11th June 2004

Marathon Effort To Fundraise For Trip Of A Lifetime

Travelling to Ethiopia takes a huge amount of commitment, and a lot of fundraising, and this weekend five young Auckland residents will walk 42 kilometres to raise money for the trip they expect to change their lives.

The group, ranging in age from 19 to 27, will leave from Muriwai at 6:00am on Saturday morning (12th June) and aim to reach Takapuna twelve hours later with only brief stops along the way.

Team member Hannah Donald says that compared to people in Ethiopia walking for days to get food and supplies for their family in times of famine, that the fundraising walk is really nothing.

"We have all developed a real passion for Ethiopia and are prepared to do anything we can to provide help and support for the eight weeks we are there," she said.

The group leaves Auckland in early December for a two-month stint in Addis Ababa where they will assist missions organisation SIM (Serving in Mission) in programmes including orphanage work, sports programmes and teaching English.

"I think working in the orphanages where many of the children have HIV will be the most heartbreaking, but if we can make a difference over there then it'll be worth it," said team leader Corban Walls.

"We are well aware that the biggest changes will probably happen in our team, we'll probably come back quite different people."

"We've had amazing support, people are really keen to get behind us in our fundraising, probably because the walk is something not many of them would want to do themselves."

Along with sponsorship from family and friends, Team Ethiopia are also sponsored by Auckland based company Dollar Dealers (Henderson Branch).

Team Ethiopia is: Jamie Lloyd (27) - Ponsonby Hannah Donald (26) - Ponsonby Earl Edgar (23) - Mt Albert Corban Walls (22) - Ranui Charlotte Burson (19) - Waitakere

ENDS

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