Sponsored Walk to Cambridge….Yes from London to Cambridge….Am I nuts…. Do I look nuts? Ok………
On Friday night (20th August), my friend, and president of the Cambridge Phan Thiet Society, Nguyen Duc Thong (I am an honorary member and co-founder of this wonderful society J), were having a meal with some friends, when he casually said, “hey man, do you fancy walking to Cambridge in September?” I was like….. “are you nuts that’s like 80km away!”……. It only took me a few seconds to realise that he was nuts! J An hour later, so was I!

Another friend and legend, Hussein Mitha, recently embarked on an amazing trip. He walked from London to Paris…. Yes, I know! It took him two weeks and yes he did take the ferry before people start to think he walked through the channel tunnel. Some have suggested that he was seen walking up and down the ferry as well J

Anyhow, this quite amazing feat inspired me to say “Yes” to Thong and on Friday 17th September, we shall set out for Cambridge. Of course, this feat is nothing compared to Hussein, but he has inspired me on this very interesting journey.
Of course this walk will be a wonderful journey. We shall hopefully take a guitar and sing songs along the way. Hopefully we shall take lots of video footage and upload at the end, so you can see what we got up to. However, there is another reason for the walk, which is far more important……

Faith In Action – Homeless Project
My mother is a quite amazing woman. She has many talents and is involved in many wonderful projects. One of these projects is called “Faith in Action” which helps homeless people.

She had the following to say about the project “Passing a begging, homeless person on the street can prick the conscience. Giving often means feeding a drug or alcohol habit. In South West London there is a homeless project that ensures donations go towards feeding and caring for the homeless person - not their habits.”

Faith in Action Merton’s Homelessness drop-in is open on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year. Housed in the Salvation Army Hall, it’s run by a friendly and caring project management team with twenty volunteers from different faith groups. The drop-in offers a very warm welcome to 50+ vulnerable people each session. They can eat, shower, change their clothes, do their laundry, get sleeping bags, food parcels, engage in social activities and be seen by key agencies & be accompanied to appointments. In short, feel like human beings again. The project costs £60,000+ every year to run.

If this note and this event interests you to find out further information about this project then please contact Nicki or Andy on 07843 280 419, or email <> . Here is a short video about the project <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCs59_a8b0o>

Donation
I know my mum would love to make this project available to homeless people for more days in the week and when I thought about this walk to Cambridge, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to raise some money as well as awareness of this project and off homeless people in general. I think that society often dismisses them. I know that many people will think, “why don’t you just get a job, why should I feel sympathy for you.” I understand why people have this thought pattern, but I think it stems from an ignorance of what reality really is. I would recommend that you find out more about this type of thing to help alleviate this ignorance, that I know that I once had.