Hello,

Thanks so much for visiting my JustGiving page. As you probably know by now, I am heading to Uganda this summer with 11 other students from Oxford for nine weeks with a charity called Oxford Development Abroad. ODA is works with a charity in Uganda called Little Big Africa who will be looking after us when we are there. After a one week training course in Mbale, I will be heading to a village in the East of Uganda in the Manafwa district where I will be based for 6 weeks working on small scale community based construction projects which include the construction of a 10,000 liter water tank in the Primary School, the protection of a water source, teaching about water and sanitation in the local schools and helping to build fuel efficient stoves. We are also given a small amount of money for a microfund project in the village and how we spend this money is up to us when we get there. This will give us a chance to do something to benefit the community which Little Big Africa may not of thought of  - I will be able to fill you in on exactly what we did when I get back!!

To be able to do this, each volunteer must raise £700 pounds. None of this money goes towards our personal costs, it is all sent to Little Big Africa where it is used to buy the necessary materials and to pay for engineers which will be working with us for a section of the project.

To try and reach our fundraising target, we decided it would be a good idea to set off on a fairly miserable Sunday morning to cycle 85 miles from Oxford to Cambridge!! (yes...it did seem like a good idea at the time!) We left Magdalen bridge at 6.30 am and arrived outside Kings College Cambridge approximately 12 hours later. I wish I could say it was a very enjoyable experience, however, it was rather painful. We had a fairly major crash, one or two dodgy navigation calls but, we did in fact make it. I have already raised just over £500 towards my target and while I am so grateful for everyone's donations so far, any donation which could be made to help me reach my target would be very much appreciated!! As I said, all of the money goes towards the construction projects in Uganda and I know the local community there will be just as grateful as I am for any donations!!

Thanks so much to all who have supported me up to now. I will keep you posted on progress!!

Laura xx

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So please dig deep and donate now...thanks!! x