Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Now you're here, please read on about why I’ve decided to run the Brighton Marathon 2013 in support of WaterAid.

Good Hope

In 2011, I travelled to Tanzania on a trip organised through a charity called Focus in Africa (FIA). Founded in 2007, FIA runs various volunteering projects and adventure programmes throughout Tanzania in order to provide basic healthcare and education to its local communities. During my stay, FIA arranged a visit to the Good Hope Orphanage and School in the city of Arusha to meet local children who have been taken off the streets and given a home, as well as the staff who have dedicated their lives to caring for and educating them. The children of Good Hope had something that the street kids of Arusha did not; smiling eyes and cheeky grins – the prospect of a bright future, one full of possibilities and opportunities. I saw first-hand what access to the basic necessities of everyday life, the things you and I take for granted, can achieve and this has stayed with me ever since. For more information about FIA and Good Hope Orphanage, visit http://www.focusinafrica.com/index.htm and http://www.goodhopeorphanage.org/. The trek to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro comes highly recommended!

WaterAid

Established in 1981, WaterAid has as its mission transforming lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world's poorest communities. To achieve this, WaterAid takes a two-fold approach: firstly, it works to provide local partners with the skills and support they need to help communities establish and manage water, hygiene and sanitation-related projects and, secondly, it campaigns locally and internationally in a bid to change policy and practice and to attract recognition for the fundamental role that water, hygiene and sanitation plays in reducing poverty. Contributions, however large or small, are vitally important in ensuring that WaterAid is able to continue its important work in this area and get running water, sanitation and hygiene education to those who need it most. For example, just £15 is enough to help one person gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. For more information, visit http://www.wateraid.org/uk/.

Thanks again for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Please dig deep and donate now.

Michael