ACTIVIST GLOBETROTS WITH HER ESSENTIALS
The executive director of Journalists for Human Rights is an avid, savvy traveller
Born in Montreal but raised all over the world, Rachel Pulfer is no stranger to global issues or to travelling. She grew up in Swaziland, Lesotho and Papua New Guinea, witnessing the often strange, unintended outcomes of “aid” and “development” firsthand. A longtime magazine journalist and writer, Pulfer has been the executive director of Toronto-based Journalists for Human Rights, an international media development organization with projects across Africa, the Mideast and Northern Canada, since 2011. She’s a relentless traveller in pursuit of journalistic excellence worldwide — which is why she knows exactly what to pack on her travels.
Cactus Creek money pouch with a Canadian flag pin on it: Estimated cost:
$3.99 “I always wear my money pouch under my clothes and keep all my important documents in there, including my passport, visas and, of course, my vaccination record. I also keep some cash, because I am often travelling in countries where there are no banks or ATM machines, like the Congo.”
Nature Valley fruit and nut trail mix granola bars: Cost:
$5.47 “I travel with as many as two boxes of granola bars, because there are many days when I’m on the go and either don’t have time to stop and eat, or am being offered antelope meat, crocodile and snake. So, it’s important to supplement your diet with granola bars on the road.”
First-aid kit Cost:
$10 for kit; $125 for supplies “I made my own and carry the items in a hard, plastic case. It contains: antiseptic wipes and cream, Band-Aids, iodine pills, Dukoral for diarrhea, aspirin and, of course, malaria pills. Once, I got so dehydrated in Tanzania, and there was no bottled water, so I used the iodine pills.”
Leather-bound sketchbook Estimated cost:
$15 “I like to keep a sketchbook on hand to record doodles or odd or inspirational things, which happens a lot in the work I do. Once in Liberia, I went from a bustling mine site to an old, burnt-out, southern-style mansion. I sketched both the mine, which was full of hope for the future, and the mansion, a symbol of the country’s past wreckage.”
Basic Nokia Phone Cost:
$35 “A basic Nokia phone, ideally already equipped with local SIM card and credit from a previous visit, is essential. Then you are paying local rates and can reliably connect with local partners. The phone is particularly essential for when you arrive. You need to be able to communicate directly with whoever is picking you up. In places like Kinshasa and Juba, you can’t just hail a cab. I recall once being en route to Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — and discovering that we had actually landed in Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo, over the river. (There had been no official announcement.) We were then stuck on the tarmac for five hours while the president of the republic locked down the airport in order to depart with great fanfare in his Dreamliner. Thanks to my phone, I was able to tell my team in Kinshasa what was going on.”