Hello world!
Today's been a spectacular day for a whole lot of reasons but before I give you a detailed description of everything that happened, I'm gonna give a quick run down of what this blog is all about.
At the start of the week, I found out that I had been accepted into the Global Volunteer Network Foundation's Youth Ambassador program. GVN is a group that works in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and offers volunteering opportunities for people living in countries all over the world (primarily NZ, Australia, USA, and the UK). The Youth Ambassador program is especially great because it equips young people like myself with leadership skills and helps us engage as global citizens.
The Youth Ambassador program sends people to either Thailand, Vietnam, or Uganda to volunteer at a variety of different organisations for around two weeks. I'm hoping to travel to Uganda (July 2016) as the volunteering in Uganda is focussed on women's cooperatives and community outreach programs, which greatly interests me.
In order to do this, I have been appointed the task of raising $3000 USD. I was lucky enough to receive a $500 USD scholarship from GVN, and as for the rest, hopefully, you can help!
To secure my place on the trip, I have to reach $1000 USD as soon as possible. The other $2000 has to be raised by the end of February (this may change - I'll edit it if it does).
So here's how today was a really cool day.
Last night, my dad donated $250 USD to my page to boost me up so I could claim the last half of my scholarship. This was obviously amazing and I was extremely grateful, but I thought I'd be a little bit cheeky and tweet Guy Williams (kiwi comedian) before going to bed. I was going to attend the St Kents vs AGS rugby game today so...
I tweeted this around 10 pm then went to bed, not thinking he would see it.
But because life can be pretty great sometimes, I woke up to this email:
I had to run upstairs and make my dad read the email too because I honestly felt like I was dreaming.
Really this just proves my theory that Guy Williams is a stellar person and should actually run for Prime Minister of NZ (but that's a different story for a different blog).
Later that day, I got another email saying that my dad's best friend (they're basically family) also donated $100 USD, putting my grand total at:
GVN is closed for the weekend so the second half of my scholarship will probably go up on Monday, and that'll put me incredibly close to the $1000 I need to secure a place.
So, I've decided to create some incentive for people who donate online specifically. I'm gonna print out some cards with each donator's name on them (or whatever they would like printed) to take with me, and then whenever I see something cool (for example, if we get to go on a day safari, or if there's a really pretty landscape etc.), I'll take a photo with the sign, and I'll print them out and mail them to the donators when I get back! It's not a massive thing but it might be kinda cute and it's a way for me to show my appreciation for all of the support online donations give!
But for now, that's me! I'm gonna keep updating this blog along my year-long journey, and hopefully we get some really awesome results! Thank you for reading!
- Umbar
P.S. If you'd like to donate, click the fancy donate button to your right!
