Dear friends and family,

This May I will be flying to Nigeria to undertake the challenge of a lifetime, spending three months volunteering in a local Nigerian community, with VSO, a UK-based charity. I will be helping with the education of children in the communities around the region of Kwara, in Northern Nigeria. In Nigeria children have limited opportunities to enrich their lives through education. Of all the children in the world who are out of school, 10% of those children are Nigerian. Education has the power to transform a country in which violence, political corruption and social deprivation are commonplace. 

The money I am raising will not directly fund my placement, but will support the work of International Citizen Service and VSO, which is providing this wonderful opportunity for me. Your donation will enable volunteers such as myself to impact upon local communities in vital ways, helping to change lives worldwide; not only in the field of education but also in health care and climate change. ICS and VSO bridge the gap between young people from the Western developed world with struggling communities in Africa and Asia. Not only do volunteers on the ICS program make a crucial difference to the lives of the people in the foreign communities they encounter, but these volunteers themselves bring back a wealth of social and cultural insight into British society, helping to improve their world and ours.

I will be doing various challenges along the way to raise money for this amazing opportunity. I will doing the following three things to raise money:

1) I will be undertaking the Live Below the Line challenge, where I will live on £1 a day for five days, in order to raise awareness about the hunger and financial deprivation suffered by the majority of people in African nations, such as Nigeria.

2) I will be hosting a series of dinner parties to raise awareness about the critical work VSO does and to raise funds for that work by asking guests to provide a voluntary donation to the charity.

3) I will be selling my speciality homemade brownies to friends, family, and groups and societies within my University. 

I would really appreciate any donations to help me reach my fundraising target.

Lots of love,

Lydia