I am a member of the 2023 team going to Madagascar as part of Girlguiding's GOLD (Guiding Overseas Linked with Development) programme. This project will last for five years seeing five different teams travelling to Madagascar in five consecutive years to help equip trainers and leaders in Madagascar with non-formal education methods and facilitation skills to support the delivery of their programme.

I have been a leader within Girlguiding for 10 years and have been involved since I was 4 when I joined as a Rainbow! In September 2022 I attended a selection weekend and I’m very excited to announce that I have been selected to be a part of the Girlguiding GOLD project in Madagascar in 2023!

GOLD empowers young women to work in partnership with other guide associations around the world to deliver guiding-based development projects. These projects are tailored to the needs of
each partner country and range from leadership skills, training to delivering advocacy programmes to young women.

As part of a team of other members, I will be travelling to Madagascar for 3 weeks in Summer 2023 to work in partnership with Mpanazava (one of their Guiding organisations).

Our project aims are:

1. To equip trainers and leaders in non-formal education methods and facilitation skills to support the delivery of Mpanazava’s programme.

2. To empower every member of Mpanazava to be confident, self-assured, innovative and creative leaders in their Association and wider communities.

3. To increase membership.

4. To evaluate the effectiveness of targeting the topics of confidence, self-esteem, innovation and creativity both on membership numbers, capacity and engagement with relevant social issues, as well as recruitment of non- members.

Guiding is a huge part of my life, something I have been doing since I was 4 and I’m hoping that this trip will allow me to help the charity internationally as well as to get more involved with other Member Organisations.

Obviously a trip like this has its costs and each member needs to raise £3000 for Girlguiding to cover all of our transport, insurance and everything we need to run our workshops. Over the next few months I will be carrying out some fundraising activities to help my team reach our goal, but given the substantial total, any donation to my JustGiving page would also be gratefully received.

Please contact me if you have any fundraising suggestions or if you want any advice or information about volunteering or Girlguiding 😊

Laura