A Post-Training Weekend Update

So, as I write this blog, I'm sat on the train home from an incredible training weekend with Skillshare International. Having spent two days learning about my upcoming placement in Lesotho, I only felt it would be fair for me to update my donors on what I'll be doing for ten weeks, and where the money is going.

As you may know, I'll begin my placement at the end of January, and will spend ten weeks in country on programmes specifically designed around HIV/AIDS and youth empowerment. Built into these programmes there are also clear goals in promoting gender equality and sustainable livelihoods, ultimately aiming to contribute to better qualities of life for the young people who take part. A key theme during the placement will also be crime prevention, and each team will be developing a project to engage young people with this.

When in country, each team will be working on one of two programmes: either with the Olympic Youth Ambassadors Programme (OYAP) or the Lesotho Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (LENEPHWHA). OYAP is organised by the Lesotho National Olympics Committee and aims to develop young people through sport, using sessions focusing on life skills and HIV and AIDS awareness. LENEPHWHA is a network of support groups for people loving with HIV and AIDS, and part of the work will be combatting the stigma of both within the country, again using sport as a basis to engage young people in educating around the myths of HIV and AIDS.

This weekend I also got to meet the incredible team I will be volunteering with. We'll be living with host families while in country, and experiencing Lesotho's culture at a direct level. The villages we'll be staying in could be incredibly remote, depending on which programme we are placed in. We'll also have limited access to technology, but I'll try and update my blog whenever possible, to keep all you guys who have donated to this incredible programme informed of the work that is actually happening on the ground.

Ultimately, this weekend has made me feel so glad to have taken that leap and take on the ICS programme. Skillshare International are a phenomenal charity, and the money you have (or maybe will?!) donate is going to fund some incredible initiatives. I'm so eager to get over to Lesotho now, and have three more weeks to hit my fundraising target, and only five weeks until I leave. This adventure has only just begun, and I'm excited to get stuck in!

Living Below The Line: Endnote

This week has been incredibly hard. Living on £1 a day for 5 days has really opened my eyes to the importance of nutrition and healthy eating, primarily because it's hard to get food of any substance on such a budget.

 

As I mentioned in my last post, 57% of people in Lesotho live below the Extreme Poverty Line, which is estimated to be around £1 a day. I don't wish to compare my week on £5 to what they go through daily, so my experiences are solely relative to those living in Britain. Before this week, I've never been truly aware of how little nutrition you can get from cheap food. Cans of Sainsbury's Basics Meatballs and Beans and Sausages may be filling, but they don't make you feel good.

This week I've experienced the worst headaches I've ever had, while my eczema has flared up incredibly, which I put down to the lack of variation in my diet. Processed meat, rice and cuppa soups have filled my mealtimes, while my soul source of fruit has come from a tin of mandarins in syrup.

However, at the end of the day, I'm lucky enough to be able to go and start eating how I normally would again. Millions of people around the world aren't lucky enough to do that, and this experience has helped my understand the health problems that can occur just on a short-term basis. Long-term on such a narrow diet is unimaginable to me. One way of lifting people out of poverty is to provide them with the ability to aspire to achieve more.

Skillshare International are doing some incredible work out in Africa, and their projects work to ensure people have sustainable livelihoods, empowering young people to aspire to greatness and providing the right education to tackle HIV and AIDS. If you wish to donate to the charity to support the work they do, please click HERE and help make a massive contribution to tackling such inequality.

£1 A Day

I'm relatively constrained in organising BIG fundraising events to help me get to my £800 target. Working full time and leaving my job just a few days before the mega-busy Christmas period begins, means that I'm trying to utilise personal networks and family connections. However, that doesn't mean that I don't want to attempt some forms of personal challenge, and so next week I'll be living on £1 a day.

The Extreme Poverty Line is defined at being around £1 a day, and millions of people across the globe live on just this amount a day. In Lesotho, 57% of the population live in these conditions, an amazingly sobering fact. Raising people out of poverty is not about pumping money into areas. It's about empowering communities through sustainable methods, and this is the work that Skillshare International is committed to throughout Africa and Asia.

 For me, experiencing living on £1 a day from Monday 3rd December to Friday 6th December is not about expecting to understand what communities go through on a daily basis. Spending £5 on food over five days will be difficult, especially when I can often spend that on one trip to Sainsbury's  after work. This challenge is for me to experience the difficulty of living on so little. And to make it even more worthwhile, I'll be donating my average spend on food, drinks and groceries each week to Skillshare International.

Any help you can give to this amazing cause would be incredible. My Justgiving page can be found in the link below, and I will be sure to update throughout next week on my progress.

Click here for my Justgiving page.

Off to Lesotho

So... I've finally been able to reveal (publicly) that which I have had to keep secret for a few weeks. Firstly, the factual information: As of January, I'm flying off to Lesotho for ten weeks with Skillshare International, an international development charity working across Africa. As part of this, I'll be an International Citizen Service volunteer, a programme mostly funded by the government and facilitated by several charities who run volunteering opportunities for both citizens of the host country, and us Brits. Secondly: Before I go away, I've got to raise £800 for Skillshare International, all of which ensures that the programme continues in the future.

Now then, why am I doing this?

Eventually, somewhere down the road of life, I want to enter a career in international development. Unlike some people who believe Britain should keep all of its money inside its shores, I believe that offering international aid to developing countries is an absolutely essential function of us as a state. The ICS programme takes this belief and ensures that development is both sustainable and monitored. This is in no way voluntourism (or any other combination of the two words), it's a ten week placement manned by both foreign and native volunteers, working together to create evidence-based solutions for real problems faced everyday by the citizens of these countries.

Lesotho is a country with several serious problems. 67% of people are considered to be 'poor', and 57% live on less than $1.25 a day. It has a life expectancy of 41 years old. 24% of people have HIV/AIDS, raising to 50% in some of the larger cities. These problems can be solved. Not overnight, but slowly and surely living conditions for the 1.8 million people living in Lesotho can be improved. Skillshare International's 'Coaching for Hope' programme uses sport as a way of engaging schoolchildren in the development process, specifically HIV and AIDS education, youth empowerment and gender equality. Encouraging children to aspire is an extremely powerful tool in development, and that's what this programme aims to achieve.

I'm incredibly excited and proud to have been selected for such an opportunity. Although it is only ten weeks, I'm certain that I will make some form of difference to a community in Lesotho, which will then be continued by more volunteers as this programme continues. To do this, Skillshare International relies on donations. To give money, please head to my justgiving page here, and give whatever you can afford. Anything will make a massive difference to the lives of people in Lesotho and across Africa.

A Letter To My 16 Year-Old Self

Alright Jake?

Twenty-two year-old you here.Things have been pretty manic over the last six years tbh. I'm not quite sure if you know yet, but that means 'to be honest'. If you did know, then text-speak wasn't just a fad, but replacing numbers for letters was. I'm pretty sure you already know that 'lol' doesn't mean 'lots of love', but my memory isn't that great. Anyway, as I was saying, things have been manic. I'm here to give you a few pointers, but I guess we should start off by clarifying some things.

Firstly, the good news. Guess what? You do go to University. Bad news? It's not your first choice. Remember that moment you discovered alcohol and college parties? Well, that definitely contributes to you not getting into Exeter, and it hurts for a few weeks. However, the next four years of your life will be spent at Surrey, having the absolute best time you could imagine (bar some of second year - but I'll let you discover that for yourself), and you will meet people who will know you better than you think you know yourself (lots of 'you's' there).

Secondly, you're going to discover a lot about yourself. The person you are now, will not be the person you are in six years time. Lots has changed, but I think it makes you a better person (although, I would say that, seeing as that person is present-day me). You will continue to be a right stubborn bastard, but just shrug that off as 'endearing' and get on with it.

Anyway... Those pointers.  You won't be aware that lists are a 'thing' now. In 2013, a site called Buzzfeed will take up a lot of your time, and this is a chance for you to familiarise yourself with them. So here goes:

12 Things You Should Do, But Won't

1. Don't worry as much. Yes, you over think things, and plans are great, but just try and be a bit more spontaneous. I don't exactly remember the mornings I woke up especially early to do work, but I do remember the night's I spent with my (your) best friends. And make sure you especially do this at the end of University.
2. Be a bit more mature. Now, your stubborn self will think you're one of the most mature people you know. Guess what? You're not. A lot your problems will stem from the fact that you dealt with them in an immature way, which leads me to...
3. Stop running away. There are a few things, particularly in your second year of Uni, that you will run away from. This will come back to hurt you. Now, I can't turn back time, but maybe you should just deal with the consequences head on. It won't be pretty, and it sure as hell won't be easy, but it will probably make things a lot less complicated as time goes by. 
4. Understand that some people come and go throughout life. But always try and maintain some level of contact with those who mean the most. They'll be the ones you miss.
5. Surrey will shape you, but don't let it define you. Move on. 
6. Saying that, you will probably never find a place as magic as Rubix (but only after a few VK's and after midnight).
7. Give yourself a break and stop rushing from project-to-project.
8. Write more - you will regret not doing so in the future.
9. Follow your instincts.
10. Drink less coffee, drink more water.
11. Make the most of family - not all of them are going to be around forever, and you will miss them so much when they're gone.
12. It's fine to make mistakes, but rectify them afterwards.

So yeah, sixteen-year old you definitely will not stick to these, but it's worth a try.

Embrace education, second chances are incredibly rare.

Best wishes,

Your increasingly-cynical twenty-two year old self.