Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Biography / Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Center for Responsible Tourism collection
Dates: 1980-2005
Bulk Dates: 1985-2000
Collection number: GTU 97-2-02
Creator:
Hadsell, Virginia
Collection Size:
15 boxes
14.50 linear feet
Repository: The Graduate Theological Union. Library.
Abstract: The work of the Center for Responsible Tourism was for the most part to educate and inform First World, especially North American,
people to be sensitive to how tourism can have a negative impact on the visited country environmentally and culturally, especially
regarding the sexual exploitation of children and women. The collection includes administrative records, meeting minutes,
correspondence, conference planning files and proceedings, collected articles, newsletters and journals, brochures, lectures,
presentations, audiotapes (cassettes), and videotapes (VHS). The organization ran from the mid 1980s to the early 2000s.
Physical location: 4/I/2 - 4/I/6
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union
as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must
also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
Center for Responsible Tourism collection, GTU 97-2-02. Graduate Theological Union Archives, Berkeley, CA.
Biography / Administrative History
A laywoman in the United Presbyterian Church in the United States, Virginia Hadsell (1922 - 2011), helped coordinate a consultation
in 1984 titled Tourism: The Human Dimension. The consultation was held at the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo,
California. This meeting led to the establishment of the Center for Responsible Tourism. In a 1993 informational flyer about
CRT, they describe themselves as "a para-church/tourism-activist organization which confronts North Americans with the impact
we have as tourists on our sisters and brothers in the Third World, on their cultures, economy, and environment." This included
the issues of sex tourism, and the prostitution and trafficking of women and children as well as tourism's impact which can
cause cultural and environmental destruction.
Hadsell had previously planned and led study tours for United States lay people in various countries. She became aware of
and was then influenced by the Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism (ECTWT), now known as the Ecumenical Coalition
on Tourism (ECOT). ECTWT was founded in 1982 by ecumenical organizations worldwide as a response to the profound impact of
tourism on third world communities. It continues to work in collaboration with faiths-based and secular groups to promote
socially, ecologically and ethically responsible tourism that benefits all. The Center for Responsible Tourism was established
as a group in the United States that would participate in and disseminate the information of ECTWT (Ecumenical Coalition on
Third World Tourism).
CRT Center for Responsible Tourism built a membership and organized the work carried out by volunteers. It was first based
in San Anselmo, California, later in Berkeley. Virginia Hadsell served as Director. A Board of Directors was formed and in
1988 CRT Center for Responsible Tourism was incorporated in California as a 501(c) non-profit corporation. CRT Center for
Responsible Tourism under Hadsell's direction organized and held annual consultations on various themes. Members attended
numerous tourism, child prostitution, and women's issues consultations, seminars, and workshops throughout Asia and Europe.
Relations and correspondence with ECTWT headquarters and staff were closely maintained. Relations and coordination were maintained
to varying degrees with a myriad of groups throughout the United States and the world with similar interests and missions.
One such close relationship was with PEACE (Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere), a group in Sri Lanka directed
by Maureen Seneviratne. CRT Center for Responsible Tourism produced and disseminated a newsletter Responsible Tourism and
other informational materials, planned and held workshops and conferences, coordinated lectures and workshops with visiting
people who worked in the field, and collected resources for research and public information.
In 1990, participants at a tourism consultation in Thailand exposed the degree to which child prostitution was increasing
in many Asian countries. The consultation ended with a determination to take action, and ECPAT, End Child Prostitution Asian
Tourism, was established as a three-year campaign, 1990 - 1993, focusing on ending the commercial aspect of sexual exploitation
of children. CRT Center for Responsible Tourism decided to become a participating organization in the campaign. They continued
the work and expanded the name to the North America Coordinating Center for Responsible Tourism, NACCRT. Relations and correspondence
were very strong with ECPAT, particularly the director, Ron O'Grady.
Now using the same acronym, ECPAT, the organization name has changed to End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking
of Children for Sexual Purposes. The early years were concentrated on expanding the campaign in Asia; defining its strategy;
and establishing relationships. They held the first international consultation to assess the problem in Thailand, March 1992.
It was agreed that the focus should not be limited to Asian countries, but should address the international scope of the problem.
Links were forged with European NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and international organizations such as ECTWT. It was
decided to continue ECPAT End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism for another 3-year period, 1994 - 1996. In 1996, partnering
with UNICEF and the NGO Group for the Rights of the Child, ECPAT co-organized the World Congress Against the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children (CSEC) in Stockholm, Sweden. (See Box 12 File Folders 47 - 50 and Box 13 File Folders 1 - 4.) ECPAT
then ceased to be a campaign regional to Asia, and became a global non-governmental organization (NGO) and network.
CRT Center for Responsible Tourism participated in all phases of ECPAT's End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism evolution.
By 1994, however, the NACCRT members were in disagreement as to the focus of the Center's mission, geographic span, and the
groups with which it should partner. The Center splintered with members leaving and working on the focus in which each were
interested. Some members stayed and continued the work in partnership with ECTWT and ECPAT End Child Prostitution in Asian
Tourism. The name reverted to the Center for Responsible Tourism, a program of which became known as Broken Bud. Hadsell,
joined by Dorothy (Dody) Donnelly and later an intern, Diana Cabcabin, continued to operate the Center. The work tapered off
through the late-1990s into the early-2000s. It cannot be determined an actual date when the Center for Responsible Tourism
ceased operation.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Collection was received already boxed in three segments containing several boxes in each segment. The first segment was
picked up by Lucinda Glenn from Virginia Hadsell's house in Berkeley, California. The second and third segments were brought
to the GTU Archives by Diana Cabcabin. CRT moved offices several times from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San
Anselmo, California to various members' homes in the San Francisco Bay Area. Any original order the records may have had was
destroyed by these moves. The majority of the material was not foldered, but in loose unrelated, unsorted paper piles. The
loose materials have here been foldered and the file folders given headings by the processor. The arrangement was imposed
by the processor.
The work of the Center was for the most part to educate and inform First World, particularly North American, people to be
sensitive to how tourism can have a negative impact on the visited country environmentally and culturally. It also educated
and informed about the most negative impact in the form of tourism for sexual exploitation of children and women. The Center
both sponsored and attended conferences, often called consultations, on many aspects of tourism, sexual exploitation, and
environmental issues. They worked in partnership with several international organizations. They created, collected, and dispersed
information on all topics appropriate to the Center's mission.
The Collection has an overall division of two Series, each subdivided into Sub-Series which reflect the organization of the
Center, and the resources the Center made available to members and the broader public for information and education. The Series
are: 1) Administration (Sub-Series, 1-A Center for Responsible Tourism, 1-B End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism, 1-C Broken
Bud, 1-D Groups (including: Related, in Partnership, and General); 2) Resources, (Sub-Series, 2-A Articles, 2-B Books, 2-C
Brochures, 2-D Newsletters, 2-E Meetings, 2-F Presentations and Papers); 3) Audiotapes; 4) Videotapes.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into four series: Series 1) Administration with Sub-Series: 1-A Center for Responsible Tourism,
1-B End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism, 1-C Broken Bud, 1-D Groups (including: Related, in Partnership, and General);
Series 2) Resources with Sub-Series, 2-A Articles, 2-B Books, 2-C Brochures, 2-D Newsletters, 2-E Meetings, 2-F Presentations
and Papers); Series 3) Audiotapes; Series 4) Videotapes.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Sex tourism - Asia
Child prostitution - Asia
Tourism - Religious aspects
Tourism - Environmental aspects
Ecotourism
Thailand - Prostitution
Philippines - Prostitution
Sri Lanka - Prostitution
Korea - Prostitution
Human trafficking - Asia
Child trafficking - Asia
Non-governmental organizations
Church work with prostitutes
Hadsell, Virginia
Donnelly, Dody
Seneviratne, Maureen
O'Grady, Ron
Cabcabin, Diana
End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT)
Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism (ECTWT)