Helping kids in El Transito, Nicaragua

Helping kids in El Transito, Nicaragua

Our first few days in Nicaragua have been so successful. Our friends from San Diego, the Fortune 421 crew and I landed late Wednesday in Managua and the group of us piled into the old land cruiser and set out for El Transito. El Transito is a sleepy fishing village of about 3,000 people, dirt roads, horses, pigs on the side of the road and really basic homes. In 1992 it was practically destroyed from a tsunami and its crazy to see how over 20 years later they are still rebuilding. Makes me think about the destruction in Nepal that just happened and how I hope we can assist them in rebuilding much quicker. We arrived to the first school yesterday and I was shocked to see the very simple, two room structure that was school to about 30 children ages 4 to 10. The yard was just dirt and rocks and the swing set was in such disrepair that only 2 of the 8 swings worked. It was sad because I wanted to push all the kids on swings but they were fighting over the working ones. A couple of the volunteers with us got creative and made soccer goals out of rocks and played with the one ball they had while the rest of us brought out the coloring books and colored pencils we brought. It was amazing to see the kids excel at coloring and they were so proud of the pictures they drew. It is a great activity to do with kids and volunteers, because even with a language barrier it is fun to name...
In Wake of the Quake –100% of Nepal Shawl Purchases to Disaster Relief

In Wake of the Quake –100% of Nepal Shawl Purchases to Disaster Relief

In Wake of the Quake – Giving back 100% of Nepal Shawl Purchases to Disaster Relief Over 6,000 people have died since the Nepal earthquake on April 25th 2015 — among the lost lives was a friend and fellow crusader of compassion, Dan Fredinburg –who was trekking Mount Everest at the time.  My heart aches for the aftermath of the Nepal Quake. There are 3 million people in need of food aid. 130,000 homes have been destroyed 415 million needed for humanitarian relief We could wake up tomorrow and be faced with the same kind of nightmare. Your home, your neighborhood, your community, your life, your loves….just a pile of debris. Your prayers would in a second become the same as the victims of Nepal. No place is immune from natural disasters. We have teamed up with Givebackpacker, Derek Smith in efforts to make a difference in the lives and communities that are struggling from this recent earthquake. While Derek was traveling around Nepal this April the Neupane Family whom reside in the tiny village of Karmidanda in Rasuwa district of Nepal opened their home and hearts to him. The quake has crumbled the life they have worked so hard to build. Derek purchased an array of handmade colorful shawls from his journey through India and has now donated the beautiful shawls to our givebackpackers global online marketplace to help raise funding for this emergency. Each shawl is delicate and has either an OM, a Ganesh or a Buddha design on them. They can be worn around the head, around the neck as a scarf, shoulders as a shawl or...