Oh dear…. another shameless JustGiving page soliciting cash for some other noble cause! It's not, I promise, well only a little. ;-)

Please take a few minutes to read this and then feel free to ignore if you would like to, as the reality is, there are so many causes out there that are worthy of support.

Let me tell you a story about a crazy woman that was abducted by aliens………

After thinking that a 5km military assault course would be "fun".…. I am now going to be part of a 50 man team that will be doing a 4 day trek across the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia.  Walk in the park right!

Has a weird sporty alien taken over my rather large, slow, sofa shaped body and does it think all this "fun" stuff will be "easy"?

Alien or not, here I find myself, embarking on an epic journey (have boots, ready to travel), which whilst it will be (I hope) enjoyable and rewarding, no doubt will be extremely trying at times, and no doubt there will be some tears before bed time.  So, why I am doing this, the reality is that I listened to a story and then wanted to know more.

I am motivated to raise as much money as I can to support the cause and to raise awareness of the cause itself.  The firm I work for have a partnership with UNICEF and we are raising money for the Justice for Children Programme in Bangladesh, which is working to better protect children and ensure they are not unlawfully incarcerated and have access to justice and legal support. 

Annually over 50,000 children are arrested by the police in Bangladesh.  Any child over the age of nine can be arrested by the police, for what in our society is regarded as a misdemeanour and not a serious crime.  These children are being arrested and imprisoned, sometimes in adult prisons, or in juvenile detention facilities, and are all treated the same, irrespective of age, irrespective of crime, irrespective of whether they are still awaiting trial or have been sentenced.  AND, there is little to no care and rehabilitation facilities.  One story I was told of, was a 4 year old boy in one of these juvenile detention facilities, his crime being that he was abandoned by his parents because they couldn’t afford to feed him.  Again, he was put in the facility where he will stay indefinitely until a solution is found.

I know I have gone on a bit here, but, ultimately I believe this to be such a worthy cause and really want to help UNICEF in providing access to justice for the children in Bangladesh.

So, here it comes … the shameless plea….you have read/heard my story (if you got to the end, Thank You), please help today, either by donating or if you want to know more - to get involved.