About Freepackers
A team of about ten, more than thirty-five countries and €1,300,000 paid to local partners since 2010. Here is who we are, and what keeps us moving forward.
Why we exist
Four missions, one direction
International cooperation
Identifying needs, then building and developing humanitarian projects all over the world.
Sustainable development
Supporting projects and communities over the long term, by sending funds and participants.
Intercultural learning
Exchanges where everyone is active and involved, at every moment, in both directions.
Opening up humanitarian action
Working hand in hand with communities in more than thirty-five countries, so that everyone can act at their own scale.
Since Freepackers began
- 2010The year we startedBy Justine Trembicki, after two sabbatical years around the world.
- €1,300,000Paid to local partnersStraight to the NGOs, foundations and shelters that run the projects.
- 3,000Participants who took partOn social and environmental projects.
- 35Countries we work inAcross five continents, with long-standing partners.
Who is Freepackers?
Freepackers Travels, B Corp certified, opens up international experience through work camps for teenagers, immersive stays and cultural exchange. Our programmes are educational and cultural in purpose.
We put our knowledge and our expertise at the service of exchange, learning and change. For each of us, the decision to go abroad changed our career, our view of the world, sometimes our whole life. Opening up access to mobility through inclusive projects is what drives us every day.
The team
The people you will have on the phone
A small team, who know the projects because they have been there.
Justine Trembicki
Founder and director of Freepackers and RealStep. South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Thailand.
Anaëlle Audebaud
International project coordinator, head of groups. South Africa, Cambodia, Spain, Portugal, Tanzania, Thailand.
Amélie Colonval
International project coordinator, head of junior programmes. Ecuador, Spain, Indonesia, Kenya, Namibia, Portugal.
Maëlia Munsch
International project coordinator. Nepal.
Nicolas Blanc
Head of partnerships and development. Argentina, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Spain, Indonesia, New Zealand, Portugal.
And also
Judith in communications, Lara in design, Sylvain in web development and Nelly in digital marketing.
I started Freepackers in 2010 to encourage young people into international mobility, and to offer them projects that mean something. I took two sabbatical years myself, travelling the world, on a working holiday visa and as an international volunteer. What I learned there, I wanted to make available to as many people as possible.
What has kept us busy since 2010
Along the way, I was lucky enough to bring together reliable projects and to meet passionate people around the world. That personal growth abroad made me want to share what I had experienced.
Since 2020, a turning point that shook everything we took for granted, we have worked relentlessly to find funding routes that make international mobility open to everyone.
Justine's journey, in figures
- 15 yearsIn travelFrom her first programme to running two brands.
- 30International volunteering projectsLed in person, before and since the company began.
- 52Countries visitedIncluding two complete trips around the world.
- 2Erasmus exchangesWhere the taste for European mobility began.
The forms our work takes
International experiences made to measure
Humanitarian travel
Not emergency relief: projects built on learning and exchange.
International immersion
Working in an international team, learning a language day by day.
Educational trips
Stays with a teaching purpose, for schools as much as for young people.
Responsible tourism
Stays designed with local people, at their pace and to their benefit.
Citizen science
Collecting data and monitoring in the field, alongside professionals.
Nature work camps
Reforestation, conservation, building: projects where you get your hands dirty.
B Corp, recognition across borders
Freepackers and RealStep are B Corp certified companies. B Corps are for-profit companies whose business model rests on building a more inclusive, fair and sustainable economy, for people and for the planet.
This certification is one of the few that looks not at a product or a service but at the company as a whole: social and environmental performance, public transparency, legal accountability. It helps everyone identify the companies whose mission matches their own values.
As certified companies, we undertake to:
- teach about social and environmental challenges, and give people the means to act;
- argue for inclusive programmes that open access to sustainable projects;
- reduce poverty, and give people back their dignity and their prospects;
- limit our carbon footprint and share good practice;
- explore new ideas to increase our impact.
We owe this certification to our partners and our participants: it is their achievement as much as ours.
