Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category

UNICEF needs donations to help the millions of children affected by Pakistan floods

Today is World Humanitarian Day. And UNICEF needs your help. The floods in Pakistan are wreaking devastation on an indescribable scale. More than 14 million people are affected and the crisis is growing worse by the hour. Donations are not keeping pace with the need. UNICEF and the children of Pakistan need you! Please help UNICEF provide life-saving assistance by making a donation. Please read more to find out what else you can do. Read the rest of this entry »

Mariellen at the Taj Mahal, India

The best way to see India

I am very excited to share my passion for India by taking people to see the places I love. Together with award-winning tour operator Indus Travels, I am presenting two tours this winter in India.

Dream in India (starts Jan. 8, 2011) is for people who want to experience inspirational India and learn travel writing and blogging. Click here to learn more about Dream in India.

Breathe in India (starts Feb 5, 2011) is for people who want to experience the magic of spiritual India and do yoga. Click here to learn more about Breathe in India. And read Golden mornings on the Ganges, my Toronto Star article about what life is like in an ashram in India. We will be visiting both of these ashrams on the Breathe in India tour! Read the rest of this entry »

Ambling up to Amber Fort, Jaipur

Dream in India TOUR

Learn travel writing and blogging as you travel in India

Dream in India is for people who long to be inspired by India’s dazzling culture, fairy tale palaces and wondrous wildlife. Participants will experience the eternal beauty of the Taj Mahal, the excitement of Ranthambore tiger reserve and the fantastical art and architecture of Rajasthan. Plus, we will stop in Rudyard Kipling’s Bundi, the palace hotel where Bruce Chatwin wrote The Songlines and the Jaipur Literature Festival. The tour dates are January 08 to 21, 2011 (with a six-day extension in Jaipur, Samode and Delhi).

Along the way, I will teach travel writing and blogging; and will help participants get their own personal blog set up on WordPress.org or Travelblog.org.

For more information on the tours visit New! Tours to India or scroll down for dates, cost and detailed itinerary. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo of the Week

Andrew Adams, photographer

Photo from India by Andrew Adams, Katha Images

This is a story by guest blogger Andrew Adams, who has traveled in India and is one of my favourite photographers. Andrew loves India, too, and does a lot to support Asha Canada. He is amazing at capturing moments that speak to the soul of India. As you can see.

A friend of mine thought this was a picture of a spiritual leader or guru, rather than of a homeless woman. I think that says a lot about the presence of god in India.

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Help Passports with Purpose

Passports with Purpose is a collaborative online fundraiser created in 2008 by four Seattle-based travel bloggers: Debbie Dubrow, Pam Mandel, Michelle Duffy and Beth Whitman, the bloggers behind Delicious Baby, Nerd’s Eye View, WanderMom, and Wanderlust and Lipstick.

Each year, they choose a charity and leverage their online presence to help raise funds for it. This year, 2010, they are building a village in Southern India with Land for Tillers’ Freedom (LAFTI) and their non-profit branch based in the U.S., Friends of LAFTI Foundation.

Watch this video about the founder of LAFTI – a real modern-day hero. It’s a very inspiring, very moving story about women empowering women. Yay!

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NOTE:BreatheDreamGo is making an exceptional foray for this post, by guest bloggers Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg of Border Jumpers. We’re leaving India and traveling to Africa for an inspiring story about how people, especially women, are growing food in the unlikeliest of places — the slums — and, in the process, feeding their families, making extra income and displaying the strength of women. The story is pertinent to India, which could also benefit from such innovative strategies to combat hunger and poverty; and which is also witnessing the empowerment of women.

children listening to stories at Book Fair

The World Book Fair in Delhi is a highly anticipated event that sprawls across the huge Pragati Maidan fair grounds in central Delhi. There are publishers from all over the world, books in dozens of languages, reading events and books, thousands and thousands of books. It is a book lover’s paradise. My only problem was that it’s so huge, I could only do one section — the hall devoted to books in English (of course). Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This post was written by guest author Shelley Seale. When Shelley was in India, she volunteered with The Miracle Foundation, a nonprofit based out of Austin, Texas. The Miracle Foundation recruits donors and sponsors for children living in orphanages in India. Shelley first went to India in 2005 on a 10-day volunteer trip, and it changed her life to such an extent that she returned for several subsequent volunteer trips with The Miracle Foundation. She also wrote a book about the millions of children who live in such orphanages or on the streets in India. The book is called The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India and was published in June 2009.

India chooses you By Shelley Seale

I never expected to be in India. And without a doubt, I never thought once I had been I would return, again and again.

It wasn’t the exotic beauty that drew me back. It wasn’t the warmth of the people, their gentle and inquisitive nature, their open hospitality. It wasn’t the storied, ancient history of the country or its rich and varied culture. It was not the colors or the spices or the sounds or the spirituality of the place. India is all of these things, to be sure, and I have grown to love them all. But they were not what seeped into my being and pulled me close, becoming a part of me that I missed with a strange emptiness when I left.

It was the children.

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The offices of World Literacy of Canada on the ghats of Varanasi, India

World Literacy of Canada (WLC) is a non-profit voluntary organization that promotes community-based adult literacy programs and non-formal education for both children and adults. WLC runs programs in both Canada and India. In India, the organization is centred in Varanasi, with the main office right on the ghats. As a supporter and sometimes volunteer with WLC, I visited the offices when I was in Varanasi last March (2009).

One of the ways WLC raises funds is by holding the annual Kama series of readings and conversations in Toronto, where the organization’s offices are headquartered. This year, the reading series will be held on five separate nights, from January through May, and feature authors such as Margaret Atwood and media personalities such as Peter Mansbridge.

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Amanda Koster working in Morocco

Salaam Garage is a citizen journalism organization that partners with International NGOs and local non-profits. It was founded by photographer and really inspiring woman Amanda Koster. This month, the organization is taking a group of people from the USA to Rajasthan, India for two weeks to meet, research, understand and document several NGOs including Vatsayla, which was established for the welfare of the street children and women of Jaipur.

Vatsalya rescues homeless women and children into a campus style home away from the city, provides; education, mental and physical support systems, internships and practical vocational training. 100% Indian run and founded, Vatsalya was SalaamGarage’s first partner, in 2007.

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