I’ve been encouraged in recent days by the amount of grassroots effort on the part of travelers to help the victims of the south Asian tsunami. I’m sure I’ve been told of only a fraction of the personal fundraising efforts going on, but examples include vagabonder Andrea Johnson’s Phi Phi Rock Climbers’ Blog (created with help from BootsnAll), which has collected over $1000 from her family and friends; David Wallis’s upcoming fundraising benefit on January 23 in New York, featuring travel writers like Adam Goodheart and Ayun Halliday (see Jen Leo’s blog about it here); and Jeff Greenwald’s current trip to Sri Lanka in association with EthicalTraveler.com. Stories about travelers rallying to help tsunami victims have also appeared in The Independent and the Boston Globe. The Christian Science Monitor ran a good story about the usefulness of traveling in south Asia right now, and Lonely Planet has set up a responsible travel website for tsunami-affected regions here.

Elsewhere, travel writer Brad Newsham is rallying San Francisco-area travelers to a bonfire to get together to talk about grassroots solutions to the crisis. The bonfire will take place at Ocean Beach in San Francisco this Sunday night, Jan 16, from 5-8 pm. Meet Brad and his family in the area in front of the Beach Chalet Restaurant, and bring any food or drink you might want (and bring firewood if you can). Sunset is at 5:15. Email Brad for details at brad@backpacknation.org.