This summer, I will be volunteering with the Akenkan charity in Ghana to help teach English to some of the most impoverished children in the country. The Akenkan charity does amazing work as, by learning English, children from even the poorest and most remote villages have a chance to make a better life for themselves.

Children, and especially girls, in such places face immense hardships, and many are caught in the poverty trap, with no tools to change their situation. Education in such villages is heavily restricted by a lack of good resources, with what textbooks they do have often being outdated and old-fashioned. Reading for pleasure virtually does not exist as many of the "children's" books are overly moralising and include characters that the children simply cannot relate with.

For this reason, our small but dedicated school Akenkan group has spent the last 18 months writing and illustrating a collection of vibrant, engaging and relatable children's books for the Ghanaian children to enjoy and, most importantly, learn from. So much can be achieved by creating a love of reading, which we perhaps don't recognise having grown up in Britain, so this is definitely a worthy cause. Whats more, the children genuinely seem to enjoy our stories, which we hope can help change their opinions on education in general.

In order to raise money for this, I will be doing a Bungee jump at the o2 Arena on the 4th May. Any proceeds will be split between financing the cost of my own expedition and the cost of printing our books, as well as any extra resources (e.g for lesson planning) that we may need.

Any contribution is welcome and both myself and the Akenkan project cannot thank you enough for your generosity.