My name is Amelia Keefe-Smith and I am a member of Girlguiding 1st Roffey Division. I am 13 years old, attend Millais School and I live in Horsham.

In August 2018 I will be taking part in an International Service Project with Girlguiding Sussex Central in partnership with a local charity The Coco’s Foundation (www. cocosfoundation.co.uk). There will be 18 of us (4 adults and 14 Senior section members (14-18 year olds) travelling to Mseleni, in KwaZulu Natal, in South Africa to help build 2 houses with toilets for child headed families*, and visit the Mseleni Orphanage and schools in the local community to help support breakfast and after school clubs that have been set up by Coco’s Foundation on previous visits to the area.

* A child-headed family or child-headed household is a family in which a minor (child or adolescent) has become the head of the household. They are most common in developing countries and areas of war, where the children's parents have been killed by conflict or disease.

The children we will be helping have lost members of their families to AIDS. Many of the families are headed by young children, many of whom have the HIV virus themselves. They live in very poor conditions and have little or no adult support. They have to walk up to 3 hours to school and back every day and have very little in the way of food, water and medical support.

In order to participate in this important project I need to raise £2,500. I was hoping that you might consider making a donation towards my appeal so that I can head out to South Africa next year and help local communities and children in need.

Any contribution you feel you would be able to make towards our trip would be very gratefully received.