Stroud4
On 16th February 2014 five students from Stroud High School in Gloucestershire will travel to Durban, South Africa as winners of Giving Nation’s video competition.
The students, who won the competition by setting up a range of fundraising initiatives including swimming the length of the English Channel to raise money for the Timmy Mason Trust, will spend a week trekking through the Wild Coast between Mtamvuna River and the Great Kei River. During their trip they will reconnect with the natural environment, learn about conservation and responsible tourism and volunteer with a rural community.
Giving Nation is a project of the education and participation charity the Citizenship Foundation.  Funded by the Cabinet Office and Santander, the programme challenges young people to give their time, effort and energy to support the causes they feel passionately about.
Since 2006, Giving Nation has reached 250,000 young people across secondary schools and alternative education settings. This movement of young community change makers have raised nearly £1.5 million and volunteered 1.4 million hours of their time to benefit causes they feel passionately about.  The students from Stroud High School wrote and produced a video documenting how they raised in excess of £1000 for local charity the Timmy Mason Trust.
The trip, which is being run in conjunction with the Wilderness Foundation UK, will give students an opportunity to explore some of the social issues faced by communities in South Africa, as well as build a love of the wild, develop leadership and new perspectives about life, and improve self-knowledge and intercultural awareness.
Chief Executive of the Wilderness Foundation, Jo Roberts was present at the Cabinet Office when the girls received the news that they had won the trip (pictured above).    Mrs. Roberts said:
“Growing young people who carry real knowledge and awareness of social and environmental issues is a major focus for the Foundation, as we look to these young people to carry a torch in to the future.  We have a responsibility to give them the necessary skills to do this and embrace the passion and commitment to genuinely be the leaders of the 21st Century.”
We wish all the girls, together with Lynn Parker Dodd, teacher from Stroud High School and Naomi Elfred of the Citizenship Foundation, who have accompanied them on their journey, a wonderful trip.    Our latest news from South Africa is that the group have arrived safely and having enjoyed the afternoon at the Kenneth Steinbank Nature Reserve are now settling down on the beach to watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean.   Tomorrow their journey proper along the Wild Coast begins.