World Challenge

In July 2014 I was part of a small team that took part in a unique 2 week experience to Morocco through an organisation called ´World Challenge´. Persistence and self-motivation were key throughout all phases of the experience; from initially raising the funds to go via paid work, sponsorship and events through to enduring the physically and mentally demanding activities of both the trek and project phase where renovating a school was our goal.

Raising the funds

In preparation for the trip to Morocco over £1,300 had to be individually raised in order to get us over there. This was done via paid work, sponsorship and themed events put on by myself and two others that I was working with.

Our main event that raised the most was a Moroccan themed meal for about 30 guests. The main part of the night was a three course meal with entertainment. As well as this we also put on a raffle and a tombola to raise extra funds on the night. A great deal of thought and planning had to initially go into the event with decisions like date, time and location having to be discussed in depth as well as budget. To ensure our profit would be as large as possible we kept our spending limited working off of donations and voluntary help where possible. When we did have to spend, to ensure we didn’t overspend on things like food we created a menu and made the decision to sell tickets in advance. This allowed us to gain valuable information on things like dietary requirements and rough numbers when cooking the dishes. Along with this all our tombola and
raffle prizes were all donated after we went around local shops and businesses’ to see if they would help our cause. On the night we also gave a presentation on the reasons for why we were raising money and how our guests donations were going to make a massive difference to the children we were going to help while out in Morocco. As a result our Moroccan
themed meal was a success with us raising over £600 after event cost and spending was subtracted.

Another example of how I raised the money was by taking part in a sponsored run. This was a show my commitment for the programme world challenge organised event and enabled me to prepare physically for the exhibition, raise some money and also.

Expedition

While in Morocco, I played an active role in managing the expedition, for example taking responsibility and organising key areas such as transport, food, accommodation, leading the team and managing the budget.While there, I was assigned a team leader role. In the position of team leader I was responsible for the smooth running of the day beginning with tasks like time keeping. Having such a strict schedule to keep to things like getting up and leaving on time were paramount to stick to. Other responsibilities included maintaining group moral as well as ensuring the well being of each group member. As a leader thinking ahead and adapting to possible problems that could arise was all part of making effective decisions and being a good leader. As a result of this I was able to lead a successful day of trekking without major issue, the day ran smoothly and efficiently with us arriving at the checkpoint on time with plenty of time to set up camp and rest up ready for more trekking the next day.