Upcoming Trips
Dining for Women Travel Program
“The experience was worth its weight in gold!” – 2010 Kenya traveler
We welcome you to join us on one of our highly regarded travel adventures. Adding to the previously announced trips to Vietnam and Indonesia, we are now pleased to announce trips to Guatemala in October and India in early November.
The Vietnam and Indonesia trips are fully booked, but we are accepting applications for Guatemala and India. If you are interested, please fill out the interest form - a link follows the trip description below. (If you previously filled out an interest form for Guatemala or India, we ask that you reapply using our new forms as they go into greater detail. Don't worry, you will retain your original submission date.)
Many factors go into planning these trips and itinerary details may change.
Participant selection process: Due to the popularity of the DFW travel program, if trips fill beyond capacity, priority will be given to those who dedicate many volunteer hours to help DFW operate. Therefore, there are three tiers for selection. The first tier is for those who volunteer on a national level; the second is leaders of DFW chapters; the third is chapter members. Priority is given to those who have not been on a trip in the past.
If you have further questions about the travel program, or for more info on any of these trips, please email travel@diningforwomen.org
Looking forward to traveling with you soon!
Patricia Andersson and the DFW Travel Team
Guatemala
October 2-13, 2013
Reservations are closed for this trip
During this trip, you will have a chance to visit five, yes FIVE Dining for Women-funded organizations, including MayaWorks, StarFish One By One, Mercado Global, 13 Threads and Friendship Bridge. This is a trip of a lifetime if you want to see how your funds are impacting Guatemalan women and their culture.
Our group will meet in Guatemala City, where we will have a social justice tour and an introduction to the Mayan culture, and we’ll learn where Guatemala is today, politically and from a social economic standpoint.
MayaWorks
From Guatemala City, we will travel to Tecpan to visit with MayaWorks and their artisans in Comalapa, near the Village of Agua Caliente. We will be shown how the cooperatives of women weavers work. We’ll also visit nearby Iximche, an archaeological site of the Mayans, and see a Maya ceremony taking place at the site with local shamans. On our way to Lake Atitlan on Saturday, we will visit Totonicapan, an open air market. This is the largest market in the Guatemala Highlands and has not been "blessed" by tourists. All the handicrafts there are made by the Maya for the Maya. The Mayan people still wear and use all hand-made utensils and fabrics! We will also get to visit the homes of some of the artisans!
We’ll then travel to Lake Atitlan where the other four organizations are headquartered, and check into our comfortable hotel on the lake, our “home away from home” for the next seven days.
Starfish One By One:
We will travel across Lake Atitlan to the home villages of Starfish One By One’s teenage girls to learn how the Bridge Program’s peer support groups, community mentoring, and leadership training has paid off. We’ll visit the homes of these young women (leaders in their communities and schools), learn to cook tortillas, beans, rice, and salsa, and see how these leaders of tomorrow live their lives.
13 Threads:
We will travel to women’s cooperatives, meeting artisans who earn their living making candles and rugs. We’ll have the opportunity to experience Community Facilitator trainings in self-esteem, human relations and leadership development, and visit the new cultural center which DFW’s donations helped build.
Mercado Global:
We will travel to rural villages to meet with women who have gone through financial and business literacy classes funded by DFW, then share dinner together and hear about their hopes and dreams for their brighter futures!!
Friendship Bridge:
We’ll visit Friendship Bridge and meet the courageous women who accepted loans in 2007 from DFW to start small
business, educate their children and empower themselves. Through
their Microcredit Plus program – which combines small loans averaging $250
and participatory education – women start, expand or diversify their businesses
and learn practical, applicable lessons on everyday topics including business,
health and self-esteem.
After these experiences, we’ll take time to explore Antigua, a city in the central highlands famous for its well-preserved architecture of Spanish-Baroque influence. We’ll also visit a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches. A beautiful city with delicious restaurants and places to see, a tourist destination for a reason.
An optional extension trip, October 13-16 (3 days) is available to the jungles of Tikal and National Parks of Lanquin (Sumec Champey), to watch the sun rise over the Mayan Ruins, meet screech monkeys, go swimming in the crystal clear waters of Sumec Champey, and swim by candle-light in volcanic caves. Is that enough adventure for you?
To be considered for this trip and for more information, please fill out and submit this Guatemala Travel Interest Form.
Maximum group size: 14
Approximate cost: $1500 plus international airfare (12 days)
* Tikal and Semuc Champey Extension $400 plus airfare (approx. $150) (3 days)
* Itinerary details are subject to change.
Northern India
November 6-22, 2013
Come join us in the magical north of India! We will be spending time with three very different programs that DFW has sponsored in the past: Matrichaya, offering rural women and girls basic education, hygiene, and vocational training, along with microcredit loans; Anchal Project, helping commercial sex workers rediscover their self-worth and train in trades for a sustainable safe living; and Association for India’s Development (AID/MBBCDS), delivering holistic empowerment programs for tribal women through group development initiatives.
In addition we will visit national treasures like the Taj Mahal. Agra Fort, Ghandi’s monument gardens and many palaces and temples. We will experience lovely food, and many modes of unususal transportation such as ricksaw taxis, trains, and an elephant ride. We will shop in the colorful markets and visit remote villages to understand the poverty and beauty of the countryside while meeting amazing women and families who are perservering daily.
We will fly into Delhi to start the trip and out of Kalkata at the end, with lots of countryside in between.
To be considered for this trip and for more information, please fill out and submit this India Travel Interest Form.
Maximum group size: 10
Approximate Cost: $3500-4000 plus international airfare (17 days)
Itinerary details are subject to change.
Indonesia (This trip is full)
April 22 - May 7, 2013
We will be the first group ever to visit Health in Harmony in Borneo (supported September 2012), and will continue on from there to Bali.
Our group will meet in Singapore, then travel by boat to Sukadana, one of the villages where the Goats for Widows program has been implemented. We’ll meet with these women and learn about their lives, and see first-hand how our donations are impacting them. We’ll also visit the clinics where Health in Harmony offers their innovative affordable healthcare program, as well as attend an Indonesian cooking class! A highlight of the trip will be taking part in a celebration to mark the village’s successful season of protecting its forests. After the celebration, we’ll join the villagers in planting trees on their land.
The second half of our time in Borneo will include a two-night trip via river boat to visit the Orangutan Project and Camp Leakey in Pangkalan Bun, a remote area of the forest. We’ll trek into the rain forest with our guide, with hopes to spot wild orangutans and other monkeys, then visit the rehabilitation center for ex-captive orangutans. We’ll finish up our time in Borneo at Ketapang, having a final dinner with women leaders of the communities that we met in the earlier in our trip.
From here we’ll fly to Bali, where we’ll have opportunity to explore this beautiful and highly cultural slice of Hindu life in an otherwise Muslim country. From its wide sandy beaches to its deeply spiritual traditions, we’ll immerse ourselves in the magic permeates this island. We’ll also take a look beneath the tourist façade, and learn about programs that are assisting underserved women. Visits with a birthing clinic in Ubud, and an innovative reproductive health center in the middle of a market in Denpasar are planned, as well as a morning trek to visit a more rural and neglected area in the hills of East Bali, where women’s programs are being developed to provide local women an alternative to migrating to tourist areas to beg for their living.
We’ll also visit important temples, and take part in a Balinese cooking class, which includes a visit to the local market to gather ingredients.Based on the desires of the group, many other cultural events are also possible, from Balinese Dance performances to silversmithing or traditional painting classes. And a trip to Bali would not be complete without a visit to a Balinese spa!
An optional extension will allow travel to Northwest Bali, to spend a day snorkeling or scuba diving at Pulau Menjangan, and return via the west coast with a visit to Tanah Lot, a famous sea temple.
