World Challenge - Malawi, Summer 2011
Following the successful World Challenge expedition to Venezuela in 2009, we are offering another such trip in the summer of 2011, this time to Malawi in southern Africa. The expedition will be made up of 4 phases: an acclimatisation phase which will include a short trek, a main trekking phase, a project phase where we will work with the local community, and finally a few days of rest and relaxation.
The big difference with World Challenge is that the participants are expected to earn the money themselves, by getting a job, organising events, making and selling goods. World Challenge expeditions are different in other ways too. When we are in-country each student takes a turn at being the leader. They make decisions about when the team should get up, what bus they need to catch, what food to buy from the market for dinner. The students are also in charge of the budget, and two members of the team will act as accountants throughout the expedition. This is not to say that the World Challenge leader and members of school staff will not step in if there is an issue of safety – please be assured that we will!
From a strong field of applications, a team of 15 fifth and lower sixth form students has been selected to travel to Malawi in the summer of 2011. Now the hard work of preparing for (and funding!) the expedition begins. This will begin in earnest in March, when the team has its first planning meeting with World Challenge to sketch out their expectations for the trip, and to highlight some of the challenges that lay ahead. If anyone would like more information about World Challenge expeditions at Shrewsbury then please do get in touch. Or for more general information about World Challenge, please visit their website: www.world-challenge.co.uk. Rob Wilson, February 2010
rmw@shrewsbury.org.uk
