Thank you for making your way to my fundraising page; I’m raising money for a brilliant cause, so thank you for deciding to find out more and maybe even make a donation!

In short, I'm working towards a 4 month placement in Kenya, volunteering with an organisation that fights HIV and AIDS, but please read on to find out more about it!

I am raising funds for Inter-Cultural Youth Exchange (ICYE UK), which is an ethical international volunteering charity that works in the field of intercultural learning and youth empowerment. They organise overseas placements through a network of local partners in over 30 countries, supporting communities and projects across Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe, as well as placements for international volunteers here in the UK.

ICYE’s aim is to provide placements that allow volunteers to make a positive contribution to the community in which they will live and work, and engage in the on-going development of the organisation.  Through my involvement with IYCE I will be visiting Kenya to volunteer for 4 months, with an organisation that represents a lot of things that I really believe in, including sexual health promotion and gender equality.

The organisation that I’ll be volunteering with is Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK), whose mission is “…to empower, provide care and support to Women, Youth and Children infected and affected by HIV and AIDS through Community Groups and Organizations to enable them to have wholesome lives”. WOFAK’s work includes prevention work, care and support for those infected or affected by HIV and AIDS, such as prevention education, counselling, medical care services, education and food for children who have been orphaned, vocational training and economic support. You can read more by visiting www.wofak.or.ke

The reason that WOFAK’s work is so important is that Kenya has the fourth largest HIV epidemic in the world, with an estimated 1.6 million people living with HIV and 1.1 million children who are orphans because of HIV and AIDS. Because of various cultural beliefs and practices, women in Kenya are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS, both in terms of the likelihood that they’ll acquire the virus and also in dealing with the infection of family members. You can find out more at www.avert.org/women-and-hiv-aids.htm

The good news is that lots of brilliant work has already started in Kenya, and the rate of HIV infections is going down, but I hope that by supporting the work of WOFAK I can make a small contribution towards getting closer to being able to wave goodbye to HIV and AIDS altogether!

If you are able to donate (not just money – it could be services to be auctioned off, unwanted goods I can sell etc) then that would be incredible, but even simply telling others about what I’m up to will also help me to raise awareness of the work that ICYE and WOFAK are doing and would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance for any support that you can offer, and if you want to find out more then drop me an email at bethkentfundraising@gmail.com or read my blog: http://twelvemonthinterlude.blogspot.co.uk/

Beth