The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me! My name is Ella, I’m 18 and I have just finished college. I’m about to start my gap year and I’m setting up this blog to be able to share some of my experiences with you.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

The first step

I have been offered a place for the VSO ICS Uganda project based in Hoima. ICS (International Citizens Service) is a volunteering programme for young people aged 18-25 run by the VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) that gives young people (like me!) the chance to volunteer abroad for 10-12 weeks. As part of this programme I will be a volunteer working in VSO’s livelihood projects, which seek to contribute opportunities for disadvantaged and vulnerable youth in Uganda to find employment.

So far I’ve completed the fundraising and pre-placement part of the programme. ICS is 90% government-funded, but the rest of the funds come from volunteer fundraising. I was tasked with raising £800, which was a challenge, but very worthwhile.

I decided to do a 17km challenge because my project is based partly around the Sustainable Development Goals (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/) – of which there are 17- and I wanted to raise awareness as well as funds. After a few months of training – and a lot of sweat- I managed to complete the challenge in just over 2 hours and found that running isn’t actually that bad.

My other big event was hosting a quiz night at my local rugby club. It was a lot of hard work (although I did get lots of help) but it was all worth it on the night. There was a lovely atmosphere, everyone was extremely generous and I raised £380 for the VSO.

Adding together my sponsorship for the run, the money raised at the quiz night and a very generous donation from the Union of Catholic Mothers at my church after I gave a talk at their meeting, I have raised £1100 and counting! I’ve learnt a lot from the fundraising and am so pleased I am able to give back to the ICS programme and support the work of the VSO to end poverty and marginalisation.

If you would like to donate, my page is still open (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/eleanor-palmer10) and I would really appreciate it.

Off we go!

So now I’m off to Uganda! My flight is tonight and I’m all packed, I’ve done the training, done some research, got all my vaccinations, but I don’t think anything can truly prepare me for what’s to come.

I’m very excited to travel to Uganda and experience a different culture. I will be working closely with the Hoima community to help the locals achieve their aims whilst learning from them and gaining new skills and experience. I’ll be staying with a host family who will welcome me and guide me through the culture and look after me. I will be working in a group of other volunteers who are in the same boat as me. It’s exciting! But at the same time I’m quite nervous. It’s the longest time I will have spent away from home to date, I’ll be in a far away country with people I don’t know, doing things I might never have done before. I know I’ll have lots of support and will learn a lot from the experience, but that can’t quite calm the trepidation in the pit of my stomach.

But I’m keeping positive! I know I’ll sob when I have to say goodbye to my family (this week I’ve said a lot of goodbyes already) but I’m off on my first big adventure this year and I know it will be one hell of a ride! I’ll try to blog some of my experiences (internet connection allowing) and if you might be interested in my travels be sure to check back here and follow my journey. Thank you for reading.

Ella xxx