I am travelling to KwaZulu Natal in South Africa in June 2017 with a small group of students at the University of Leeds as part of 'Gryphons Abroad', a project to help young kids in Africa with sports, education and their leadership abilities.

Specifically, we will be working with the Mnyakanya High School in the Nklanda region, an extremely deprived area where 90% of adults are affected by HIV, 90% are unemployed and there is an extremely high rate of illiteracy in adults of over 60%.

These children do not have the same opportunity to the education that we get and that's why this project is so important. One of the aims of the project is to teach the children how to ride a bicycle. This is not only a good form of exercise, but it could help to tackle the issue of some students being unable to attend school due to the distance they have to walk. In addition, providing these children with a sports education will be extremely beneficial in their future as they will have developed leadership and teamwork skills essential for a successful future career.

I am extremely invested in this project as I have been to multiple training sessions for child safeguarding and protection, first aid and there are more to come. I will post updates on these training sessions and my endeavours to fund-raise.

All the money raised will go towards the costs of the project, including flight and accommodation costs, and whatever else is made will go directly to the the partnership or the school itself that we will be working with.

Any donations would be so greatly appreciated, so if you have a spare fiver then it would be so kind if you could help me towards this project.

Also, please share my crowdfunding page on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other platform to help me getting a larger response! I would be extremely appreciative.

If you are interested in finding out any more, click the link below: http://sport.leeds.ac.uk/sport/gryphons-abroad/