Story
<p>Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I am raising money for two charities - <strong><a href="http://www.masambiro.org/">Masambiro</a></strong> and <a href="http://guystrust.org/"><strong>Guy's Trus</strong>t</a> - and I want to tell you a little about why I want your help to raise some money.</p>
<p>On Sunday 20th May I will be taking part in <a href="http://www.humanrace.co.uk/events/triathlon/eton-supersprint-sunday">Eton Supersprint </a>Triathlon which involves swimming 400m, running 5km and cycling 20km. Now I know this does not sound like very far but bearing in mind that, as I write this page, I have been swimming maybe twice in the past 12 months its a serious undertaking for me!</p>
<p><strong>The first recipent is a charity called <a href="http://www.masambiro.org/">Masambiro</a></strong> - which means education in Chechewa, the national language of Malawi. As many of you know I spent 6 months in 2007 working in an area called Nkhata Bay in northern Malawi. The school where I was based had been set up by a small group of dedicated teachers committed to improving educational standards in Malawi, the world's fourth poorest country.</p>
<p>Life expectancy in Malawi is <strong>54</strong> years. <strong>56 out of every 1000</strong> children die before the age of <strong>5</strong> and<strong> 11%</strong> of the population is living with HIV.</p>
<p>I ended up there because the charity Masambiro, set up by two friends of mine, Mandy Wilkins and Jason Strelitz had started to raise money for the school to build them a new school block, library and science laboratory - there is very little funding for secondary education in Malawi and all of it is fee-paying. I worked with the project directors helping to build their capacity and skills to run the school as effectively as possible.</p>
<p>Of course I loved living and working there and since I returned at the beginning of 2008 have worked with Mandy and Jason to run Masambiro in the UK. We raise around <strong>£20,000</strong> per year of which every penny goes to the project which now includes <strong>Masambiro educational trust, Kunyanja Secondary School, a school leavers micro-credit and business skills course, a community garden and several income generation projects.</strong> We've also paid for the project directors - the visionaries behind Masambiro in Malawi - to go to university so they can bring their skills back to Nkhata Bay and the project.</p>
<p><strong>All of this is possible because of people like you sponsoring people like me!</strong></p>
<p><strong>The second charity is called <a href="http://guystrust.org/">Guy's Trus</a></strong>t and was set up in the memory of my very close friend Lauren's brother Guy. Guy was sadly killed in a paragliding accident aged 25 just over six months ago. He was a much admired and loved person and when he died his family wanted to honour his memory. Guy spent much time travelling abroad and <span class="body-txt-bold">Guy’s Trust</span> will focus on creating educational opportunities for disadvantaged young people in developing countries, initially those countries Guy had a special connection with.</p>
<p>A few months ago when Guy's family started to discuss the possibility of setting up a trust in Guy's name they approached me and asked, if along with Guy's immediate family, one of his friends and one of his parent's friends I would be a trustee of the charity. It was an honour which I was of course delighted to accept and with that honour comes the responsibility of fundraising for the trust and this is where you come in!<br> <br> Guy’s Trust’s first major project will be to build ‘<strong><a href="http://guystrust.org/guy-joseph-early-childhood-development-centre.html">The Guy Joseph Early Childhood Development Centre</a></strong>’ in Dhikurpokhara. The centre, built in partnership with international NGO ActionAid, will promote the right to education for children in the Kaski region of Nepal and help hundreds of children get the start in life they deserve. The centre will not only provide learning and recreational materials but will also run a programme to train teachers in the community. <strong>The cost of building and maintaining the Centre, including teacher training, is £35,523.</strong></p>
<p><strong>So, assuming you think these two projects are worthy, which as you are all nice people I am sure you do, and you think its worth encouraging me not to drown in Dorney Lake by incentivising me with the cash you are going to donate to these two projects please help me raise some money!</strong></p>
<p>Once you donate, your money will be sent by Just Giving directly to the Charities Advisory Trust (Good Gifts) which kindly house Masambiro for us, and they will pass half onto Guy's Trust and will 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.</p>
<p>So please dig deep and donate now.</p>