“One of my biggest dreams which I really hoped to experience, was to volunteer abroad and work in a children’s orphanage. I have always looked up to people who were able to give back, not just to their community, but to the world. Not knowing when this would actually happen, I hoped and kept dreaming about the day this opportunity would arise. As I got older and began to get more serious about school, I decided I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. My dream of working in an orphanage faded away, and my main focus became finishing school and getting experience in a classroom. My new dream was to work with less fortunate kids while teaching abroad.
As I was researching one day in the summer of 2015, I came across a program called IVHQ, like many volunteer programs out there, this gave me the option to pick different projects in different countries. Peru really tugged at my heart strings, and I decided to apply and see what would happen. Now, one year later, here I am fulfilling not just one of my dreams, but two! For the month of July, I have been teaching English to 1st-4th graders at a local elementary school and working in a children’s orphanage here in Peru! It has been unreal and I still can not believe I am here.
The kids and students I work with are some of the most loving, eager, and grateful children I have ever worked with. It is such a great feeling to see how happy these kids are the moment you simply walk into the room. My biggest goal was to show these children love and affection, and I am thankful I have tried my best to accomplish that. I have had so much fun this past month and have grown in ways I never thought I could grow. I came into this hoping that I would change some of these kids lives, and I am leaving this country with my life forever changed. My heart is forever imprinted by these children, and I am looking forward to the next country I get to volunteer in.
I travel to grow, impact, and love on others. Keep dreaming big everyone, I did, and look where it has taken me! (plus this is only the beginning!)”
Travel charitably!
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