Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page I have included some details about what I am doing below.

About Just Giving: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

What am I doing?

I am going to Costa Rica/Nicaragua in January 2010 to work as a volunteer project manager for Raleigh International.

I will be involved in a community project aimed to give young volunteers a unique opportunity to work alongside members of the community to help provide basic facilities such as clean water and schools. My role will involve co-managing a team of fourteen 17-24 year old volunteers from a variety of different and often challenging backgrounds.

The charity objectives of Raleigh:

1) The advancement of education and global citizenship

2) The relief of those in need by reason of disadvantage

3) The advancement of environmental protection and sustainable community development

 

Because Raleigh is a charity all volunteers need to fund their own trips - this includes flights, placement costs - such as day to day living expenses, as well as kit, injections, insurance and visas. I will be funding the majority of this myself but I am also aiming to raise £1500 through sponsorship.

Any contributions, big or small, will be very much appreciated.

I think I will find the experience very challenging at times but I really want to be able to contribute my skills to something sustainable and help to improve the quality of life for people less fortunate than myself.

 

These are examples of volunteer projects I may be working on:

La Calera, Achapa, Nicaragua

High in the hills above Achuapa, in one of the poorest most remote areas of Nicaragua, Raleigh will be working on a project to bring clean and safe drinking water to 14 families in La Calera. At present the local people get their water from the river which often dries up in summer or comes from polluted water sources. Raleigh volunteers will be working with the local population to dam small streams, build tanks to collect water from where it can run through pipes to all local houses. Volunteers will be living directly with families in the village and will help out with their day to day tasks.

 

Miraflor Community Centre Project, Nicaragua

The Miraflor reserve is 206sqkm of beautiful mountainous terrain with various different ecosystems such as tropical savannah, dry tropical forest and mountain cloud forest. The local people have few resources and lack access to basic services such as health and education. On this project volunteers will be building a community centre / preschool in the community of El Zacaton where currently  there are no facilities for very young children to learn. The community centre will also act as the hub of the community providing a space for meetings, training sessions and social events.

 

All the volunteer projects are sustainable and genuinely needed by the communities Raleigh works in

Please sponsor me!