Hi! My name
is Amy Hulme and I am one of UNICEF’s lucky 16 trekking the Namibian desert. At the moment in time we have about three weeks to go until we depart for Namibia, so
I can't share any experiences from the trek as yet, however I can give an insight
on what its like to sign up to one of UNICEF’s amazing challenges and what you
can expect in the build up to actually going.
Firstly, I
would describe myself as your average 21 year-old (that's me, above). I work full time, love the
thought of seeing the world and until six months ago had never supported a
charity. After turning 21, I decided to search online for a challenge that
involved some sort of physical test that would allow me to travel somewhere I had never been before and raise money for
a cause I would feel passionate about. It didn’t take me long to find UNICEF’s
trek across Namibia
and quite simply, it ticked all the boxes.
The
application process was simple. I called up, spoke to a member of the UNICEF
team who sent me all the forms and info I needed, one of which was a medical
questionnaire that I had to get my doctor to sign. Like anyone, I had lots of
questions but these were all answered, I had images of signing up and then just
turning up at the airport to meet this group of random people I had never me. Thankfully that is not the case.
After
biting the bullet and sending in my paper work I have received continuous
support from the guys at UNICEF, we have just recently attended an information
day at their offices in London where we got to meet everyone in the group along
with our expedition leader. This was extremely helpful and I would urge anyone
who is going to do a challenge to attend as it really enforced the reasons why
we are raising this money and just made me feel at ease about the whole trip.
Now onto the important part - fundraising! Being somebody who has never tried to raise money before, it has
certainly been a learning curve and a really good exercise for developing confidence. I started off really shy and feeling rude for asking people for
their money but with every event I do comes the surprise of how generous
complete strangers are BUT only if you ask them.
Where to
start? My first step was to set up my UNICEF online fundraising page, it takes
minutes to put together and seconds to email out to all your friends, family
and colleagues. (And keep sending it out again and again!) UNICEF also provide
lots of fundraising materials which I would advise anyone to make the most of, I
have stickers, balloons, collection tins, buckets, T-shirts etc absolutely
everywhere but they are a great way of instigating conversation and reminding
people of what you are doing. Getting hold of these items couldn’t be easier
and it doesn’t cost you anything to use them.
Some of the
activity I have done so far includes: home made cake sales at my gym and at
work, live music nights, tin rattling at local fêtes, race course evening
meet, family parties, car boot sales, sponsored swimming session, sponsored
trampolining session, auctions, facebook messages, emails to everyone in my
company and texts to all family and friends.
I would be lying if I said it was easy, because it's not. But it is extremely rewarding and has been worth all the effort I have put in so far.
Read more blogs about the Namibia trek.