Hello Friends,

 

As some of you may know, at the age of 27, I have had a sudden impulse to extract myself from the London rat race in favour of virtuous pursuits. Having unsuccessfully tried lying down several times to see if the feeling would pass, I now find myself 2 months away from my trip to the depths of the Bornean rainforest.

 

From June I will be volunteering for the charity Raleigh International, working as a venture leader on a community/environmental project in the poorest part of the country, Sabah. I am funding my own trip, however I am also looking to raise funds for the excellent work that Raleigh International does before I go.

 

Raleigh aims to  bring volunteers together from all over the world, to work on projects in communities that need it most. I will be working in Sabah which, despite having a vast wealth of natural resources, is currently the poorest of Malaysia's states with a large number of people living below the poverty line. A fifth of the children in this area have never attended school and many of the rural communities do not have access to clean, reliable water. Sabah is also home to the world’s oldest rainforest, and the lovely orang-utans, whose habitat is threatened more gravely every day by extensive deforestation.

 

If you would like to find out more about the great work that Raleigh does, take a look at this link http://www.raleighinternational.org/what-we-do

 

By donating generously not only will you be supporting Raleigh's fantastic cause, you will also be able to revel in the knowledge that you’re helping to subject to me to 8 weeks of;

- Washing daily in a leech infested river. Think there are a few crocodiles kicking about also.

- No Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Whats App, YouTube, iPhone, iPad, Daily Mail Online and other mindless/pointless social media applications

- Living off basic Raleigh rations, in which pitta bread, houmous and olives don’t feature, although I hear rice, rice, porridge and rice does

- No Jägerbombs, prosecco, double vodkas, amarettos, sambucas or alcohol of any kind, at any point, ever (argh)

 

I’m really excited about this tough yet hopefully rewarding challenge - please do support Raleigh if you can.

 

Thanks and love,

 

Sophie

 

PS Thanks to Lewis for his orangutan photo shopping