Meet the Team (Mascot) - Janet

A long overdue blog post on our lovely mascot Janet...

Name:

Janet

Age:

I am a wise old elephant with a young heart

Role in Team Malawi:

Role- cuddle giver, morale booster, poser extraordinaire, comfort buddy and a friend to all

What section do you work with:

I am able to flit between those who needs me the most

Why did you apply for GOLD:

I have always been an adventurous elephant, exploring the watering hole, travelling along the African plains, having adventures with my buddies. Then I was invited to come along with Laura and see some more of what girl guiding does, needless to say I was hooked and couldn't believe I could have an experience where I get to travel with some amazing women, promote Girlguiding and change lives! The question is why wouldn't I go on GOLD?

What are you looking forward to most about GOLD:

Going to Africa and seeing some more guides and hopefully more elephants! The UK is brilliant but having been to London and to Wales I am surprised by the lack of elephants in this country.I am also looking forward to having many cuddles with all my team mates, they are so good to me!

Is there anything you're nervous about:

I suppose I'm nervous about putting myself out there, its hard when your the smallest one and can be a bit shy, but I know when I raise my trunk to talk other will listen. Also nervous about the food, I've gotten to use to all the fancy British meals.

Describe the go for GOLD weekend in one word:

Fandabbydosy!

It's All About the Money

So we're very aware here at camp GOLD Malawi that our blog will at some point be hunted down by an eager potential future GOLDie or two and so we thought we'd share a few words on fundraising.

To sit in a room at the start of the process and be told you will need to raise up to £2300 is daunting especially when you look around and no-one else is batting an eyelid to what feels like an impossible amount of money. We'll let you into a little secret. Everyone feels the same way at the beginning. We know because we've been there.

We're almost at the end of our fundraising journeys and we thought we'd pass on some of the things we've learned along the way.

1. Start early!
Sounds obvious but we all have very busy lives outside of GOLD. It's very easy to think, oh I'll do that later and the months start to creep by. Plan ahead and take advantage of things like Christmas and Easter. Our own enterprising Emma made £170 handmaking reindeer hot chocolate gifts and selling them to family, friends and work colleagues in the run up to Christmas. Look at your schedule and plan around times you know you will be busy - exams, busy times at work, holidays etc. 

2. Tell the World!
Talk to people about your project - really talk about it. Talk about it until people start making jokes like 'Oh are you going to Malawi? You didn't say...' Talk to everyone you meet, tell them why you're doing it, why it's important, what you are hoping to achieve. Even in the beginning when you aren't sure what you will end up training on project - give them generics about GOLD. 'Leadership skills, confidence, advocacy, empowerment' are all buzz words people will identify with. Share success stories of past projects. People will sense your passion and that will inspire them to donate. 

3. People will Surprise you with their Generosity!
We have a saying where I'm from...'Shy bairns get nowt' which essentially translates to 'If you don't ask you won't get'. It can be tough going asking for support and receiving rejection letters or worse complete radio silence but keep going. Independent local businesses are often happy to donate a raffle prize in exchange for a bit of advertising. Don't forget your GOLD team will have a blog as well as a social media presence where you can give public 'thank you's' to supporters. National businesses like Tesco, Asda etc can be generous but you will need to write to their head office. Clare raised most of her money by writing letters to anyone and everyone including the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Soroptimists all of whom asked her to come in and give a talk in exchange for a donation. It was a great way to spread the message about GOLD and for a time starved student was much less time and labour intensive than organising fundraising events.

4. Work your Contacts!
People say it's not what you know but who you know and when it comes to fundraising that is certainly true! Put out a plea to family and friends, get them to ask their friends. Who do you know that could donate a raffle prize? Who's company has a charity donation fund? Will your place of work donate something? I work for Hilton and not only did they donate a prize for me to raffle off, my hotel manager arranged rooms for us at Hilton Heathrow the night before our flight at a fraction of the usual cost. 

5. Play to your strengths!
There's no point trying to organise loads of different events if you are strapped for time and no point making handcrafted items to sell if the idea of spending hours fiddling with a glue gun is your worst nightmare. Look at what you're good at and use it to your advantage! Alannah planned quiz nights, beetle drives and bingo evenings while Emma made and sold a variety of handmade items.

6. Challenge badges...
The Clue is in the name, they're a challenge to make, promote and sell. You will be required to create badges for your trip but whether you order more to sell is up to you. We did and we just about managed to make our money back but they weren't a huge money spinner for us. The Challenge Badge market is pretty saturated right now and you will need to do your research, make your badge and challenge pack distinctive, different and relevant to all of the sections if you want to succeed.

7. A Guider in Need
The Guiding community is a very supportive bunch so don't forget to get them involved. A few of us ran 'Rent a Leader' evenings in exchange for a donation which we tied into our challenge badge which doubled our money. Plan a session, make alterations for each section, make it something that requires little or no resources and then advertise your services on your local facebook groups, twitter, district and division meetings and county newsletters. At least 10% of my fundraising came from these evenings. Also - get your local Trefoil Guide involved, they are a wealth of knowledge and experience and usually love to help. And don't forget to apply to District, Division, County and Region - all of whom should be able to give you something towards your trip!

8. Don't Stress!

It will come together! The GOLD team, your team Leader and your team mates are all there for you. Share your success stories, and your not so success stories and laugh when it goes wrong. The fundraising is a huge part of your GOLD journey don't let it be a negative experience!

Happy Fundraising!

Much Love
Team Malawi 

Hello? It's me....

Now I don't know if any of our lovely readers have ever had to do a Skype conference but let me tell you...it's HARD! 

This week some VERY exciting news has come through to Team Malawi and we scheduled a Skype Conference to discuss the developments. Here's how the call went....

Expectation: Everyone will be face to face to talk about project without having to travel hundreds of miles which is obviously easier.
Reality: We all have jobs/university courses/guiding units to run as well as our own lives! Finding a day and a time we could all be free at the same time is not the easiest process but we managed in the end!

Expectation: We'll all be able to see each other so it will be easier to communicate.
Reality: Hilarity. Video feeds frozen in unflattering poses, my terrrible slow wifi confusing everyone, Alicia's wifi dropping out half way through 'popping to the shop' and Laura's feed sounding like she had a dalek over to tea. We got through it and it was lovely to see the rest of Team Malawi's smiling faces but I think we need some more Skype practice!

So through much giggling and shouts of 'what'? and 'Are you all still there?' We found out our news which is...

TEAM MALAWI HAS CONFIRMED FLIGHT DATES AND TIMES!
&
TEAM MALAWI HAS CONFIRMED PROJECT AIMS & OBJECTIVES!

What this means essentially is that we've taken some large steps forward overnight and armed with our new knowledge we'll be spending the next week thinking about how to tailor our training to the project aims and how we want to spend the time we have after project.

We have a good old fashioned conference call next week and we'l be discussing everything in more detail but until then... 

TEAM MALAWI LEAVE IN 22 DAYS! 

So if you'll excuse me I'm off to have a packing related panic....

Much Love
Team Malawi x x 

Third Briefing Has Been and Gone!

So the Team Malawi blog has been a little bit quiet lately what with everything going on so we thought we'd take some time to catch you all up!

Wayyy back at the beginning of June, which feels like a very long time ago indeed, Team Malawi met up at Rhiannon's Mum's House in Usk, Wales for the third and final time before we all head off on project! Here's a quick round up of what we got up to!

Friday night got off to a pretty late start with everyone heading in from their own corner of the UK. We were almost a team member short after on unlikely GOLDie's car was broken into overnight and was fixed just in the nick of time to make it to briefing! (Thank you Simon from Autoglass you hero!) By the time we were reunited there was just time for some food, a quick catch up and then it was into bed!

Day 1 got off to a later start than we were used to at briefings and it was a much better night's sleep with comfy beds and pillows and no door slamming in the middle of the night! Little luxuries! After a lovely communal breakfast in the sunshine it was straight to work. Rhiannon and Laura headed off to sort the official Team Malawi bank account while the rest of us put our heads together to compile a list of all the songs and games we've ever heard, learned and played in out guiding careers to use as energisers and ice breakers while on project. Because our project country changed from Zambia in the early stages of the GOLD process we're a little bit behind some of the other teams and don't have our final aims and objectives so we put the training plans on hold and made team building activities the name of the game starting with some tent erecting!

After lunch and a jaunt out in the countryside we settled back into project prep and summed up what we'd learned at second briefing about our individual team roles. It's important we are all able to help each other and step into each role if someone is unwell. It was great to hear how excited everyone is about their specific roles! Next up was kit list chat which made it all feel a little bit more real. Discussions were had on what to wear, what to bring, what not to bring and what to carry it all in! Rhiannon had some great tips about bagging complete outfit into zip lock bags and swapping them around each other's bags and hand luggage in case someone's bag goes missing! A meal in a local pub rounded off Day 1 nicely and Team Malawi went to bed full and very excited for project!

The next morning it was straight back to work with a full on session about risk assessments. It's scary to have to think of the worst case scenario but reassuring that we have a plan for everything that could possibly go wrong! A couple of the other teams have sent us their team badges so we packaged up badges for all of the other GOLD teams before getting to my favourite part of the weekend! Keeping everyone in the team upbeat and motivated is really important to us and so we've decided on a 'Happy Post' project. Everyone decorated their own envelope (we get very excited about colouring in) and we'll use it to send each other lovely messages while on project!

After that all that was left was to clear up and say our goodbyes! The next time Team Malawi see each other we'll be checking into the hotel in London THE DAY BEFORE WE FLY!

Much love
A VERY excited Team Malawi!