Laura’s volunteering Kenyan Journey

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Laura’s volunteering Kenyan Journey

I am a local resident in Bolster Moor and I have lived in this brilliant  community all my life, I IMG_6068am incredibly excited to share with you all that I have been selected to volunteer in Kenya on a sustainable development project for three months with International Citizen Service (ICS) who send young people to several developing countries around the world to work on projects tackling extreme poverty.
Whilst on placement I will be working with young people from the community in Kenya to tackle issues associated to the abject poverty experienced in this area, such as, youth unemployment, gender inequality and restricted education for those with learning disabilities. ICS works with communities that have specifically requested help and aims to inspire young people in the UK and overseas to become active citizens who are passionate about long term community development.

Machakos struggles particularly with issues of youth unemployment, food insecurity, HIV/AIDS and water scarcity. Hopefully, by really immersing myself into the culture and the people it will be a life changing experience that will truly make me realise how lucky the majority of us are and will give me a real insight into how over 3 billion people in the world live below the poverty line (less than £1.88 a day).

A very generous Kenyan family has invited me into their home for the duration of my stay in Machakos, which is the village I will be living and working in for three months. I think this element of my trip is the most exciting as I can really immerse myself into the culture and get to know the local residents and the community that I will hopefully be helping along the way.

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Riza Joy Apatan, 20, VSO-ICS volunteer from the Philippines. Riza works alongside UK volunteer Hannah Goulding. They conduct and environmental awareness raising workshops and mobilise local youth groups to protect the Carood Watershed in Bohol.
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I depart for the placement mid September and I am extremely excited! The first part of my volunteering journey was to raise £800 for the charity that is sending me to Kenya, which thanks to the help of many generous people around me I not only reached this target but I exceeded it! By talking about this amazing opportunity I hope I can raise awareness surrounding the types of opportunities young people in our community can get involved in and to inform our community about the types of projects local residents are working on.

Thank you very much for your time,

Laura Mallalieu.