For my volunteering section ,for my Gold DofE, I decided to do a year of volunteering with Edukid. Initially, I had little knowledge or understanding on the aims and objectives of the charity which I would go on to learn and research over the coming weeks. I gained knowledge about the UN sustainability and Development Goals as well as what Edukid is working to achieve as a charity. Furthermore, I got to see examples of where the help of a charity has made significant impacts to the lives of others such as their recent Food Programme in Peru where they are providing balanced and healthy meals to children in education which has resulted in the children having seen growth benefits and better learning which actually resulted in the school performing outstandingly well in their district Olympics.

After I had been informed it gave me a solid foundation to start fundraising. When I first thought of the fundraising , I  thought that I would be told to raise money for the charity in general and then they would select what cause it would help however, I found that I would get to research specific causes and choose where my fundraising went. The three areas I selected were to:

1. Fund the growing, sewing and reaping of bananas in Peru
2. Provide healthy school meals for children in Cambodia
3. Create wells and Bore Holes in Uganda

The charities format was a key part that made my journey volunteering so enjoyable as it researching each area allowed me to see what change my fundraising would specifically make and create a personal connection to these specific areas which fueled me when organising, preparing and completing my charity events.

My first event was a 15,000 ft tandem jump which I spent around 2 months researching, planning and advertising in preparation for. I have always wanted to go skydiving and thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to raise money. It was one of the best experiences of my life and the satisfaction that something so exciting and enjoyable was still able to help those in need gave me an enormous sense of pride.

My second/final event was to complete a Para 10* in the army reserve time of 2 hours. I chose this event as I wanted to complete an event that took lots of physical conditioning and preparation to complete. I spent hours weekly training for the event for about 9 weeks. On the day of the run I gave it everything and managed to exceed my goal of the Army reserve time to qualifying in the regular soldiers time of 1 hour and 50 minutes , as I completed it in 1 hour and 48 minutes.

In conclusion, I have found volunteering extremely rewarding as not only have I been able to benefit the lives of those in need around the world, but I was able to improve myself physically and mentally. I also loved the support I was given by the charity as Edukid gave me freedom to decide and deviate from their week by week breakdown for the Gold DofE as long as I believed that it would work best for me and my fundraising. This freedom allowed me to explore personal interests or goals and make it a way to help others.

A huge thanks to Edukid and my assessor Kate for all the consistent guidance and my amazing experience.

Heber