Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page!

My name is Anna, I come from Poland, and for over a year now I have been living in the UK, where I came to complete my Master's in International Economic Law at the University of Warwick.

In February 2018, I will begin the biggest adventure of my 24 years thus far. Thanks to the UK government-funded & VSO-led International Citizen Service (ICS, https://www.volunteerics.org), I have the great honour of joining an award-winning social enterprise from London, Balloon Ventures (https://balloonventures.com/balloon-ics/), as a volunteer in their unique Balloon ICS programme.

For 10 to 12 weeks, I will be working towards the eradication of poverty through teaming up with microentrepreneurs and local community in Mbale in Eastern Uganda and offering my help to grow their businesses and eventually pitch for small, 0% interest and unsecured loans.

Balloon ICS volunteers have worked with many incredible entrepreneurs, from Solomon's cyber café, through Anita's tailoring business, through Mildred's hair salon, and thousands (!) of others across Africa.

Why did I choose to participate in the ICS? I will here borrow from another volunteer, Sara Ramos, who so rightly put it: "Working with young passionate entrepreneurs plays a vital role in transforming common but erroneous perceptions of ‘poverty’. (...) One begins to appreciate that where money and possessions are lacking, the roots of innovation and creativity grow. There is no scope for pity whilst working with a capable generation that has big aspirations and works restlessly (yet, happily) in the least favourable conditions. Ambition is latent (...) This (...) is the value of working with local Ugandans – it encompasses a strong commitment to defeat the condescending attempts to teach and impose new ideas onto others by stubbornly embracing Western ideals."

For me, responsible & social impact investing, microfinance and development finance present some of the best ways to empower communities in developing countries to grow sustainably. I want to become an international development expert and I feel very strongly about this approach to development. I am so looking forward to working on it in emerging economies and learning from small local entrepreneurs!

Finally, I will also be able to live my biggest dream yet, ever since I was a young girl - the dream of living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa!

As part of the programme, volunteers are obliged to raise money to enable further ICS volunteering. I would like to stress that the funds I am collecting are not a payment for my own place on the programme but will go towards the overall costs of ICS, allowing them to continue sending volunteers to work on projects in the developing world.

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Thank you so much for being here!