Two years ago I walked the Camino de Santiago from Porto to Santiago de Compostela, raising funds for refugees in Greece. A few months later, whilst in Greece organising supplies for a maternity and childcare organisations, I got a phone call telling me my father had been murdered in Brazl.

This year I am making my third pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, this time following the old route, the Camino Primitivo, over the mountains. And this time I am asking you to donate something - anything, even the cost of a cup of coffee helps - to APAE, a charity that my father supported in Lapa, Parana, Brazil.

APAE is a school for students with learning disabilities. The students range from 6 months to 71 years old. Some are non verbal, some want to drive tractors when they grow up.

The reality of the situation is that students sometimes have to travel three hours each way to attend a morning or afternoon session; there is a small building where mothers of young students can wait, with sewing machines, kettles and a tv.

The basic running costs of the institution are covered by the state - though at the beginning of the year, despite the government running out of funds, the teachers continued coming in to work and caring for the students unpaid. Resources are stretched thin - the greenhouse in which the students grew not only food for their meals but also flowers to be sold in town has been destroyed by storms, and needs about £2000 to be rebuilt.

The psychologist working in APAE brings in her tablet every day - she told me that in her four years of working there, she'd never seen such progress as when she started using tablets in her work with the students. APAE can't afford tablets - it has a few board games, many years old, most are missing many pieces.

My father was the main donor and lifeline of APAE whilst he was alive, and in his memory I've been invited into the school on a number of occasions. I've cradled the babies, danced with the students, and sat with the teachers during their lunch break, which they use as structured but informal and unpaid training sessions, training each other in their given fields.

It is hard for me to describe the disparities of wealth that I experience between my lives in Brazil and in the UK. They are so extreme that any words I try to put them into seem bombastic and artificial. So instead I'll simply say this: even the costs of a cup of coffee would make a difference.

I ask that you consider donating some amount, however small, to this institution.

Thank you.

Santi