Charlie's Borneo Expedition

My name is Charlie Land, I am 15 years old and have been given an amazing opportunity to travel to Borneo with Camps International and my school Penglais to support the protection of orangutans and help build a village school.

I am looking for sponsorship to enable me to travel to Borneo in the summer of 2026 on this school expedition. My fundraising goal is £6,000 and I would be grateful for any help at all that you could give me. This money will be used towards funding projects in the four different areas we are going to visit as well as travel and the necessary equipment we’ll need to get there and to help us once there.

Camps International is a non-profit organisation that started with a small camp on the Kenyan Coast in 2002. They now have more than 20 permanent camps in Africa, Asia and the Americas. This organisation focuses on helping poorer communities acquire basic needs that we take for granted, like water, housing and education. They have provided homes for over 60 of the poorest families and have vaccinated and treated more than 34,000 livestock to improve animal welfare.

Deforestation is the biggest issue they tackle and will be one of the main things I will be learning about and helping work towards preventing when I go to Borneo. Their deforestation efforts have established at least 1.1 million extra trees since 2003.

I will be going on a 4-week expedition to experience true-off grid living, and finding ways to help protect orangutans, as Borneo is one of only two locations in the world housing this endangered species of ape.

We will start the journey on the north of the island travelling from Kota Kinabalu to our first host village on the coast. This will give us the opportunity to experience scuba diving as we will be next to the ocean. The second village will be located on the outskirts of the Bornean jungle where we will embark on a 5-day trek through the jungle to the third village located in the heart of the jungle. From there we will travel via boat along the Kinabatangan River and will have the chance to see crocodiles, monkeys and perhaps a rare pygmy elephant. There will be plenty of time to immerse myself in the culture as I hope to make friends with some of the locals and we will be helping to build part of a school in one of the villages.

This once in a lifetime expedition will be a fantastic experience that I can’t wait to go. It is a great opportunity to learn about other cultures as well as helping me gain valuable life skills that will help me in further education and future employment.

Throughout this journey I will be wearing a t-shirt which, if you sponsor me from your business or company I will proudly have your logo on my shirt. This form of T-shirt sponsorship has been very successful for students in the past, with one student being able to raise his goal solely from T-shirt sponsorship which I am keen to emulate. If you help sponsor me, I will add your company logo onto the Camps International T-shirts we have been provided with and will promote the business locally in newspapers and of course over in Borneo!

Thank you for your time and in anticipation of any help you may be able to give me,

Yours sincerely,

Charlie Land