In 2005 I was presented with the chance to travel to Uganda with local Welsh charity Pont due to my expertise in working with children that I had developed running a children’s club within my church. The trip was to be documented by the BBC and provided me a great opportunity to allow my son who was 10 at the time experience a foreign culture.

Whilst visiting a local village, we came across what we perceived to be a small baby, looking very malnourished and in serious need of medical attention. After discovering the child had been abandoned by his mother whom had remarried into a different tribe, and that his elderly grandfather had too many mouths to feed. So we took him back to Salem (the place we were staying that happened to be a hospital, orphanage, school and guesthouse.) to receive the necessary medical treatment. We discovered that Ivan was 5, he was severely malnourished and had malaria. Now that Ivan was being treated, the next step was to return to the village and come up with a long-term plan for the child. It was decided by me and the grandfather that it would be best for Ivan to stay at Salem and for me to support him finically, I had to attend a tribal court to formally adopt Ivan and become his legal guardian.

So I returned home with a new experience and responsibility. Over the years I’ve worked for the probation service and high risk offenders, I’ve coached businesses from across the world, I’ve trained to become a qualified teacher and significantly expanded my knowledge. As I’ve returned to Uganda many times to visit Ivan, I’ve brought with me my ever increasing skill set to work with the people I meet.

The goal of this fundraiser is to increase the scope of projects I’m involved in, whilst also continuing those previously established. Future projects that are currently in the works are for example using my expertise working within probation to help long-term prisoners develop business ideas for on release. Projects that are currently running and your support will help keep run are children’s lessons that focus on fun and learning whilst also incorporating an aspect of business development to help them in future life, a rather successful business mastermind group for local business owners of all sizes to solve any problems that that may have arose as a community.

My next trip to Uganda will be in a months time. I will keep everyone posted on social media.