The Sonder Project, a Santa Rosa Beach-based nonprofit that works locally and around the world, recently returned from an educational expedition in Malawi, Africa.

Three Santa Rosa Beach residents joined the trek, including Sonder Project and 30A Company board member, Travis Meyer, of Southeastern Retail Development, Rachel Meyer, a teacher at Freeport High School and Sarah Hockett, executive director of The Sonder Project.

“It’s one thing to understand there are children and adults living on the other side of the world whose lives and circumstances are much different from our own. It’s another thing entirely to visit and see this firsthand,” Rachel Meyer said.

During their visit, the trio managed to visit five remote villages, work on a construction site for a new primary school structure, visit adult literacy classes and learn their importance, meet with the district education manager and gain knowledge of some of the community initiatives helping remote areas break the cycle of poverty such as goat programs, meal programs for school children and honey bee hives.

They also had the opportunity to hear some of the stories of this country, understand the difficulties faced here and see how the organization’s work has an impact.

“It takes so little to change the futures of these kids, and that’s exactly what The Sonder Project is doing — changing lives,” said Travis Meyer.

The 30A Company is a founding partner of The Sonder Project, which works to end poverty locally, domestically and across the world.

“We couldn’t be more proud of the work The Sonder Project is doing,” said Mike Ragsdale, founder of The 30A Company. “We look forward to joining a future trek to experience firsthand the good that our little nonprofit is accomplishing.”

The purpose of this endeavor was to help The Sonder Project learn and grow as a nonprofit and with everything discovered, the trip was definitely a success, said the organization’s executive director, Sarah Hockett.

“Knowledge gained on this voyage will be applied in future projects both locally and around the world,” she said.

On the topic of future projects, be on the lookout for these upcoming ventures:

— Construction of a school in Burkina Faso, Africa, in memory of Ahmed Kere
— Construction of a water well in Burkina Faso, Africa
— Construction of a school in Nicaragua
— First undertaking of new program, PROJECT: agriculture – launching beekeeping in Nicaragua
— 2017 Trek and Project Schedule

For more info, or to learn how you can help, visit The Sonder Project.