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Dear friends & family, This July, I will be spending 3 weeks in Morocco for a volunteering project with Oxford Development Abroad (ODA), to build a classroom in a rural village. To finance the building materials of the classroom, I have to raise 750 GBP (I know! It's quite a sum isn't it!) and would need some of your time and a lot of your altruism to help me meet this target.  Please donate generously! Every pound counts towards meeting my target, and every pound will go to the villagers. None of it goes to me or my airfares to Morocco. Here is a link to the ODA website if you would like to know more about what we do <a href="http://www.odauk.org" target="_blank">www.odauk.org</a> The exchange rate GBP-SGD is 1 British pound is to 2.07 Singapore Dollar as of 20 February 2011. Below, you can find my motivations for the trip, and a little bit about justgiving.com. My Motivations  Maybe you're reading this as I don't come across as the particularly altruistic or benevolent kind. I don't blame you; hard on the outside, soft on the inside. Or maybe you've just picked a 50 pound bill off the street and would like to donate it to someone who has a genuine cause. Read on then. Experiences shape a person. At this juncture, I have never been to Africa, never experienced life in a rural village, nor have I gone on an overseas volunteering project. And this might be my best chance to do it. Year 2 summer is for internships, I graduate in Year 3, and thereafter its a slippery slope into the busy working world. Your support of my project would go a long way in helping the village and my enrichment at the same time. Education shapes the future. I am a firm believer in education as a driver of progress. In fact, I think it is THE sine qua non for progress. A classroom is a humble but significant contribution that is aligned with my beliefs. Also, think longer term. By going there ourselves, we see the issues the poor grapple with, and bring home with us an understanding gleaned through experience - not some theoretical problem in some developmental economics textbook cooked up by someone sitting in his office armchair. Only by experiential understanding can we be poignantly convinced of the impacts of poverty - and collectively, build political and societal will to fight it. Why don't we just send money instead? Why send unskilled Oxford undergraduates? Will we be snatching employment from their construction workers? Are we indirectly promoting dependency? Maybe this project stinks of cultural imperialism? So many issues, too little space. But rest assured the above issues have been thought for, and if you would like to know more, feel free to email me at ziteng.chan@st-annes.ox.ac.uk. JustGiving.com  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.

Zi Teng's Morocco Project

Zi Teng's Morocco Project

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