PAY IT FORWARD TRIPS

Every once in awhile you meet someone who truly inspires you and that’s how I felt when I met Dana at the Mtendere Orphanage in Malawi. Continue Reading »

 During the volunteer trip in Malawi we had a chance to go to a remote village for a food distribution. I was told the chief in the village decides who is the most desperately in need of the food and those selected will get a coveted blue slip of paper. That blue slip is a lifeline because you can trade this simple slip of paper for a small bag of Vitameal, a corn based porridge packed with 25 vitamins that provides one child a meal for a month. Continue Reading »

© Copyright Karen Schaler All Rights Reserved

One of the volunteers on the Malawi trip, Kevin, has traveled the world but came to Malawi on the request of his daughter Ale who picked the trip as something she wanted to do with her father. ( See Ale’s story in a previous post)

The orphans at Mtendere Village were fascinated with Kevin and his daughter. They had seen “white” volunteers before but this was different these two Americans looked like them and the children would ask confused but excited… “are they Malawi? Continue Reading »

I knew from the moment I met Erin, when she teared up telling me this was her second trip to the Mtendere Orphanage, that her passion and dedication to helping the children was genuine and heartfelt. Continue Reading »

© Copyright Karen Schaler All Rights Reserved

This is the very first photo I took when I arrived at the Mtendere Orphanage in Malawi, Africa, so I knew I was in trouble. BIG trouble because the children were so amazingly beautiful I knew I wouldn’t just be taking dozens of photos on this Travel Therapy trip… I would be taking HUNDREDS. Continue Reading »

Throughout this Pay it Forward Trips Blog I’m going to be asking people I’ve met during my TRAVEL THERAPY journeys to share some of the experience and thoughts on how a volunteer vacation changed their life.

Here’s 17 year old Ale’s story.

Continue Reading »

For my volunteer trip to Africa I wasn’t sure what kind of people would be in my group. The way it works with Ambassadors for Children is that you sign up for a volunteer vacation and then you’re all responsible for getting to the volunteer site on your own. If you’re not a seasoned traveler don’t panic! Continue Reading »

© Copyright Karen Schaler All Rights Reserved

This is is Janet. She’s one of the hundreds of thousands of orphans living in Malawi, Africa, where millions of mothers and fathers have died from HIV/AIDS. Janet is one of the lucky children, if you can call a child without parents “lucky”, because she now has a safe place to sleep at the Mtendere Orphans Village near Lumbadzi. She was found abandoned, starving, barely alive living under a bridge. Continue Reading »