HELP US BUILD A PLAYGROUND IN THAILAND IN 2017!
Time for something pretty epic! Those of you legends who follow my travels to every country in the world on either FaceBook.com/onestep4ward, Instagram.com/onestep4ward, Twitter.com/onestep4ward will have seen that a couple of years ago my large faced Canadian buddy Josh and I founded a pretty awesome charity kinda by mistake, the GiveBack GiveAway, where we will fly one person from ANYWHERE in the world for free, then travel for 2 weeks around Thailand, for free, and help build the playground for our local partner school! Pretty cool, to win all you have to do is donate to chuffed.org/project/giveback-giveaway-2017 $10 enters you once, $25 3 times, $50 6 times, $100 12 times etc etc. And the fundraising stops this weekend, just 3 days lef to help, donate, share and enter!
Our first year, in 2015, we ran some projects in Senegal, took a tour group around both the Gambia and Senegal, made some new friends for life and learned a lot about charities, grassroots projects and how to run tours. It was stressful but amazing.
Last year, 2016, we took onboard everything we learned from Senegal and put together the most stellar project and tour imaginable. We partnered with a beautiful local school in Cambodia, built the kids there a wonderful playground, donated 16 bicycles to help them run tours and self-fund when we were gone, painted the area, donated pens, papers etc and had an amazing group of 16 people come along and help. It was honestly one of the best 2 weeks of my life, check out the video here:
You can see the whole photo album of our 2016 project on my FaceBook page here
GIVEBACK GIVEAWAY 2017 – THE PROJECT
This year we’re going for something even better still. Myanmar (or Burma as it used to be known) had been under dictatorship for years, so a lot of ethnic minorities fled to neighboroughing Thailand to avoid the harsh brutalities they were exposed to. Now, despite being ‘Burmese’, they lived on the Thai side of the border. Some local and international charities and NGOs came to the border region to help, which was great. Schools were built, funded etc. But a couple of years ago, Myanmar had democratic elections, and the country opened up. Almost instantly all the charities and NGO’s got up and left the border region and went to Myanmar proper, leaving the Burmese migrant communities on the Thai side with no funding and no idea who to turn to. Since then the schools have struggled, and the facilities have fallen apart.
We don’t have the funds or expertise to fix all the problems of course, but what we can do is inject a little fun, a few more smiles and a bit of colour to our partner school on the border. We have partnered with ‘Hope School’, an hour or so north from the border town of Mae Sot. Kids being kids, school can be boring, but education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, so carrying on from our playground project last year, we want to encourage the Burmese migrant kids to come to school each day, have some fun and further their education. So we’re building them a playground, painting the school, and with the funds we have left let’s see if we can organise books, pens, and other things the school is lacking. And we need your help!
So we are trying to raise $10,000 (or more!) to build the playground. With 3 days left we have raised $8,500 of the $10,000 minimum goal, please help us raise our last $1500. All we need is 15 generous people to donate $100 each, or 30 people $50 each, or 60 people to donate $25 each, I know we can do it! AND you can win a free trip to come and help us too!
DONATE HERE: chuffed.org/project/giveback-giveaway-2017
MORE INFO ON OUR CHARITY WEBSITE HERE: givebackgiveaway.com
THE TOUR
DAY 1
Sunday ,May 28th
Welcome to Thailand! Today we meet one another in Bangkok and head out to enjoy the city in one of the best ways possible. Night markets!
DAY 2
Monday, May 29th
Take a good look at the city, because it will be your last for a while. Today we will take a flight north to Mae Sot. Here we will meet the team who will be running our giveback projects on the tour.
DAY 3
Tuesday, May 30th
Here we go! Today we begin working at the school, building the playground and making the kids smile!
DAY 4
Wednesday, May 31st
Today we continue working at the school, building the playground and making the kids smile!
DAY 5
Thursday, June 1st
Today is our last day working at the school, building the playground and making the kids smile!
DAY 6
Friday, June 2nd
Are work at the school is done. Today we will travel a few hours to Sukothai for a quick stop-over. In the afternoon we will check out the famous Sukothai temple and enjoy a well deserved drink.
DAY 7
Saturday, June 3rd
Off to a new destination today. We travel to Chiang Rai one of Thailand’s most under appreciated cities. The day will be long but the journey will be a blast!
DAY 8
Sunday, June 4th
Early alarms this morning to visit one of Thailand’s most spectacular sunrises at Phu Chi Fah. In the afternoon we will relax and have a scenic lunch by the river and then check out the tea terraces. In the evening we will hit the town.
DAY 9
Monday, June 5th
We’re off on the short journey to Chiang Mai this morning, but not before we visit the famous White Temple. Once in Chaing Mai we can relax, have a nice riverside dinner and get ready to enjoy a brilliant couple of days in the Northern Capital.
DAY 10
Tuesday, June 6th
We hope you like elephants because today we’re going to be spending a night with them in the jungle.
DAY 11
Wednesday, June 7th
Wake up and have breaky with the Karen tribe before we head back to the Chaing Mai and enjoy the Doi Suthep Tour.
DAY 12
Thursday, June 8th
It’s a free day to explore Chiang Mai! Bamboo Rafting, Trekking, Swimming holes, are just some of the many things to do.
DAY 13
Friday, June 9th
Enjoy the last day in Chiang Mai exploring, relaxing or learning. How about a Thai cooking class. In the evening we are going to take the authentic experience back to Bangkok on the night train.
DAY 14
Saturday, June 10th
It’s our exit day. You’ll have the day to explore in Bangkok. Consider spending a few more night to explore this world class city but if you need to go make sure to book your flight home in the evening.
THE PRICE
So building a playground sounds pretty amazing right? And the tour is just unreal! But how do you get involved? Firstly, you can donate to the cause, enter yourself into the competition and do all of this for free, we need your donations so please share this article and donate what you can, and hopefully we’ll see you in Thailand!
Secondly, if you have donated, and weren’t lucky enough to win, we will be selling 11 tickets only on a first come-first served basis! We will start selling the tickets the second that we do the draw for the winner from the fund raising, and that will be Sunday night, Ireland time! Prices will be $1799 and that includes pretty much everything except for international flights, food, alcohol and any additional activities you guys want to do when we’re on the road. Remember, we honestly only sell 11 spots, and last year we sold 10 in the first 2 hours. This is honestly the trip of a lifetime, so make sure you book your spot! Drop me a message if you’re interested and we can see what we can do!
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