My name is Amy Lynch and I’m a local Cranleigh girl at Godalming 6th Form College. Instead of going to uni this year, with my peers, I’ve decided to embark on a different journey.
At the beginning of September, I’m leaving to volunteer with Project Trust as a primary school teacher in rural Honduras for 12 months.
There is a huge disparity of wealth in Honduras causing widespread poverty. Not surprisingly, illiteracy rates are high, at around 80% in the countryside and 50% in the more urban areas. As a result, there is a shortage of school teachers and those that do qualify are highly sought-after and are often attracted to the small number of elite private schools.
This unfortunate situation leaves many poor children and adults alike without fundamental primary school education. This is a vicious cycle that Project trust is aiming to change. Not only does Project Trust provide trained volunteer teachers, like myself, but they also help to supply the classrooms with basic learning resources such as pencils, books and paper.
Project Trust has been sending volunteers to the developing world for over forty years and they have had an impact on every small village, region and country that they’ve worked in.
The reason I wanted to become a part of this project is that for the past eighteen years of my life, I’ve been extremely fortunate. However, this peaceful, educated and relatively easy life is almost the polar opposite to how the majority of the world’s population lives.
In the developed world, we teach our children to dream. We tell them that they can become whatever they set their minds to. Because of their geographical location, the poverty-stricken children of Honduras and of so many other countries around the world are never given the tools or ability to do this.
I want to try and instill that ability into these children. Though I know my year in Honduras won’t change the world, I would like the chance to share my invaluable education and experience with this small section of the human race.
I’m incredibly excited and grateful for this opportunity, but, I need help to raise £6,200 to cover the costs of the 12-month program. In an effort to reach this goal, I’ve organized a few fundraising events: A bake sale, an 80’s music night and a barbecue.
Unfortunately, the bake sale has already been and gone and was more successful than anyone anticipated. However, on the 11th of June, we’ve organized an 80’s night with a live band at the Cranleigh Arts Centre.
The band is a group of extremely talented and passionate musicians called Our Friends Electric who, in their own words, “Pay homage to the synthesizer.” They have a brilliant track record
of recreating the sounds of everything from Duran Duran and The Human League to the famous Bronski Beat.
If you’re at all interested in coming to support our event please buy tickets via either the Cranleigh Arts Centre website, or at their box office.
If you regrettably can’t make it but are still willing to contribute to this cause please follow this link: https://goo.gl/paXT7J
