Dearest friends,

Marco Polo is one of the few that travelled through the Lut Desert (the hottest place on earth) on a camel and we will be attempting this feat on foot and in support of an amazing charity, Women for
Women International! 

My brave teammates and I ((https://www.justgiving.com/teams/woamiran2016) hope to become the first all-female team in recorded history to do so. We expect it to take about 7-9 days and we will be covering close to 200 km on foot. National Geographic have recently written about such a rare expedition calling it “Iran: Mission Impassable”:    

http://www.natgeotraveller.co.uk/destinations/middle-east/iran/iran-mission-impassable/

This will truly push my personal boundaries having done just 2 days of camping in my whole life.

I will drawing strength from the inspirational work of Women for
Women International UK! Since 1993, WfWi has helped more than 447,000 marginalized women in countries affected by war and conflict through training, support networks and providing them with livelihood.

I am delighted to be supporting this charity and not simply because I am a woman. I truly believe that in war zones it is often the women who are left to pick up the pieces and to build new, healthy communities, while unfortunately they are often brutally abused and rarely have the means to do so. Let us help Women for Women International change that one woman at a time!

If you feel the same, please donate generously and I promise to try my best not to fail you! THANK YOU!

Below is more information on WfWi

Women for Women International was founded in1993 by an Iraqi  woman, Zainab Salbi, who experienced war and marital abuse first
hand. The charity’s mission is: “In countries affected by conflict and war,
Women for Women International supports the most marginalized women to earn and save money, improve health and well-being, influence decisions in their home and community, and connect to networks for support”. 

If you google search you will see interviews of Zainab Salbi with Oprah Winfrey, TED talks and loads more on WfWi in praise of their work. Here are a couple of videos to give you an idea of their work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ch0xp1bXE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeMkMlXk3NM
– this is so powerful even if a few years old

Here is a quote from Dame Helen Mirren, who is international patron of WfWi: “Women bear the brunt of modern conflict. Many experience torture, brutality and horrific sexual violence. Their basic rights, freedoms and dignity are often targeted as a tactic of war. With the rise of brutal armed conflicts and extremism we are currently seeing unprecedented levels of violence against women, which means there has never been a greater need for the work of Women for Women
International to support women survivors. Women for Women International has demonstrated over the past 20 years that when given the tools, resources and knowledge to access livelihoods and protect their rights, women can transform their families, communities – and ultimately help build more stable nations."

What your donations could buy:

£13 could pay for enough vegetable seeds to cover 30 acres
and enable a woman to feed her family and sell produce at market.

£22 could pay for a bakery basket, containing equipment and
supplies to enable a woman to set up her own small bakery business.

£33 could pay for literacy training. When a woman learns how
to read and write, she is able to run her business with confidence.

£49 could pay for a sewing machine, to help a woman set up a
home tailoring business and provide an income for her family.

£163 could pay for a bee-keeper basket, with all the
supplies needed to set up bee-keeping business.

£327 could pay for a chicken-coop, to enable a woman to run
a poultry business from home.

£650 could pay for poultry training, to give a woman the
skills she needs to care for poultry and raise money through the sale of eggs
and chickens.

£3,000 could pay for a greenhouse, for a woman to grow
organic herbs to sell at market.