Help Demi Fund Educational Trip to South Africa
Donation protected
Hi Everyone!
Thank you for checking out my fundraiser.
I tend to write too much, so below you’ll find the GIST and then a longer explanation of what I’m up to!
For those who don’t know me, Hello! I’m Demi, I’m 30 this year, I work in the Film Industry and I love the natural world and especially observing its wildlife. I’m often found out and about birding or trying to find a good spot for putting a camera trap.
THE GIST:
This year it’s my ambition to go to South Africa to complete a 1 month full-time course in Wildlife Filmmaking. The course takes place in November from the 1st - 28th. The hopes and aims of taking part in this course are to progress my career and skillset for gaining work as I expand my interests from fiction to factual filmmaking.
What’s that? Why South Africa?
Unfortunately, there’s a lack of training and official wildlife filming courses in Scotland, with all academic further education in this field based down south in England. Enrolling in these courses is therefore not financially or logistically an option for me right now.
My chosen course is with Africa Media.
You can check them out by following this link:
The course is a very highly regarded experience, taking me through the planning, filming and editing stages where I’ll leave with my own finished wildlife film to show to potential employers and showcase my new skills.
To raise the necessary funds to do this course (£3025.69 excl flights) I am kindly asking for your sponsorship and donations anywhere throughout the 2 challenge phases I have set for myself between now and November 2023. In brief, these are;
- 50 hours of community deeds (walking dogs, gardening, painting fences etc)
&
- living for 1 whole month without the internet (September 2023)
Any donations are greatly appreciated no matter how small. If you live local to me and there’s something I can help you with as part of my 50 hours then please let me know! I’m happy to help with any painting, gardening, organising a shed, walking a dog or childsitting etc.
That’s all for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this (and the longer spiel below if you do ha) and thanks for considering donating. I look forward to updating you on my progress and convincing you further if need be.
If you believe in my ideas and goals and you’ve already donated you’ve won my appreciation and thanks forever and I’m most grateful.
Love & Thanks,
Demi xx
Fees & Costs Breakdown:
The course total is £3,025.69.
This covers the course fees, my accommodation and meals for 1 month, equipment use and airport transfers. Not included are my flights, laundry costs and any extra weekend excursions plus currency conversion fees and bank fees for international payments.
My flights from Scotland to South Africa are priced at £900-1000 return at the moment. Other costs include insurance, extra excursions and conversion fees.
I am also in the process of applying to two Scottish screen funding charities in the hope that I am eligible and awarded some partial funding of up to £2000.
My Fundraising Challenges:
To raise the necessary funds to do this course I am kindly asking for your sponsorship and donations anywhere throughout the 2 challenge phases I have set for myself between now and November 2023. Here’s a longer explanation of what these would involve :)
50 hours of community/local jobs
This challenge could involve helping a neighbour for a few hours by cleaning out their shed, painting a fence, walking a dog, gardening etc.
Living 1 whole month without the internet (p.s - this is a bit of an essay)
I’ve set myself this challenge as I’ve become aware of the amount of time I spend using the internet. Whether that be for work, connecting with friends and family, life admin tasks, or in even creating this page, I sometimes feel I spend a lot of my time (when not outdoors in nature) at a screen and using the internet. I only began to notice the other times I was not using the internet when I joined a social club (such as drama society or drawing class) and how nice it had been to spend 2-3 hours doing something internet free. Not to say I’m against the internet, I appreciate its obvious benefits, and how I’ve benefited so far, and like you, I mostly enjoy using it.
However, as a society, our reliance on these devices is increasing and most of us would now find day-to-day tasks (particularly work related) impossible without it. This fascinates me, that something that has only been around within the last couple of decades (the internet was only 4 years old when I was born!) is now something that, were it to go down for more than a day would begin to seriously alter and affect all of our lives in terms of work, education, socialising and entertainment in the modern world. Whether this is just sheer reliance or perhaps now an addiction, 53% of the world now uses the internet and with that number set to increase, a large hidden part of all this usage is the unconscious emissions it causes to the planet.
It’s estimated that 3.7% of all greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the internet, the devices used to access it, and the energy systems used to maintain it. To put this into perspective 2.4% of global emissions come from flights! (with the aviation industry responsible for 5% of global warming). These are small figures in comparison to some of the more major culprits in climate change, but It’s also estimated that our internet usage will double by 2025. So collectively slowing down our internet use may be a tool in the greater fight to draw back what we can against climate change.
As well as carbon off-setting my flight and other transport to Africa, I hope that my 1-month internet-free will contribute to lowering my own emissions associated with the trip but also reduce my emissions overall and into the future, by changing my general behaviour and habits around my internet usage.
At the moment I am guilty of lazily using Google as a calculator, a dictionary, a map, a thesaurus and an encyclopaedia to name a few. All of these tools I already have close to hand in my house as physical objects. I think these days we’ve become less patient as we live in an instant culture and this is also something I hope to find beneficial to try and challenge. During my free month, I hope to become more present in the moment, have more free time, appreciate what the internet gives me and find some alternatives.
I hope to document this process in some way, through journaling, recording my thoughts and feelings in audio or film form and sharing this with anyone interested afterwards! I will be compensating for work by arranging this in advance (such as a temp job where the internet is not essential or by assisting on a film set in a non-internet required role). Which will certainly be interesting…
I hope to commence this challenge in for 1 whole month before my trip to South Africa in November and to have a set of rules I can live by during this time - e.g - text messages or phone calls are allowed but I’m not allowed to ask someone to Google something for me. I’ll share those soon once I’ve worked them out in greater detail...
To Finish:
Again, That’s all for now! Thanks for taking the time to read this long spiel (if you did :D) and thanks for considering donating! I look forward to updating you on my progress and convincing you further if need be.
If you believe in my ideas and goals and you’ve already donated you’ve won my appreciation and thanks forever and I’m most grateful.
Love & Thanks,
Demi xx
References:
https://www.cleanfox.io/blog/carbon-impact/what-is-internet-pollution-what-is-the-impact-of-internet-on-our-environment/
https://medium.com/wedonthavetime/guest-blog-post-the-alarming-environmental-impact-of-the-internet-and-how-you-can-help-6ff892b8730d
Organiser
Demi Sutherland
Organiser