Experience of a lifetime: building schools and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with RAG
This summer MDXSU Vice President Sophie McKay went on the Raising and Giving society (RAG) trips to Uganda and Mount Kilimanjaro. During her time away she helped build a village school, climbed a 5,800 metre high peak, and got back all in one piece (despite a touch of frostbite); here she is to give you an idea of what it was like - and how you could be doing the same next summer!
How RAG chose charity partner Futuresense
I helped set up the RAG society here at Middlesex 3 years ago and since then have worked on developing the volunteering opportunities available from the students union. After being elected to represent UK student fundraising groups on a committee, I became familiar with many charities; Futuresense Foundation has a fantastic reputation for doing great work internationally because they have in-country staff that work with the local communities. 2013-14 has been MDX RAG’s first year working with them, and we even hosted their international development conference here on campus which saw 70 students from across the country visit to learn more about these kinds of trips.
Who visits another continent for just £250 each and raises almost £30,000 in the process? MDX RAG do!
During Freshers last year the RAG committee started promoting the opportunity to take the Kilimanjaro trip, Uganda Trip or the Romania trip. We had 4 students go to Romania working in an orphanage (2 boys and 2 girls – studying theatre arts, primary education, television production and children’s nursing). We had 12 students go on the Uganda renovating and teaching in primary schools (3 boys and 9 girls – children’s nursing, 4 dance students, fine art, sports rehabilitation, HR management, television production, sports & exercise, 2 advertising & PR students).
Then we had 10 students take on the Kilimanjaro trip (2 boys and 8 girls – children’s nursing, sports & exercise science, 1st year fashion communication & styling, 1st year dance studies, Masters in Psychology conversion, MA social work, alumni accounting & business economics, 2nd biomedical sciences, alumni policing).
Any student or alumni is able to go - they just had pay £250 deposit and fundraise £2,750.
Building schools in a Ugandan village
We stayed in a small rural village called Sekai in a volunteer house. The Englanget Primary School was founded by Anna Molai who belongs to the Maasai tribe. She faced lots of hardships growing up, and saw how her disabled peers were abandoned by the local community so when we could she went to train how to be a nurse and then with little support from the government managed to set up the school with one classroom specifically for disabled children.
The school now has 9 classrooms and the pupils often live at Anna’s house, because they have been abandoned. This school was very different to English schools - it was massively undersourced - however the teachers are really passionate and do a fantastic job, the children were so eager to learn and so happy! One child who suffers from cerebral palsy needed walking aids, that the teachers made from sticks. It was heart-warming to see how little they had but what they did with what they do have.
You can see the old and new kitchen block in the video, but before the kitchen was too small for the 180 children and was constructed from scrap metal. The local Maasai tribe were extremely welcoming and also a bit shocked to see Mzungu’s (western people) work so hard!
Working in the Maasai tribe community was such a great experience, it has really opened my eyes to how strong a community can be with such little resources. Being from a nursing background it would be unheard of to see children with such severe disabilities with such little support, but the work Anna Molai did was truly inspirational.
If she can do so much on her own it really makes me wonder how much we can change here.
A life-changing experience
I didn’t know the 9 other students from my university beforehand but now I’d say we’ll be friends for life. We worked really hard on the construction and climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro was really psychologically challenging but we all made it in the end. We taught the children in the school English, and in return I think we’ve gained a true life experience and appreciation of how far passion for a cause can take you.
Climbing Kilimanjaro was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but such a great achievement and I did it with such amazing friends.
Interested in coming to a RAG meet-up to find out what this award-winning society has planned for 2014-15? Like their Facebook page for updates!
Sophie McKay is the elected student officer for all students studying within the Health & Education, Science & Technology schools at Middlesex. Originally from Nottingham, she studied children’s nursing at Middlesex and graduated this July, and on top of her role as a full-time student officer, she also works part time as a Children’s Nurse in the Whittington Hospital in Archway.
