Send Alys to Wonderland!

Alys Matthews Start Date: Apr 15, 2016 - End Date: Jun 20, 2016
  • New Delhi, Delhi, British Indian Ocean Territory

My Travel Story

by: Alys Matthews Start Date: Apr 15, 2016 - End Date: Jun 20, 2016
“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

You know the feeling you get when people tell you something's impossible?

Maybe you feel a tinge of irritation, a slight stomach-tug of disappointment. Maybe that feeling makes the dream seem a little less practical, a little less desirable. Internalizing that doubt, you start to believe it. Believing it, you slowly let go of the dream.

We all know that feeling, and I think I can say with confidence that all of us hate it. It's the sort of thing that turns starry-eyed children into complacent grown-ups, stills the rushing currents of imaginative minds into mucky pools of stagnancy. I can't tell you how many times I've taken the easy road of doing what's practical rather than the bumpier (but surely more beautiful!) road of doing what sets my heart on fire. The good news? I'm #overit. I'm ready to make the impossible possible. For me, that means falling down the rabbit hole to reach the place where I feel called to be. It means going to India!

I've always wanted to travel, especially in the name of helping the less fortunate, and I've been offered an opportunity to wake that dream into a reality. International Volunteer Headquarters (IVHQ), which runs some of the most reputable international volunteer programs in the world, has accepted me as a volunteer for their slum teaching program in New Delhi, India, for September 2016. As a volunteer with this program, I will be helping children who live in the slums of India's bustling capital city have access to a basic education. Most of these children can't afford to go to school because they have to help their impoverished families make a living selling wares, begging, or performing in the streets. I'll have the opportunity to practice English with them, play games with them and engage them in cognitively stimulating activities like painting and singing. Most importantly, I'll be able to love on them a little bit and show them that they're special, despite the hard hand they've been given in life.

The impossible is only made possible when enough people care to make it happen, and I need your help! There are many fees associated with volunteer travel, including flights, insurance, program and living expenditures, and I can't do this alone. We all deserve the chance to experience the wonders this world has to offer. Anything you can donate to help get me to India has the potential not only to help me fulfill some of my dreams, but to help the young lives I am bound to touch fulfill some of theirs. 

I love you all and am so thankful for your support!

Namaste,
Alys
  • New Delhi, Delhi, British Indian Ocean Territory