unnamedEarlier this year, Dining for Women (DFW)  and Altruvistas teamed up to create a trip of a lifetime. Destination; Myanmar — formerly known as Burma. The result: an enlightening, inspiring two-week adventure.

For those of us who were not on the trip, it’s documented beautifully in a series of blog posts on DFW’s website , complete with accompanying photographs that leave viewers feeling like a lucky fly on the wall. So the option is there to live vicariously through the trip participants.

Meet Dining for Women

Dining for Women is a global giving circle that funds grassroots programs working in developing countries to fight gender inequality. They organize 2-4 trips each year, and during each trip, they meet with groups that they’ve supported in the past, experiencing first-hand the impacts that their contributions have made in the lives of the women they support.

For those curious, you can catch a glimpse of some of their past trips here.

This journey to Myanmar centered around five visits with Girl Determined, a group that DFW supported in December 2012.

Girl Determined works to promote girls’ rights in all forums, particularly for the most vulnerable, by organizing Colorful Girls Circles, training facilitators, creating curriculum, bringing girls together and exposing the reality of girls’ lives in Burma.

Here’s a peek at Girl Determined:

DFW Travel Director Patricia Andersson describes DFW’s trip to Myanmar and getting to know Girl Determined:

In early February, the DFW Travel Program completed a trip to Burma/Myanmar where we had the opportunity to meet the girls taking part in Girl Determined’s Colorful Girls Circles.. Visiting them in five different settings, we saw how the needs of the girls varied based on the situation they were in – ranging from a Circle in a boisterous urban school in Mandalay that was home to 7,000 students, to a Circle set up at a nunnery in Yangon where the girls were sheltered from the world to an almost debilitating degree. And while the approach may be altered to accommodate the girls’ situations, the messages remained the same for all: you have a right to speak and be heard; your education is important; you have options for your future and deserve to have a say in it. You are valuable.

There are so many highlights from the trip that are worth revisiting via the DFW blog. Here is just a sampling – -a few of our favorites we hope you’ll enjoy:

Director Brooke Zobrist shared how DFW’s funding had come at a very critical time for Girl Determined, how grateful they were for the two-year grant, and how happy it made her to share the successes of the program with those who had supported it during that juncture.

Trip Leader Patricia Andersson described:

The highlight for most of us was the whole day we spent with Girl Determined in a small rural village outside of Mandalay. And the highlights from that whole day were the visits we took to the girls’ homes. Split into pairs of travelers and accompanied by a translator, small groups of girls took us through the village and into their thatch-roofed houses, where many mothers had prepared snacks for our arrival. To say we were treated as celebrities is an understatement.

Can you imagine?! What an amazing experience.

This excerpt is about being in a village that doesn’t see tourist traffic:

We were quite the diversion: at one home neighbors from every side came pouring in to see these Western women in person. In my experience, I asked every mother I encountered what her hopes were for her daughter. Each one replied unvaryingly, “for her to be educated.” Mostly uneducated themselves (even now Burma/Myanmar only mandates school through the 4th grade), they know that education is the only hope for their daughters to have a better life than they have themselves.

There is a lot more to see and read on the DFW blog. The photos alone are worth the visit. But don’t take our word for it. See for yourself.

15995006394_1c8683a9e9_zGetting to know Dining for Women

Dining for Women’s mission is to inspire, educate and engage people to invest in grassroots programs that make a meaningful difference for women and girls living in extreme poverty in developing countries.

The amount of money they’ve raised for good causes is substantial, (more than $4.1 million between 2003 and 2014 alone), but interestingly enough, its members are generally not wealthy. In fact, their average donation is just $35.

Dining for Women points out, “Our collective-giving model is proving that small contributions, aggregated together, can make a huge difference. This is especially true in the most impoverished areas of the world, where some subsist on less than $1 a day.”

Even Hillary Clinton had words to share about Dining for Women:

The efforts that Dining for Women have undertaken …all across the country over the past 10 years provide a powerful example of how individual acts of giving, when aggregated, can make a deep and transformational impact.

Worth noting is the fact that Dining for Women is not solely focused on fundraising. Education is an equally important component to their work. And in case you’re wondering where the “dining” fits in with all this, here’s how their website explains it:

Dining for Women chapters meet on a regular basis and share a meal together. It may be in someone’s home, in a college cafeteria, an office break room, a church hall, or a local watering hole. Members share camaraderie and learn about that month’s featured programs through videos, educational documents and presentations, and free and open discussion.

It goes on to explain how the funds raised go to a featured and sustained program, with eighty-five percent of every dollar donated funding their grants.

TAKE ACTION!

This Altruvistas Myanmar adventure with Dining for Women, including the visits with Girl Determined, proves once again, the transformational power of travel. Here’s how you can keep the journey moving forward:

  • Find out more about Girl Determined–-Visit their website to find out how you can be determined with them.
  • Join or Start Your Own Dining for Women Chapter: There are over 400 chapters around the the U.S. and an interactive online map to prove it. Check it out here.
  • Plan Your Own Transformational Travel Adventure: Altruvistas works with travel partners like Dining for Women to create customized tours around the world. If you or a group that you know is interested in putting on your own journey of a lifetime, visit our website for more info and an application.

Remember, transformational adventures have to start somewhere, and usually that somewhere is with an idea.

So what’s your idea?