I'm hoping to go to South Africa for two months this summer with the (amazing and entirely volunteer-run) charity Tenteleni. If I'm able to go, I will be working in a school Monday to Friday in the poverty-stricken township of Pienaar and helping out in places such as a local centre for orphans in the evenings and weekends. Tenteleni seeks to provide the communities it sends volunteers to with enthusiasm, dedication, and vital education on issues such as HIV and AIDS (South Africa has the highest number of people infected with HIV in the world).

However, to be able to get there to do all this, I first need to raise about a thousand pounds!

One way in which I'm attempting to raise this money is by asking all you wonderful people to sponsor me to do something else worthwhile that will directly benefit Sheffield.

Carbrook Ravine Nature Reserve is a small but beautiful reserve managed by Sheffield Wildlife Trust in the middle of a council estate in Manor and Castle; the most deprived ward in Sheffield, and one of the most deprived in Britain. It provides an invaluable oasis of nature and peace for the inhabitants, whilst also being home to a wide range of wildlife, including threatened species like the skylark and song thrush. 

Unsurprisingly however, it also suffers from a great deal of littering - which Sheffield Wildlife Trust struggle to keep on top of. If you sponsor me now, I will organise a team of people to go and clean up the Reserve over a number of sessions, posting pictures onto this page to demonstrate the difference we are making. Showing that people care about the site will not only make an immediate improvement for the plants, animals and people who care about the reserve, but will also help to encourage the inhabitants to care for the site in the future.

So please sponsor me to help clean up Carbrook Ravine Nature Reserve, and every penny will go towards my project in Africa!

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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.

(A small note for those who might be wondering. The reasons it says I'm raising money for Sheffield RAG is just a legal technicality: Justgiving won't let those of us who are raising money to go to work with Tenteleni say we're raising money _for Tenteleni_, as the money is technically going to US so we can go and help, and not directly to Tenteleni itself. So we've come to an agreement with RAG to let us use their name, but none of the money is actually going to them.)