Sierra Leone Charity Run!

Hannah Here!

Firstly we must apologise for our absense. You may or may not know that over the last 6 months Heather and I have turned fresheather into a full-time content creation business. So far it’s growing like the clappers and between time spent jetsetting and trying to tidy our bombsight of an office, writing blog posts hasn’t been on the top of our priority list. 

Alas, here I am, and with some VERY exciting news too! At the end of may, I will be travelling out to Sierra Leone with the wonderful charity Street Child – a UK based charity, that aims to create educational opportunity for some of the world's most vulnerable children – to take part in their 5km run.

As of last year, Sierra Leone was declared Ebola free, an epidemic that destroyed a nation. In light of recent events, it is now time to rejuvenate and rebuild a community that had somewhat lost it’s mojo. 

It is incredibly easy to remain naive about issues that do not affect us. As we sit in the comfort of our own home enjoying the company of family and friends, it is not uncommon for the struggles on the other side of the world to go un-notivced. With education common place and so easily accessible for us here in the uk, it may be as a huge surprise to some of you that in places like Sierra Leone, that a proper education can be very hard to receive. The repercussions of this?

According to research, there are close to 50,000 children relying upon the streets for their survival, a portion of them living full-time on the streets. W O W.

Statistics like that really hit home. It is not only a lack of education that is proving to be an issue, but also a huge inequality between gender. This year Street Child will be working specifically on a campaign to help young girls receive equal rights in terms of education and status. 

As young girls grow up to be women, their lack of education means that they become highly dependant on the male population. Forging an independent life of their own incredibly hard to come by, and earning a living almost impossible. More often than not, women find themselves seeking employment in areas that can only offer danger and fear such as sex work or slavery. This is where Street Child come in. The charity are now striving to ensure that every child gets an education, and through their individual projects, mentoring and workshops, I believe they will be able to empower women to do just that. 

To read more about Street Child and what they do, click here.

So, how am I getting involved?

At the end of May, I will be travelling out to Sierra Leone for a week. Whilst there I will be spending time within the community to understand the real scope of the issues and hopefully get involved in a few projects in any way that I can. On one of the mornings, I will also be taking part in the 5km charity race. Whilst I am by NO means a runner, I hope that by challenging myself to put on my running shoes and get involved, that people supporting me back home will forgo their daily designer coffee to help me raise funds to support this what seems never-ending desire to change the lives of Sierra Leone residence. It’s set to be a life-changing, eye-opening experience and i truly cannot wait to share this experience with each and every one of you. 

I’m so excited but even more excited to offer YOU the opportunity to come to Sierra Leone with ME! If this is a cause or opportunity that you think you'd be keen to pursue, please get in touch as I'd love to give you full details. Every penny that we can raise really will change people's futures.

Alternatively; if you can't make a commitment, even a donation of 50p might help to change someone's life. I have set myself a personal goal to raise £1,000 before I go which I know is vast, but if everyone reading this sacrificed their daily designer coffee and instead donated £2 I may just hit my goal. Here is the link to my donation page.

Please share with anyone who you think might be interested in joining me for the trip, or alternatively, if that person is you, drop me an email to find out more info – hannah@fresheather.com! 

Let's make a change in 2016.