Please help us send a group of students and one teacher (me) to Ecuador in 2018 to take part in environmental and educational charity work. The month long trip not only helps with conservation and worthwhile community projects in country, but also allows students who don't usually get these kind of opportunities to travel and do good. Students who have travelled on these projects before have felt that it has expanded their perspective on life and made them want to be part of a global community where we all take responsibility for each other.

Aren't we just paying for them to go on holiday? No. Trust me it is hard work out there. Last year I was lucky enough to travel to Cambodia with a group of students and we worked really hard; building toilet blocks in a remote village, building a library and reading area for a community school, creating communal areas suitable for children, digging foundations and making metal supports from scratch, as well as teaching English. In practical terms this means we were, up at 6am and on site by 7:30am with a midday break to avoid the baking sun. Working a good 7+ hours a day.

It was a phenomenal experience. Both the students and I felt such a huge sense of achievement having explored, not only a new country, but a new way of being... including being without Wi-Fi (a real challenge for all teenagers these days).

By sponsoring me, in, lets face it, what will be a real personal challenge, you will be helping us to raise much needed funds for the group to travel next summer. The money we raise in order to go on the expedition enables projects to be funded where they are most needed and for the resources to be provided; we then become the workforce to turn those resources into something wonderful.