The individuals below make up a group of courageous difference makers traveling with Hope For the Silent Voices to Asia. They are a collection of everyday people wanting to make lives better. Maybe one day we will see your photo and profile below!
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Christine So
Profession: Public Relations Executive
Current City: Hong Kong
Christine is a congenital leg amputee from Hong Kong. In 2007, she decided to travel the world with crutches and has visited more than 25 countries. She is passionate about volunteer travel and organizes a wide variety of photography projects to bring hope and awareness of those less fortunate.
She enjoys involving herself in charity organizations such as Hope For the Silent Voices and Partners International. Christine is also a founder of a charity project called 6Kg to 1Kg in Cambodia. This initiative has generated donations of more than 100 kilograms of clothing, food and toys to an impoverished village in the city Siem Reap.
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Why am I taking the Hope For the Silent Voices’ Impact Trip?
Cambodia always holds a special place in my heart and the impact trip gives me a great opportunity to revisit this beautiful country. I am so inspired by Eric’s courage and dedication to helping the vulnerable. It’s a truly blessing for me to witness God’s work and share His love with this land of lovely people! I look forward to this life-changing and faith-deepening trip with the HFSV.
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Josh Lewis
Profession: Student
Current City: Dallas, TX
Josh recently got out of the Marine Corps where he served for 5 years as an infantryman and 3 years as a martial arts instructor. He now lives in Dallas, TX with his wife of 7 years, Laura. Josh currently works at Trident Response Group where he conducts risk assessments for families and corporations and teaches self defense. He is a full time student at the University of Texas at Dallas pursuing a double major in Global Business and Business Administration.
Josh has many passions, but at the top of his list are martial arts, mountain biking, and cars. This will be his first impact trip of any kind and he is excited to see what God does in his life and how his life changes after the trip.
Why am I taking the Hope For the Silent Voices’ Impact Trip?
After hearing about the lives of these abandoned, abused, and lonely children, I knew I had to do something. The opportunity presented itself through Hope For the Silent Voices to help these kids and I can’t wait. This trip will change my perspective on so many things, I can’t wait to get there!
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Laura Lewis
Profession: Graphic Designer
Current City: Dallas, TX
Laura has recently moved back to her hometown of Dallas, Texas after spending 6 years in sunny San Diego as a Graphic Designer and Military wife. As she and her husband are discovering a new season of life without the military, she is anxious to go where God calls her.
Orphans have been weighing heavy on her heart for the past few years, but she did not understand why or what God was preparing her for. As the opportunity arose to join Hope For the Silent Voices’ Impact trip to Cambodia, she jumped at it, wondering if this could be what He has been preparing her for.
Laura enjoys all things art, photography, yoga, and a new love of travel. Laura is eager to experience new adventures and do things that are bigger than her.
Why am I taking the Hope For the Silent Voices’ Impact Trip?
“I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking, What if I had given everything, instead of going through the motions.” I am in a transitional period trying to decide what to do next, all I know is I want to make a difference. As it becomes overwhelmingly clear of the evil & sadness in the world, I am anxiously following where it is God calls me to be: “outside my own little world”. I look forward to the opportunity to explore new areas of the world. I have no clue what to expect, I only know God will do amazing things and I love to watch Him work!
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Kristina Ozkan
Profession: Lover of the Less-Fortunate
Current City: Sacramento
This last year I moved back to Northern California after spending 7 years in Southern California as a military wife and executive assistant. While living in Southern California my main focus was to help support my husband and myself as he studied to get his degree. Since moving back to Northern California, I have been able to focus on my passion: children. I have been an active volunteer at the Sacramento Children’s Home North Crisis Nursery and have spent countless hours with the less-fortunate. I feel that everyone is placed here for the bettering of someone else.
In my free time I enjoy spending time with family, watching my little brothers play football and refurbishing furniture.
Why am I taking the Hope For the Silent Voices’ Impact Trip?
Over the last year I have spent numerous hours with less fortunate children. I have been able to love children that rarely feel a hug or get to sit on a lap and have a story read to them. I get to go to sleep at night knowing that, for at least tonight, these children’s bellies are full, they are warm and most importantly, they are protected. However, I find myself wanting to do more, wanting to experience more and wanting to spread my love even further. I am excited to travel to Cambodia with Hope for the Silent Voices and fulfill my dreams. Not only am I excited of what I can bring to these children but most importantly what these children will teach me.
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Anthany Arosarena
Profession: Business Analyst
Current City: Irving, TX
Anthany Arosarena was born in Panama City, Panama. The youngest of six children born to Ricardo and Cynthia Arosarena, she attended The University of Panama where she studied Business Management.
Anthany worked at various jobs during her college years but it wasn’t until 1997 when she decided to follow what she then thought was her dream. She entered a beauty contest which led her to Tania Hyman’s Models and Talents agency where she became a model and instructor for the following 10 years of her life. To her surprise, it was through the modeling career that she developed her passion for “changing’ lives.”
Why am I taking the Hope For the Silent Voices’ Impact Trip?
“I don’t want to be someone who just went but someone who was Sent.” Anthany has a strong desire to PAY FORWARD the many blessings she receives every day. That determination and life passion is what crossed her path with Hope for The Silent Voices. Once the reality of the situation was presented in front of my eyes, it was impossible for me to say, “I can’t” because no matter how “bad” my life could be, it is still much better than most. So I take on this challenge hoping to fulfill God’s purpose in the lives of those whom I will be privileged to “touch.”
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Sherry Conner-Neuman
Profession: Hope For the Silent Voices
Current City: Dallas, TX
Sherry has a passion for the vulnerable, abused, and handicapped of this world. Hope For the Silent Voices allows her to show others the pain in this world through “Impact Trips”-organized trips abroad to various destinations in desperate need of help. She feels blessed to now have hope and a voice to speak out and believes others deserve the same.
Hope For the Silent Voices also allows her the freedom to be who God created her to be without shame; to use her journey through life to bring a voice to those who have been silent for too long and from whom hope has been taken. She has had the privilege of seeing other parts of the world and people who have shown her what joy, peace and living is really all about. She continues to search the world for those in pain and to provide hope for those who suffer at the hands of evil.
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Eric Lyons
Profession: Global Wanderer & Founder of Hope For the Silent Voices
Current City: New York, NY
Eric is the founder of Hope For the Silent Voices and currently globetrotting in search of dire needs in desperate places. Living by the credo that “we are responsible for what we know to be true,” he is always on the lookout for great people to collaborate with in impacting the world around us. I feel it a privilege and responsibility to help people expand the lenses they view the world through. This leads to a more realistic understanding of life for most while impacting lives. An avid fan of Muay Thai and all things travel-related. Follow him on his blog: Eazy Wanderer and learn more about the lenses he views the world through across continents and life-altering experiences.
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Follow us on Facebook at our Hope For the Silent Voices cause page and connect with this group.
As is the case with effective Nonprofit and NGO (Nongovernmental Organization) work, true difference and impact often is the result of authentic collaboration. We are privileged, honored and committed to offering of ourselves in engaging effective collaborative assistance. Hope For the Silent Voices achieves this with persons and organizations representative of positive life change and the betterment of our fellow global citizens around this world.
Amazing group! You will come back as new people. Of all the stories, Josh Lewis was the one that made me stop and remember my experience going with Hope on the Impact Trip last Winter. Josh said; This trip will change my perspective on so many things” I have this to say to Josh
I thought the exact same thing before going. You will think back on the trip and these words will be with you forever. While you wait on a traffic light, being late all of a sudden seems not so bad, because you have a car, legs to drive it and money to put gas in the tank. This trip will not only change your perspective but your life and the ones of those around you. I look forward to reading the stories of all of you. Please tell all my kids in Cambodia and Sri Lanka that I love them, sorry it has taken me longer than expected to get back to them. BUT I AM WORKING HARD ON MAKING THAT HAPPEN SOON!
They all miss, love and anxiously await your return to their lives.