Volunteering in an Orphanage in South Africa

Hello, I am Kirsty Ling, a 20 year old student currently studying at the University of Derby. I would firstly like to thank you for reading my extract, it is greatly appreciated. I will get straight to my point, as I know your time is precious and I don’t want to use any more of your time than I need.I am intending to go to Cape Town in South Africa next summer (July 2017) for around 6 weeks to volunteer in an orphanage. I am looking to raise money to go towards the cost of the flights, accommodation and overall project.I am not making any profit for myself, well not in the money sense anyway. I will be gaining valuable and possibly life changing knowledge and experiences.

My main drive for carrying out this project though, is the children. These children are living in conditions most of us are fortunate enough to not experience. The children I will be working with will range from 2 years old to 16 years old, and they are amongst South Africa’s most vulnerable individuals. The children are extremely vulnerable both emotionally and psychologically. I may not be going for a long time but I believe that my presence will have a positive impact on the children, even long after I have returned home. I will be able to show the children empathy, listen to them, make them smile, and hopefully empower them to see they can have a positive future. These young children are in need of role models, to help them learn basic life skills and English and to carry out activities and games. They have experienced a lot of pain and hurt in their life, I would love the opportunity to go out there and put a smile on their little faces.

Children are our future and they all deserve a positive start to life and the belief that they can succeed in their future.The trip is all self-funded, this means I have to fundraise part of the funds. I would be eternally grateful for any contribution towards this trip.I understand not everyone will be in a position to donate money or may not want too. However I would also be extremely grateful to anyone who shares my post and keeps an eye out for my fundraising events in the near future and helps spread the word. I will keep you all updated about the fundraising events and I promise I am going to try and make them fun!!!

I will set up a Facebook account to keep you all up to date with my journey leading up to my trip. I will also post photos, videos and blogs whilst I am in Cape Town to keep you involved.

I cannot thank you enough for taking your time to read my post. I also want to thank each and every one of you that donates. You honestly have no idea how much it means to me. You are brilliant! And I will forever be grateful as will the children in Cape Town. Please share my post as well. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart!! Kirsty Ling xx