Well the answer in simple terms is because I've been selected to go to Ukraine on a GOLD team with Girlguiding this year. I am insanely excited about this, but I also need to raise £2300 to get me there. I figured that I would try and link my fundraising in with the Big Brownie Birthday which is happening this year to celebrate 100 years of Brownies. The Big Brownie Birthday is all about challenging Brownies to try new things and take on challenges, so here is my challenge:
I challenge myself to complete ALL of the Brownie Interest Badges available as of January 2014 within the Big Brownie Birthday celebration period (before the end of the school summer holidays this year!).
Two and a half years ago, this would not have been a challenge, but in my current situation, things are different. I'm now a full-time electric wheelchair user, so this is going to prove interesting: cyclist?! rider?! All part of the challenge, but it's going to take some work!
As a result, I would be extremely grateful to anyone who would consider sponsoring me. How you do that is up to you: an amount conditional on ALL the badges being completed on time? A specific amount per badge? Given that some of the badges are more challenging than others, you can also choose to allocate different values to different badges! I will hopefully set up a JustGiving page or another simple way of doing this soon. I will be posting my stories, evidence and other bits of progress on here as I work through them - I hope it will be a lot of fun, and might give some Guiders ideas for helping any young disabled members to complete their badges!
Fundraising isn't for me to "go on holiday", so to explain a little more about why I am raising the money (and why I want to go on GOLD in the first place!) here is a summary:
GOLD (for those who don't know) is an initiative run by Girlguiding. It stands for Guiding Overseas Linked with Development, and it operates in a variety of countries. If a country feels it would benefit from having GOLD participants, they submit an application to Girlguiding. Their request can be for almost anything, from recruitment, to planning programmes for different sections, but it must meet certain criteria to make sure the teams will make a tangible and sustainable difference. If Girlguiding accepts a country's proposal, a project plan is set up, and the projects run for 3-5years depending on what is needed. Each year a team consisting of 6 members who have been selected from a large number of applicants at Intops (Girlguiding's International Opportunities weekend where all our skills from presenting, to teamwork, resilience and sense of humour are put to the test!) go out to the country in question and carry out work to help towards the goals of the country.
I have been extremely lucky to be selected to go to Ukraine with a fantastic team, and I will be attending briefing sessions with them before we go, and debriefing afterwards too. This year will be the first year of the project in Ukraine, and will be taking place in July/August. We will be looking to help expand Guiding in Ukraine, both by retaining current members and recruiting new ones. The Association of Ukrainian Guides is such a small organisation at present that I'm really excited about the potential impact we can make while we are over there.
So why did I want to do GOLD? Since being in a wheelchair, I have spent a lot of my time on the receiving end of good will and helping hands. For me, this means an awful lot, and I'm incredibly grateful as it is often necessary when I am unable to do things for myself. Unfortunately, one of my aims in life is to give at least as much as I receive (I guess being a doctor will be part of that!) and much as I had the time of my life at the World Scout MOOT in Canada last summer, I wanted something different this year, something where I could be a net giver rather than a net receiver - which is where GOLD comes in! I am looking forward to having the opportunity to help other people, to share my skills and knowledge so that other people can benefit.
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