Help me get to Ecuador to make a postitive impact

Hi,

My name is Casey, I’m a 16 year old student from Holyrood Academy. I’m taking part in a 4-week expedition to Ecuador this Summer.

The trip will include community development work, environment projects and wildlife conservation. We're going with a non-profit organisation called Camps International (https://www.campsinternational.com/).

The core objectives of this expedition are to help with projects in order to:

- raise the educational standards of developing communities within a rural district of Ecuador by helping to build and maintain schools for example

-raise the living standards of developing communities in a rural district by helping to build roads and toilet/shower blocks for example

- assist with ongoing environmental projects like rainforest regeneration projects in the Amazon rainforest

- help with ongoing wildlife conservation projects to preserve biodiversity and protect vulnerable habitats on the Galápagos Islands

To allow kids from all financial backgrounds to go we are encouraged to fundraise as much of the cost of the trip as we can.

To allow kids from all financial backgrounds to go, we need to fundraise as much of the cost of the trip as possible. I’m nervous about taking on the challenge of needing to raise the money to get there. The cost of the trip is £5750 but as well as asking local and national businesses, I've started my own business selling sweets (Expedition Sweets are for sale in Bradfords and Rose Mill Feeds in Ilminster). I am doing sponsored litter picking at different places, so far I’ve done it in Ilminster rec, Chard reservoir, Shepton Beauchamp, Martock and around my school in Chard. I've got a Saturday job and I've used all of my Christmas and birthday money. I will be holding stalls at locally soon (cake stalls and tombolas). The next one is a stall at a Family Fun day at the Archie Gooch in Ilminster on the 5th of May. I’ve managed to raise over £4000 so far!

I would be very grateful for any and all contributions you can make towards my fundraising.

Thank you for reading.