LaSERIO - the countdown begins

This was the weekend where we confirmed where we were going as a group......KENYA!!!!!!

We were also able to decide on the length and date of the trip. The ball was now rolling and the preparation for the trip was full swing and we were finding it very hard to contain our excitement! 

We watched presentations from the groups from the groups who went to Madagascar, Peru, Malawi and Zambia in 2013 which only filled us with more excitement and ideas for our adventure!   We left the weekend with our Kenya timeline, folder and plenty of fundraising ideas .... project Kenya 2014 was now GO!!

First Meeting - where in the world?

 

After going through our selection days we then joined together as a team for the first time on September 28th 2013. We are one of four trips from London and the South East in 2014, but as the oldest group we've been given the exciting opportunity to design our own trip.  This day consisted of us getting to know each other and coming up with ideas of where we wanted to go and what our project was going to be - and we had the whole world to choose from!

We started with some icebreaker games to begin the getting to know you process. Then we began the very exciting process of choosing a destination and project. We had the whole world at our fingers, so where to go?? 

 Decision over the project was fairly simple as all of our strengths were based around working with children and young people. So which country to go to was all that was left to decide.  In groups we came up with all the positive and negatives for the countries we had narrowed it down to based around what we had decided would make an exciting and adventurous project and trip. 



We got it down to the final four options and it was a unanimous decision that we wanted to go to Kenya, although the formalities needed to be sorted before it was confirmed we were going there. But just leaving it at that for the day meant that we left very excited even though it was still 10 months away!!

Meet the Team

We are the 2014 London and South East England Region 18-26 Service Trip team. The team consists of seven people: two leaders and five 18 - 26 year olds. After putting ourselves forward we all had to go through a selection process.  We had the exciting opportunity to choose the destination for our trip and design our own project and settled on Kenya.

We will be travelling to Gilgil in the Rift Valley in Kenya this summer to spend two weeks volunteering with the Sanata Trust ( http://www.restartafrica.org/ ). The Trust runs a children’s home, known as the Restart Centre, which cares for abandoned, orphaned and neglected children, as well as running agricultural, craft and other projects to provide training and income generation opportunities for the community. We are working closely with the Trust to develop a programme which will include running sessions on health and hygiene, environmental issues, self-esteem and English, as well as games and activities to brighten the children’s day. We will also be meeting some Kenyan Guides to learn more about guiding in their country.  

Kenya is a fascinating country with incredible wildlife, rich cultural heritage and an important place in Guiding history.  We have created this blog so that you can share in our exciting trip.

The team: Lindsay, Lizzie, Megan, Twiga (team mascot), Ellie, Sarah, Hannah, Zelma