken? Zie:  www.SkypeOrphanSchoolkids.org   

    



Thursday, June 28, 2012


From: 

John Pearce International Marketing "Swazi Secrets"Swazi Indigenous Products (SIP)100% owned by 2400 rural women suppliersMpaka Swaziland
june 2010

__________________________________________________________________________________


I write to share the news that Swazi Indigenous Products are one of the 25 winners of the 2012 Equator Initiative Prize, awarded by UNDP’s Equator Initiative to recognize and advance local sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities. It marked the proudest moment of her life when Sindile Mamba went on stage at the Awards Ceremony in Rio de Janeiro last week. Selected by a highly distinguished panel of jurors including
Sir Richard Branson, Mohammed Yunus, Richard Strange and Gilberto Gil. She received the Marie Aminata Khan Award $20,000 doubled up by matched funding from the WK Kellogg Foundation. 


 
Singer Sindile Mamba went to Brazil for an amazing reward! 
I want to thank VideoProducer and Video-Marketing Expert: Jan van der Meer in particular for giving freely of his service to support and market us with a wonderful promotional video that has inevitably contributed to our on-going success and development, culminating last week in this award.  That video has proved exceptionally popular with our members and customers and with our patron, the Queen Mother of Swaziland.  

We wish Jan every success in his work with other community groups like ourselves and look forward to his next visit and developing our video promotional resources further.

Yours sincerely,
John Pearce
International Marketing "Swazi Secrets" Mpaka Swaziland

Watch the Swazi Secrets promo clip here: http://youtu.be/RIrPsU4s2Ww
And watch this the funny "making of"version: http://youtu.be/WAff-vmtrbk

The song chorus is:  " I Marula, I Marula, I Marula rula rula " 4x while you see the nuts cracking and people soaping them in, with the Swazi Secrets products. Marula is for the first time used here as a verb: I Marula; You Marula; We Marula; meaning we wash (Marula) ourselves with Marula products. So: "I Marula my Baby everyday!" (Jan ‘borrowed’ the Amarula Song and also produced several clips for Amarula on YouTube; search for those Amarula Songs !)
The rest of the I MARULA VIDEOCLIP lyrics are:

I heard a Swazi Secret I learned it from the trees
How nature has the answers And we discovered these
There’s lots of Swazi Secrets  
Marula is the best
So give your skin a real treat And put it to the test-

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Welcome Voluntourists in Swaziland.
Book now as tourist for Hotels and TourOperators taking care of foundations and helping (Orphan) Schoolkids. If your organisation, hotel or compagny also supports Schools in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda? I would love to produce another volunteerclip barterbased.  Please contact me at: studio@Global-DVC.NL

Saturday, April 7, 2012


Volunteer Assistance by PUM

Video-Marketing expert & Videoproducer Jan van der Meer:
www.PUM.NL is fully sponsored by the Dutch Government. They have been active for 35 years in more than 70 countries, and is aimed at assisting SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) in developing countries by sending them Senior Experts to help solve their technical, operational and managerial problems.
PUM is now ready to start at the border of South-Africa and Swaziland for Matsamo Cultural Village.

This announcement was made by Jan van der Meer from the Netherlands during a presentation at a Global Marketing Bootcamp in Pattaya Thailand for a big group of international Marketeers.

Van der Meer has been active on behalf of his own Voluntourism stimulation in several African Countries. Visited  several times Swaziland too. Thanks to volunteering with latest Video-Marketing techniques and producing a commercial song and YouTube clip for Swazi Indigenous Products in 2009 they are now one of the 25 winners of the 2012 Equator Prize, awarded by UNDP’s Equator Initiative to recognize and advance local sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities.

Jan van der Meer is also founder www.Global-DVC.orgwww.SkypeOrphanSchoolkids.org and www.Voluntourismtips.Blogspot.com  Connecting schools and teachers from Africa with SKYPE to schools and teachers in rest of world for education and support. Also producing clips for Organisations and Hotel offering local help. Search Google and Facebook for "Voluntourismtips"and "SkypeOrphanSchoolkids" for more links and info.

Now as senior PUM Video-Marketing Expert and coordinator Jan has been asked and eager to support Matsamo Cultural Village and Dance Group at the border of Swaziland and South Africa in getting more visitors and sponsors to support them.

Video-Marketing is at this moment the best to do this. No wonder Google bought for 1,5 billion dollars YouTube! People spent more time watching video's as reading pages filled with text. The production for Swazi Secrets got over 20.000 viewers and many likes! Their product is visible on many websites worldwide selling these products!

The PUM formula has proved its effectiveness worldwide over the years. If the SMEs are more efficient and more profitable it will be good for employment and thus good for the people of Matsamo Cultural Village, and that's what the efforts are all about, says Van der Meer, who is based in the Netherlands, but visits South Africa and Swaziland regularly for the past 15 years. Partly as Hotel Photographer for American Express Travel Brochures but in his private sparetime also as Videoproducer and Marketing advisor, educating schoolkids and teachers in Marketing themselves and helping poor rural women in Swaziland to sell their SwaziSecrets (Marula tree products). Search and find on YouTube the clips for SwaziSecrets.

To get more information and make an application for assistance by PUM experts, mail PUM: Ellen.Schraven@PUM.NL and CC or contact Jan van der Meer:  Studio@Global-DVC.nl

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

VOLUNTOURISMTIPS


VOLUNTOURISMTIPS
by Experienced Voluntourist: Jan van der Meer
Founder Global-DVC, Blog Voluntourismtips and www.SkypeOrphanSchoolkids.org


“Am I the right person for Voluntourism?”
Why are you reading this now? Is it your lifetime wish to help them over there? As a tourist, we have a tendency to review our options in reference to ourselves.
"Is this excursion, resort, hotel, destination or trip advice right for me?".  When discussing Voluntourism, however, we transpose object and subject to inquire:
"Am I right for Voluntourism?"
Can I help schoolkids orphans and schoolteachers and how? Most needed:  Education in Lifeskills, General Computer knowledge,  Social Media,  Marketing,  Medical, Sports, Cooking etc. 

Also small to big companies in 3rd world countries love to get some help and follow your advice and tips. Voluntourism can be life-changing! During my 25 years educational support to cameramen I became a photographer and webclip videoproducer in South-Africa and the “Horn of Africa”.  Meanwhile as volunteer I was producing videoproductions for and from other volunteer-workers showing their progression for old and new sponsors. Also supporting organizations and companies with free promoclips for their products.  And for pleasure also barterbased webclip promotion for hotels. NON-PROFIT? Well I never had so much profit in my life (..wellness in my mind)! See for yourself if voluntourism is something for you!  Please read these thoughts underneath and SKYPE me at: GLOBAL-DVC to get more detailed info. Perhaps we can go together next time? Ask yourself these questions:

1.    Do I want something completely different in my life to explore?

2.    Do I like to help others who need it so badly? Offering them my knowledge and see their way of living, their world & nature?

3.    Does my help solve their problems?

4.    Isn’t it better to just donate the money of my trip and stay at home this year?

5.    What is my answer if others say its selfish or even useless helping others in a 3rd world country, while in my home country also people are homeless.

6.    Can my conscious cope with the idea that I help others who have no income. Often have to live from just one meal a day, while as a rich tourist I pay and enjoy an expensive safari. Fly around in a balloon. Stay in an expensive Hotel?     

7.    What can I do to help people over there to market their handwork craft products?  

8.    What are my personal boundaries and comfort level?  Especially in reference to insects (mosquito’s snakes rats),  style of accommodations, transfer times and mode of transport, environment, religious feelings, climate. How long can I stay there? Weeks or months?

9.    How flexible am I ? Can I cope with unexpected things to happen during my visit? Voluntourism trips tend to generate "the unexpected," and they often lead to challenges that can defy logic or your own desire to accomplish something. Be aware that well-crafted and scripted itineraries can easily change unexpectedly. Understand that if you take greater risks with accommodations, transfers, extreme climate, intense interaction and engagement or service work, you have increased the potential for "the unexpected" to occur.

10. Willing to get all available health care protections and pills? Costs?



Like to find the answers but need some help?
Skype me at GLOBAL-DVC
Jan van der Meer