4 days to go!!!

With only 4 days until I leave, I'm doing all of my final preparations: buying sun cream, insect repellent, reading up on the malaria medication and finding a hat!

I have a had a phenomenal amount of support the past few months to raise the money I needed in order to get to the DRC and everyone has been absolutely amazing. There is still time to make a donation and I am grateful to everyone who has already donated.

As soon as I leave on Sunday, all of the posts on this blog will be to update you on what we are doing over in the DRC and to let family and friends know that I am ultimately ok.

I hope that this donation blog turned travel blog will give an interesting insight into the work of Menelik Education and what volunteers get up to. And please remember that Menelik travel every year and you can always apply to travel out for next summer!

Thankyou again. Jess x

Raffle Winners!

I'd like to say a huge thankyou to everyone who bought a ticket from me or Niamh over the past couple of weeks! The raffle was organised and advertised at very short notice but even so we raised around £100 to go towards Menelik Education's educational supplies that we will use while we are out there.

The winners were:

Andy Gough - 'University of Birmingham' Monopoly board

Sion Elis - £20

Laura Howard - Molton Brown cosmetics

Aliya Akram - 19 Gales Farm shop Victoria Sponge cake

David (House of Fraser) - 2x 19 Gales Farm shop luxury vanilla cupcakes

Alex Prinelle - 2x 19 Gales Farm shop luxury carrot cupcakes

Helen (Laura Ashley) - House of Fraser bracelet

The 'University of Birmingham' t-shirts went to:

Naomi Falgate

Josie Pearl

Barry (House of Fraser)

Louette (House of Fraser)

Liz Salt

Thea Cope

And the booby prize (a pack of University of Birmingham cards) went to Noddy Walton.

I would like to sincerely thank the companies and people who donated prizes to us:

University of Birmingham

House of Fraser

19 Gales Farm shop

Zest

We had a fabulous raffle only thanks to the prizes that we were able to offer and the money we have raised will go to a fantastic cause and really make difference in the lessons we will be able to offer.

Thankyou so much everyone.

Prizes to be won...

The raffle ticket selling is in full swing! The ticket books have been purchased (our only expense in this fundraising effort and one which will come entriely out of our own pockets) and the prizes have been kindly donated!!

Each ticket is £1 or 5 for £4! Every penny will go to Menelik Education for the materials we will use in the DRC.

If you would like to purchase one but don't think you'll be able to see me in person, please contact me at j_prinelle@hotmail.co.uk to arrange payment and I will email you your e-ticket. We will keep the hard copy for the draw which will be on 1st July!

The prizes to be won are:

The University of Birmingham Monopoly Board

£20 cash

1 of 6 'University of Birmingham' T-Shirts

A 19 Gales Farm Shop cake

A House of Fraser bracelet (womens, gold-coloured)

A Booby Prize

...with more to come!


If you win we will contact you in the afternoon of 1st July to arrange collection/delivery of your prize.


Thankyou!!

Raffle!!!

As I said in my last post, one of the possibilities for raising money next was a raffle!

Niamh Quille (a fellow volunteer for this summers trip) and I have been busily writing letters and posting them to try and gather donated prizes for our raffle. As Menelik Education is a non-profit organisation, we are conducted our raffle in the same way - all prizes will be donated and all profits will go towards the summer project.

We have begun by posting letters to all of the businesses that have a shop on campus, and Zest (the University's official clothes shop) has already donated 6 'University of Birmingham' t-shirts to us!

We're hoping to send out letters to more businesses in the next couple of days before starting to sell tickets!

If you would like a ticket for the raffle please email me at j_prinelle@hotmail.co.uk and we can arrange payment and your raffle ticket can be esent in the mail to you. We will also make a note of your name and phone number so that when the winning tickets are picked we can send your prize to you! The tickets will cost £1 each and all profits will go towards teaching aids and supplies for this summers trip only.

Thank you x

Plans for the trip so far...

Things have really been moving forward in terms of planning and bookings for the summer trip!

Visas have been sorted, money is being changed into dollars (the most common currency out in the DRC, they also use the Congolese Francs), immunisations have been endured (I'm not a big fan of needles) and I have my flight itinerary.

Tomorrow the team and I travel to the Menelik Partnership offices in Cambridge to talk about activities when we get to the DRC and other information such as safety.

From now on, I will still be advertising for sponsorship and donations but a lot of my efforts will be going towards the group fundraising. The money raised from these efforts will be going towards materials such as schooling equipment to use when we are in the country as well as paint and other DIY materials to try and improve the environment the children have to learn in.

In these activities we will be pushing ideas such as a calendar that includes photographs by Laura Rainsford, a volunteer who travelled to the DRC last summer. Also we are looking at organising a raffle with prizes donated by any local or non-local companies that wish to be involved in helping to raise the money. Any money raised from these activities will be used solely for the purpose of buying materials that are needed out in the country (as I have mentioned paint and schooling aids and may even go towards computing equipment and other such items if we raise enough).

If you or your company would be interested in donating prizes to the raffle or any equipment we could take to the DRC to improve the lives of the children, please email me at j_prinelle@hotmail.co.uk, we welcome any aid that anyone is willing to give. If you would like to purchase a raffle ticket when we have fully organised it, please email the above address. I will post a further post with the list of possible prizes and cost of tickets at a later date.

To find out more about the organisation - Menelik Partnership - please click here. Further, if you are interested in being a volunteer, the work that volunteers do and the costs that are incurred by such a project, you can email Theodore (the organisations founder) and he will be happy to answer any questions, his email address is on the 'Contact Us' tab on the Menelik website. Or you can email myself at the above address.

This blog remains a place to make a donation to my personal costs of the trip (including costs of immunisation, flights, visas, travel and food). If you would like to donate please click here.

Thankyou.

36 hours are up!

I would like to say a huge thankyou to everyone who sponsored me and donated to my trip to the DRC. I successfully fasted until 8am Sunday 16th May after 36 hours without food. I then broke my fast and gladly began to eat again!

It was a difficult challenge, and became a real eye opener about how many people in this world wake up with empty stomachs and how it must feel to know that that feeling of hunger must continue for an indefinite amount of time. I found that the majority of the 36 hours it was a mental battle against the routine of eating, but in the last few hours it did become physically difficult. It's amazing how the body adapts to the lack of food, but it is important to note that clean, fresh water was the key to keeping me going for the full day and a half.

Unfortunatley, many people in the world not only have little access to food but also cannot get to clean water. Much of the water that people have acces to is contaminated by water-borne diseases such as cholera. It is a big problem as survival rates can be increased dramatically by access to clean water. Because of this fast, raising money for things such as water pumps in villages is something I hope to look into in the future.

For now, I am very happy to say that I have raised £250 towards my summer volunteering trip to the DRC and would like to once again thank all those who sponsored me.

There is still time for more fundraising fun, I will be fundraising until I leave on the 11th July 2010 when I leave! If you would like to make a donation please click the link below.

Make a donation

Sponsorship for Sponsored Fast!

To find out more, read the posts below. To make a donation click on the link:

Make a donation

Sponsored Fast

OK guys! The first sponsored activity that I am preparing to do is a sponsored fast!

I have done this once before, for a charity called World Vision. In that case I did it for 24 hours and it was a really good way of raising money. It's difficult but something that is not uncommon to the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

However, 24 hours is often the least amount of time that a child may have to wait for their next meal. In order to raise money this time, I plan to go 36 hours without food. This will mean for the most part drinking only water. For health reasons, if and only if, I feel particularly unwell/faint in the last few hours, I may drink a sugary drink such as orange juice.

I plan to do this in two weeks time, beginning 8pm Friday 14th May until 8am Sunday 16th May. Please sponsor me as much or as little as possible, every little helps. Through this sponsored fast my aim is to raise a total of £300.

If you would like to sponsor me for this please click below.:

Sponsor me.

Thankyou very much. Jess

The Summer Project!!!

This summer, from the 11th July to the 9th August I will be travelling to the Democratic Republic of Congo. We will staying with locals in the capital city of Kinshasa who are kind enough to let us stay in their homes within a compound.

While there our primary aims are as follows:

1. Leading a month long programme of activities for school children.

This is in order to transfer key skills to the children and give them the opportunity to do something they never get to do otherwise, for example art.

2. Renovating the canteen in the school.

It is important for us to do this as the children do not get that much food and this facility can help increase there meal times to at least one a day. We will be working with the locals on this so it is their achievement as much as ours.

3. Renovating the clinic and maternity ward.

Hygiene is the first step to eradicating diseases that are rife in the DRC, hopefully this work we provide a better medical facility for those who need it most.

4. Improving sanitation in the toilets.

The toilets in the area are extremely unhygienic and water-borne diseases are a massive cause of illness and death. With medicines and aid being so hard to access it is important that these areas become sanitary.

5. Teaching English.

As the leading trade language between countries, a huge part of the education will be on learning English. The national language of the DRC is French and we hope that by learning English as a second language more doors will open to the children.

6. Painting murals in and around classrooms.

As well as being teaching aides they also improve the atmosphere of the classroom, see the following pictures, this is the kind of classroom that we want to improve on. The children in the DRC are so willing to learn anything that can be taught to them but having a brighter environment to do that in can make a huge difference.

Obviously each of these aims takes a lot of preparation and work. As a group we will be fundraising for the materials for the renovations and schooling aids. The aims are structured around the previous visits to the compound and the city and are therefore specific to the needs of the people. As Menelik Partnership has a firm belief in the value of education, I hope that with these activities we will really make a difference to people's lives.

With the help of this organisation three girls have had the opportunity to attend University, a previously unheard of concept. Also, they have also formed a girls football team which is a huge accomplishment. Overall, the school Menelik Partnership supports has over 7000 children and our help can really make a difference. If you would like to find out more about what the charity does please

click here.

Also to find more details on the summer projects, including the preparation and the aims of the group, please visit the Facebook page of the Birmingham University branch of Menelik Partnership by

clicking here.

Thank you.

Make a donation

Rosie and Jenny (a project co-ordinator) with a few of the people who live in the compound. Behind them is one of the murals they painted in the nursery last summer (2009).

This is one of the classrooms that needs to have some colour added to it! Featured is Bon-Bon, a little girl who lives in the compound.

A view from inside one of the classrooms. As you can see the bars on the windows give the classroom the feeling of a prison, with a few murals and decorations it could become a really positive working environment.

About the Democratic Republic of Congo

In order to donate to this cause, I think its extremely important to know a bit about the country you could be helping me get to.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the third largest country in Africa, its huge. Unfortunately, we are only a small group and our efforts can only be focused in a small area. We will be travelling to the capital city of Kinshasa in the West.

The country has been plagued by war for a large part of its history. Civil wars and corrupt politicians have meant that the country has had little rest from war and violence. It has been estimated that 3 million people have died as a result of the wars as well as the famine and malnutrition that increased as a result. The wars have ended now, though tensions still exist in the country, mostly to the East, along its borders with other countries.

Menelik Partnership believes that improving educational resources and conditions is one of the first and most important steps on the way to positive change. From previous trips to Kinshasa, volunteers have noted that the children there are eager to learn. Resources are slim, however, and this is what we hope to improve, bit by bit.

Menelik Partnership has already made huge progress, take a look at what has been accomplished so far at:http://www.menelikpartnership.org/page6.htm

I'm very excited about this project in the summer, and hope that we progress with these projects further. As promised, here is the link if you would like to donate:

Make a donation

(Remember that any donations will be going towards my personal fund in order for me to volunteer in the DRC over the summer)