Mending One Another and U4O Trip to El Salvador
We are so excited and pleased to announce the first Mending One Another and Unity 4 Orphans Princess/Superhero Trip to El Salvador! Organized by Cindy Paulus, a flight attendant with Allegiant Air, this trip is a partnership between her non-profit Mending One Another and Unity 4 Orphans and is focused on creating a “FANTASY COME TRUE” event for the children living at Remar Orphanage in Tamanique, La Libertad, El Salvador.
Starting her career as a flight attendant in the 90’s, Cindy became involved in a group called Airline Ambassadors, a non-profit that allows flight attendants and airline personnel to put their free and reduced flying benefits to use by participating in humanitarian trips around the world. Cindy’s first trip with Airline Ambassadors was to El Salvador.
In 2003, she began flying for an airline where the CEO heard of her involvement with Airline Ambassadors and her humanitarian work. He approached her and asked her if she would be interested in starting a program at the airline where the crewmembers could get involved in like circumstances. The airline had been flying its empty aircrafts down to El Salvador for their scheduled maintenance checks, which was a completely empty aircraft. This is where Cindy would utilize the aircraft and recruit 20-30 crewmembers, put together a detailed itinerary, and have everyone collect enough aide to fill the belly of the aircraft. Crewmembers then would fly down on the plane and participate in numerous humanitarian projects while the plane was being serviced. Aide and donations were delivered to the poorest areas of the country, parties and activities were organized for the children in numerous orphanages, and two medical clinics were built in the remote mountains, assisted by the famous Dr. Patch Adams and his team. Trips were scheduled every quarter and over 1.5 million dollars of aid and services were delivered to the country over six years. Yes, small groups CAN move mountains!
In 2016, Cindy started her own non-profit so that she could concentrate on expanding her work in El Salvador. “Mending One Another” was created to empower the women of the country by teaching them the skill of sewing so that they could provide for their families. Before the program started, many of these women could not even afford to feed their children every day. Currently, there are five operational Mending One Another Sewing Centers which have contracts with the government to make the uniforms for the local school children, which now is providing a steady income for the families.
To date, Cindy is expanding her vision to “Mend” our society by partnering with Unity 4 Orphans. Here, both the participants of the trips she is organizing and the children in the orphanages will spend their time and share their love with “Each Other.” Hence, mending one another.
We hope you will join us on this trip to rediscover your heart and soul. You will experience an emotional, magical feeling unlike anything you’ve ever felt before in your life. The memories of being a child again will fill your heart as each of the children at Remar Orphanage receive a Princess or Superhero costume and steps into a day of pure joy and what living a fantasy feels like! Tap into your inner Princess or Superhero by dressing up and playing along with the children. So, we hope to see you in El Salvador along with Mending One Another and Unity 4 Orphans as we make the children’s FANTASY COME TRUE.