How To Apply For The Color My World Scholarships

Applying couldn’t be easier. Follow the 4 simple steps below to be in with the chance of joining us in Nicaragua this summer.

After creating the video application, complete the form below and let us know a bit more about yourself.

Want some hints on how to create a great video, check out one of our scholarship winners from 2016.

The post Color My World 2017 Scholarships Application appeared first on Color My World.

With the 2017 season just around the corner, we wanted to share some great fundraising that has happened in previous years, and some top tips for your fundraising.

Selling baked goods

Friends, family, work colleagues, just about everyone loves to eat cakes, cookies and treats… especially if they are homemade! Last year, we had one volunteer raise all of the funds to volunteer in Nicaragua for one week by just selling cookies. We had another group of girls from Utah raise funds by making cakes and selling them in their neighbourhood.

Arts & Crafts And Dress Making

With all fundraising ideas, the best projects come when volunteers use their unique skills and talents. This summer a volunteer from England made dresses and outfits for children in Central America, and sold them to people in her community to raise funds for volunteering in Nicaragua.

Valentines flower delivery

One great way to fundraise is by providing gifts and treats during the holidays. On valentine’s day we had one of our volunteers in Baltimore deliver flowers and other gifts. With all of the upcoming holidays throughout Christmas and New Year’s, there are plenty of opportunities to fundraise.

Gofundme pages

Every volunteer who raises funds for Central America makes a fundraising page online. It is now easier than ever, find the best fundraising page that works for you, fill out your details, share an emotional video and story of why you want to volunteer, and share with your friends and family. Frequent updates, and sharing online are the key principles of successful fundraising campaigns.

As a charity, we encourage everyone to consider volunteering, to give of their time to work alongside others in need. With the fundraising opportunities now available through the internet there is no better opportunity to raise funds to volunteer.

The post Fundraising For Volunteering With Color My World appeared first on Color My World.

Since the beginning, Color My World has sought out opportunities to connect with likeminded companies to assist in humanitarian efforts throughout the world. These connections have brought skills, expertise and funding to much needed projects.

For 2016 Color My World set a new standard for corporate sponsors, with the likes of DôTERRA, Wright & Associates Family Healthcare, and The Lantos Foundation supporting our projects.

DôTERRA ran a match funding campaign with Color My World throughout the month of May, resulting in a $20,000 sponsorship for the homes in Jiquilillo. By working with DôTERRA to reach the financial target, and putting the Color My World volunteers to work in Nicaragua, eight families were able to move into a safe, sustainable home in August.

Wright & Associates Family Healthcare have sponsored Color My World for several years now, through the funding at the El Limonal Dump Feeding Project. Each week volunteers join a community living in the dump of Chinandega to deliver basic hygiene necessities, and lunch for the day. While the feeding project does not provide long term sustainability, our project coordinator, Gerry Caceres, states that:

“The feeding project provides hope for a community forgotten by the government.”

Since the uprising of the Taliban and extremist  groups in the Middle East, communities have been displaced or worse. One such group that came to Color My World’s attention was a Pakistan Christian community who had been displaced, and had their lives and liberty threatened from the religious practices that they chose to follow. In the past Color My World has sponsored Christmas lunches for the community, and a sewing co-op for the women. This year however, the community set out to build a school for the children, so they could learn, and prepare for their future. Through the support of The Lantos Foundation, we were able to financially support the building of the school, enabling the children of the community to be in school, just like many other children throughout the world.

2016 has been an incredible year for sponsorships, where Color My World has been able to make a real change through the support  of likeminded businesses. With 2 new programs opening in 2017 though, the need for more sponsorships has never been greater. With a mission to relieve human suffering, Color My World needs your support to continually make an impact.

To learn of how you can get involved, and find out the benefits for your business sponsoring Color My World email dan@colormyworldkids.org

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The town of Jiquilillo is home to so many of our volunteers because of the connections and bonds that are formed with the community.

One of the members of the community who’s name will never be forgotten by any Nicaragua volunteer is Alvaro, a 17 year old from Jiquilillo, and a best friend of Color My World.

Throughout Alvaro’s teenage years he has followed the same career path as almost every other man in Jiquilillo, fishing. Night and day fisherman will travel miles out to sea, searching for their food and income for the day. With the ever increasing numbers of fisherman in the Pacific Ocean, boats have to travel further out and disrupt the ever diminishing fish eco systems that are struggling to stay alive.

With schooling in Nicaragua only going to age 11 for 80% of Nicaraguans, people like Alvaro have very little opportunity to choose which career path they want to follow.

As a human family, it is up to us to support each other. Each day Alvaro would help volunteers in Nicaragua learn Spanish, and answer questions about the country, helping us to integrate with the community, and not just be visitors looking in.

The decision was made while in Nicaragua to sponsor Alvaro in school, paying for the tuition fees, and assisting him in deciding what he wanted to do for his career.

Now Alvaro goes to school every week. While the cost of tuition may be covered, each day he has to catch a bus that takes 2 hours to get to Chinandega, he has to buy school supplies, and food for each day that he is in school.

By working together, we can support those  that want to support themselves. Help sponsor Alvaro. Whether $10 or $50, any amount can make a difference.

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The post Support Our School Sponsorships & Alvaro appeared first on Color My World.

After raising a plea for help, we saw supporters of Color My World answer the call. Throughout America and England, both volunteers and sponsors held fundraisers, sold items, and ran races to help us with our goal. We cannot be more grateful for the support that we as a charity have received over the last month. We are most grateful though for the impact that these donations will have on the families in Nicaragua. Each home built comes with a price tag attached, a price that the families of the community are unable to afford.

The donations made by Color My World and DōTERRA are also being supported by the Nicaraguan Government, who have committed to triple the donations, meaning that every one house we pay for turns into 3 homes being built.

We as a charity are overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of our supporters, volunteers, past and present, and the DōTERRA Healing Hands foundation.

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The post What a Difference Your Donations Make appeared first on Color My World.

Volunteers are eager to prepare for their time in Central America, by creating hygiene kits, donating money, and making outfits for the locals and families.

One of our volunteers this year has decided to go above and beyond in her dedication to serving the people of Nicaragua. For the last 3 months Alison Taylor, and a team of helpers have made dresses and shorts for the children of Nicaragua.

The decision to make the outfits originated from wanting to do something for the orphanage that Color My World works with each year, the idea was to make an outfit for each of the children in the orphanage. This original project was sponsored by Ashley Grange Nursing Home in Downton, where Alison was employed. After Alison began making the dresses for the orphanage, others wanted to get involved. Soon what began as a single volunteer and a sewing machine became a team of eager sewers.

With just 2 weeks until Alison goes to Nicaragua to deliver the outfits, the last outfit has just been finished making the total 80! Many of these dresses are yet to be sponsored by donations.This number of outfits well exceed the goal of dressing the orphanage, it enables new dresses and shorts to be given to the children and families of the Villa Esperanza house building project.

When Alison reflects upon the project she says :

“I have enjoyed sitting up late in the night sewing away on my machine picturing in my mind the children that will wear the clothes that I am making, I know that this is the feeling of my friends too, there have been many emails and calls from people eager to help that i do not know, the excitement in doing this project has been just wonderful”

The value of these outfits will not be lost on the children of Nicaragua. To enable the Nicaraguan people to take pride in themselves by what they wear, the Nicaraguan Government has asked that humanitarian charities do not give away second hand clothing. The vision behind this is that no child or family feels second class through what they wear.

The outfits that Alison and her friends have made encapsulates the Nicaraguan vision. No outfit has ever been worn before, but instead made completely from scratch. Emails have been sent back and forth from England to Nicaragua to discover the different sizes of the children, and their favourite colours and designs. What started off as a nice idea and good intentions has flourished into a project that will make a difference in many children lives.

When planning sustainable projects, the first hurdle to overcome is to ensure that the impact will remain long after the volunteer leaves. Just as snow disappears in the spring, and fills the earth with much needed nutrients, so too should any volunteers effort that is given. The name of the volunteer may be forgotten, but the difference made remains.

As a charity, we are overjoyed by the efforts and dedication of our volunteers in looking for ways that they can help make a difference.

If you would like to donate towards an outfit for the children of Nicaragua, then fill out the form below, and help us make a difference in Central America.

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The post Making Outfits for Nicaragua appeared first on Color My World.

From the very first day of volunteering with Color My World, you will build relationships and bonds with the locals that you will work alongside. Often in broken conversations of part Spanish, part English, and a whole lot of gestures, you will learn of their lives. Without exception, every volunteer returns home from their trip committed to apply what they have learned from their friends in Nicaragua, to appreciate family more, to be grateful for everything they have, and to remember that happiness is not based upon possessions.

Kelli Ferre, a volunteer from our Nicaragua 2015 program shared her #Nicatakeaway on how spending a week with the people of Nicaragua changed her life, she said;

“Nicaragua is my favorite place in the world, and I am so grateful I got to serve there for a week last summer. It was so humbling for me to experience poverty first hand. What impressed me the most was how happy they were. They have almost nothing, but they were always smiling and so cheerful. This serves as a good reminder to me that I can be happy in any circumstance, and that we don’t need much to find joy. I love the people of Nicaragua, and I really hope to go back one day.”

We love every single one of our volunteers, because we get to be a part of their life changing experience. To see a volunteer arrive in Nicaragua at the beginning of the week, unaware of the what to expect, and return home with a piece of their heart left in Nicaragua is a humbling, special experience.

To return to the question of who gains most? It really is no question. We may supply the money and manpower to build a house, or to feed a community in poverty, but the people of Nicaragua, our friends, have the power to change who we are, and the direction that our lives are heading.

When volunteering, give your all, don’t hold anything back. Become a part of the community. By so doing, your life will be changed in ways that you never thought were possible.

The post Give of Yourself appeared first on Color My World.

Bedford Bulletin
August 6, 2015 at 10:59am

Color My World volunteers from Bedford and Goffstown recently returned from volunteering in Jiquilillo, Nicaragua.

The program in Nicaragua was started in 2013 by the Hughes family of Bedford, who founded the nonprofit organization, Color My World, over a decade ago. The project has been increasing in popularity and growing in demand, said Angela Hughes, founder and program director.

During the trip from July 6 to 20, 20 residents joined a group of over 50 people from across the country who built houses for flooded residents, fed the impoverished in the garbage dump community of El Limonal, and taught English and art to the locals of a remote fishing village.

“Bringing more volunteers to Nicaragua is helping us to develop sustainable projects that are really having an impact on the community,” said Hughes. “We are not just going into the villages and passing out donations and leaving. We are funding, creating and meeting the demands of these poverty-stricken communities.”

One of the largest projects the group is working on over the next three years is a housing development for which Color My World donated the funds through the program to build several homes, said Hughes.

Jiquilillo residents are flooded by water rising from the ocean and need to be relocated. Color My World is working as a partner with other non-governmental organizations to fund a housing development for 175 homes.

“Residents worked side-by- side with our volunteers to complete their homes,” Hughes said.

Most participants say the highlight of the trip is feeding the mothers and the children who live near the community. Residents were displaced to the dump after a hurricane hit nearly 15 years ago.

Color My World volunteers go into the garbage dump, prepare a meal, and children and moms will come running with their buckets to get a scoop of the rice, chicken liver and veggie stew.

“It can be a little bit overwhelming”, said Noah Hughes, 14. “This week, we had fights over the dental and hygiene kits donated by Eagle Scout projects we were handing out with the lunch.”

Mattie Soghikigan, 17, of Bedford has been volunteering with the program since its inception. Teaching English to the residents is her favorite part of the program.

“I am not a fluent Spanish speaker so it was difficult at times, but helping the locals to learn English and expose them to more opportunities was an awesome experience”, Soghikigan said. “People always think that we have an impact on the community when in actuality they have a bigger impact on us. My perspective on life is forever changed due to this trip.”

Most participants would agree that working in a raw, remote area is not easy. The participants often have to battle 90-degree weather with 100-percent humidity, plus bats, crabs, spiders and scorpions that live on the sandy beach where the huts are located.

“It never gets easier” said Ambrie Scribner, 17, a second-year volunteer from Bedford High School.

Service is not new to the Hughes family. Each of their four children volunteers every summer in Nicaragua, and they also traveled to Costa Rica in July to help the community of La Carpio. Brian and Angela Hughes served a two-year, full-time mission to Japan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1990-92 that inspired their love for service.

“Giving back to the community is something we want to implement in our family environment and this area is abundant in opportunity,” said Brian. “By inviting others to go, we are only spreading the love of this great work.”

Hughes’ son, Chase, 18, agreed.

“Our hope is that we can keep this program going for the next decade and continue to build long-term relationships that are meaningful in the community,” said Chase. “The relationships are really what make the biggest difference and make me want to keep coming back.”

For more information, visit www.colormyworldkids.org.

Ambrie Schribner of Bedford and Sophie Hines of Goffstown move a cinder block during a house-building project in Nicaragua. Color My World of Bedford is donating the funds for several homes to be built in the community of Jiquillio.Angela Hughes Photo-Ambrie Schribner of Bedford and Sophie Hines of Goffstown move a cinder block during a house-building project in Nicaragua. Color My World of Bedford is donating the funds for several homes to be built in the community of Jiquillio.

Susan Barnard and her daughter, Kendi, of Bedford help serve lunch, hosted by Color My World, to mothers and children in the community of El Limonal, Chinandega, Nicaragua.Angela Hughes Photo-Susan Barnard and her daughter, Kendi, of Bedford help serve lunch, hosted by Color My World, to mothers and children in the community of El Limonal, Chinandega, Nicaragua.

Elizabeth Hughes, of Color My World, gets her hands dirty building homes in the community of Jiquillio.Angela Hughes Photo-Elizabeth Hughes, of Color My World, gets her hands dirty building homes in the community of Jiquillio.

The post The Bedford Bulletin Highlights Color My World appeared first on Color My World.

These kids appreciated the soccer gear that Caden collected for his eagle scout project. However, they had no idea what to do with the shin guards. We had to show them how to put them on. The most gracious, happy, loving kids!!

This kids appreciated the soccer gear that Caden collected for his eagle scout project. However, they had no idea what to do with the shin guards. We had to show them how to put them on. The most gracious, happy, loving kids!!

 

This little guy was a blast. We would have taken him home from the orphanage if we could have!

Thoughts from Heather Vandygriff

The post Family Volunteers appeared first on Color My World.

These volunteers got to work to make it happen! Take a Look!

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