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What's Going on this Movember?

10/11/2020

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This year Warwick RAG are taking on the Movember Challenge!
The awesome Movember charity is set up to raise funds and awareness of the men’s health crisis focusing on suicide, testicular cancer and prostate cancer. To put the severity of these issues in perspective: 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer over their lifetime, 44% of men don’t know how to examine their testicles and 3 out of 4 suicides in the UK are men. These issues culminate in men living for six fewer years than women, our mission is to stop men dying too young.
We have some fantastic events lined up which will raise awareness and money to fight against the issues facing men! ITS TIME TO SAVE A BRO.  

MOVE 5 FOR MOVEMBER 01/11-30/1

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How it works:
Step 1 - Move 5 - Join the challenge, Run 5km, Swim, Cycle, surf, dance it out, or get creative. Sign up to Movember.com link your account to STRAVA to track your run or post your other activities on social media.
Step 2 - Donate 5 – donate at least £5 using your favourite society Movember fundraiser or donate to the Warwick Challenge
Step 3 - Nominate 5 - Share with your friends and family – the more people enter, the more we can raise.

Movember Fun Run 02/1

People tuned in for our Movember FUN RUN kickstarting fundraising for the month!
We live-streamed the warm-up over on the MovemberWarwick and Warwick RAG Facebook pages. After the sweaty warm up session people went off and completed their first MOVE 5 For MOVEMBER. You can still check it out on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=392736765197390
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Movember Virtual Taskmaster 01/11-30/1

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to join in with Warwick RAG’s Virtual Taskmaster- it’s going to be so much fun & an amazing time to raise lots of money for Movember! Every week we’ll be releasing different online events for your society/group/Movember family to complete!
Step 1 - Make a team
Step 2 - Click going and sign up on the event page. Donate £1 per person to your favourite society Movember fundraiser
Step 3 - Look out for the challenge and complete it 
Step 4 - Share it all over social media with your donation link!
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You can form your own groups in different societies or execs. We are also creating 6 person families so that people can more actively engage with each other, find it easier to meet new people in person, find a team for Virtual Taskmaster and other events, and compete to be the best, most wholesome FAMILY.
Fill out the form here to join a family -
 https://forms.gle/AuUTqwRx9GxYW5YE7

MOVEMBER MENTAL HEALTH LIVESTREAM 11/1

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TUNE INTO OUR ON WEDNESDAY 11TH NOVEMBER 4pm-6pm!! As well as highlighting physical health issues, we are hosting a livestream to open up the conversation about men’s mental health this Movember.
we have speakers from various societies attending as well as lots of important info/websites people can use to make sure everyone knows the importance of talking about mental health without judgement.

AND SO MUCH MORE...

We also have some more exciting events lined up including a 24-HOUR MOVE livestream, a virtual Skool Dayz Shave, Movember Pub Quiz, Movember Virtual Auction, and the MO SHOW!!
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Mental health problems have become exacerbated by the pandemic, especially among young men. Let’s do our part to help promote mental health by committing to a 5km run or another form of exercise. We simply ask that you donate at least £5 to support Movember. Research and lifesaving support focusing on Men's mental health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer, let's do it for the men in our lives! Please set a good example by following all the government recommendations – stay solo, stay local and keep your distance from others. Whether indoor or outdoor all forms of 5 themed exercises count toward the challenge.
 
At the time of writing (10/11/2020) there are 53 societies and sports clubs involved, 406 people signed up to fundraise, we have hit an epic benchmark of £13,000, and have broken into the top 20 UK University leader board. Thank you so much everyone for your phenomenal work so far! We’ve been absolutely astounded by how much Warwick has raised after only 10 days!

Where will the money go? Here are some of the examples:

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Big shout outs to WarwickRAG’s Movember Team! 
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Congratulations to Alex Schumacher for raising the most of any RAG members! Keep smashing it!
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We are currently 5th place on the Warwick society leader-board. This is thanks to your incredible fundraising efforts. Let’s keep going, SMASH IT and get first place!!!
We need as many RAG members as possible to sign up to be part of our team! If you want to sign up, click this link, search for WarwickRAG and connect your fundraiser to Facebook.
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The Wrong and the Right Kind of Effort

9/11/2020

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Sustainability is a term widely used to describe the long-term capacity for something to last while not having detrimental effects on its surroundings. It’s a term we normally apply to the environment, as climate change stops being a myth and we force ourselves to ask questions like, how sustainable is our diet? How sustainable are our lifestyles? How can we reduce the amount of miles we travel during the year? However, there is another kind of sustainability that is key for the long-term survival and development of many communities. 
The UK Charity Sector
The charity sector in the United Kingdom comprises 163 thousand charities, employs 2.3% of the UK’s workforce and has an annual income of 43.7 billion pounds every year (42.7 billion goes to helping millions of people both in the UK and globally). Another fact about these charities is that 91% of them rely solely on volunteers to keep them running. The selfless root of every charity’s mission, whether they focus on cancer research or protecting victims of modern slavery or providing support to homeless children, is to attempt at making the world a better place. As cheesy as it sounds, that is the foundation of every single one of their projects. Personally, having spent the last 2 years working with charities within the fundraising world questions such as, "how is the work we do sustainable?" and "how do you guarantee those you help don’t get dependent on you?" have been prominent when choosing which charities to support. The more questions we ask, the better we can assure ourselves that what the charity does is ethical and will make a difference in the long-term.
Voluntourism
The rise of voluntourism has allowed many to question the impact of overseas volunteering trips on the communities they aim at helping. Terms like “white saviorism” and “self-serving volunteering” have been thrown around by those who question the nature of overseas trips and the impact on those in need. I was 18 when I spent 4 months in Ghana with the company IVHQ in what I thought would be a trip in aid of the community I was staying in. I soon realized the program was designed to better serve the volunteers’ desire of helping rather than responding to the communities’ specific needs in a sustainable way. It is key, however, to point out that not all volunteering is voluntourism. The more people look into the issue of sustainability within the charity sector, the more opportunities arise for ethical volunteering.
Red Flags
The length of any volunteering opportunity is very telling as to the impact of the trip itself. Volunteering trips are not only supposed to be getting volunteers to a site, helping then leaving. It is key that the volunteers understand the culture in which they are going to help in so as to not overstep their bounds. Trips that last about one or two weeks are usually meant to act as self-serving, in other words, they are more about the volunteers feeling good instead of doing good. Short-term trips normally have a short-term impact and do not allow the volunteers to understand or properly react to the new culture they are surrounded in. This leads to the creation of the “white saviour”, an image rooted in colonialism and the idea that people from wealthy countries can save the lives of less developed nations. There is an ignorance that is associated with the image of the white saviour for it is seen as intrusive force within the communities. 
From my personal experience, I chose to spend 16 weeks in Ghana however, any volunteer could choose to stay for a period of time ranging from 1 to 24 weeks. Thus, I saw a lot of people come and go from the project having only taught 4 times at a school or taken part in 1 malaria-testing outreach at a local community. Sustainable development demands time and it is unrealistic thinking that a couple of weeks will have a real positive impact in the community. Due to the short amount of time most volunteers spent in the community (mine was in a village called Frankadua), we had a very short briefing in the morning in Accra before we were taken to our specific projects. We were taught some words in the country’s most spoken language, Twi (ironically, where I was staying they spoke Awae so at the end of the day I was not taught a lot about the place I was really going to). The briefing was short and generalised, not all of the volunteers were going to the same projects and every project seemed to be unique. We were not aware, for example, that Frankadua had a population of 5000 people with over 30 different churches and religions. Understanding the culture was thus something I had the opportunity to do because I chose to spend a longer period of time in my trip. However, such understanding should be one made before the trip. Another key understanding people need to make before taking on humanitarian missions is that these take time in order to be meaningful and impactful. Thus, it is key to be suspicious of any short-term volunteering trips and we must ask ourselves the question- how will my actions have a long-term effect in the community I am trying to help?
The cost of these trips can be a big red flag and an issue in their long-term impact. When researching volunteering trips abroad, the first results are of paradise-like locations like Costa Rica, Madagascar or Zanzibar by companies like Frontier and Kidogo Adventure, where prices start at £245 but can go up to £845 a week. These fees claim to be going to the food and accommodation of the volunteers but when looking into these programs the volunteers are only expected to work on projects in the mornings and are free to take on “activities” in the afternoon. These activities are a range of touristic options depending on the location, giving the name to the phenomenon of “voluntourism”. The amount of money that is spent on these trips could be a lot more useful to have an impact in the community by hiring local builders to better the facilities at a local clinic or fund a new classroom in a school. A lot of money is spent on short-term, low impact volunteering which could allow for a lot bigger, long-term impact if placed in the right projects and hands.
There were a lot of issues with my experience and if I could do it all again, I would spend a lot more time researching projects and asking the right questions. Having now been involved in the charity sector, two companies that I believe deal with all of the aspects of volunteering in a particularly sustainable manner are Play Action International and Futuresense. One is considerably smaller than the others but both have as the foundation of their mission sustainable development and long-term impact, which is what all volunteering projects aim to achieve in the first place.
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Clothes Drive with WCWD

18/10/2020

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We are concerned about the world...what can we do? Well, isn’t that the million dollar question. It’s one that’s being asked a lot too, especially at the moment. Nothing is certain, and nobody is sure what’s going to happen next. You can barely make a plan for next week, let alone think about getting involved with anything long term.
If you’re a member of RAG, you probably want to make a difference and help those most in need. (If you’re not a member of RAG, why not? It’s free!!) From Challenges to Raids, Volunteering to Events we’re always doing something to help charities.

This week Warwick RAG, in partnership with What Can We Do? and Choose Love, is running a Winter Clothes Drive for Refugees in Calais. 

What is this Clothes Drive?

Basically, we want your winter clothes! From gloves and scarves to leggings and coats, we’re collecting clothes and basic items to send to Calais, to support the 1500 men, women and children living in refugee camps. A harsh winter is coming and everyone deserves to be warm and be treated with dignity.

There are boxes dotted around campus for you to drop off any winter clothes you can and at the end of the week we’ll collect and deliver them all to Choose Love who will then send them to refugees in Calais!

Places on Campus with Collection Boxes:
- SU Atrium
-Cryfield Village Hall
-Jack Martin Hub
- Cryfield Common Rooms 1 and 2,
- Bluebell 2
- Arthur Vick 1
- Lakeside 1 and 2

For more info go to: www.whatcanwedo.world/clothesdrive

Who are What Can We Do?

A child of COVID-19, borne out of a Google Doc, What Can We Do? (WCWD) is a social enterprise dedicated to inspiring and empowering people to make a difference in society, no matter who they are, where they are, or how much time or money they have. It’s the go-to place to understand the issues facing the UK, and find out how you can help.

We all have the power within us to make change - it doesn’t have to be grand Greta Thunberg-esque discussions with Trump or huge global protests, it can simply be the signing of a petition that gets an issue discussed in parliament. It can be a simple sustainable swap that helps the environment. It can be a conversation that keeps someone from feeling lonely. Or it can be a donation that funds life saving research.
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The What Can We Do? website is a great source of information and inspiration around what you can do to help others. With a simple filter for preferences based on time available and topic of interest, you’re sure to find some new way to help taking as little as 3 minutes!

Every time you search, you are accessing our huge database of actions, campaigns, petitions and donation funds. We’ve launched a form where charities, community groups or individuals can submit something directly to us to be featured on the site. We make sure all additions to the database are carefully vetted according to our key values, contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and there is transparency and accountability regarding funding and leadership.

Who are Choose Love?

Choose Love has raised millions for the charity Help Refugees, to support displaced and vulnerable communities, and created a movement of people putting love in action around the world.

Help Refugees started as nothing more than a hashtag.

Devastated by images of thousands of families arriving on European shores to be met with barbed wire, borders and batons, a group of friends used #helprefugees to organise a van full of donations in August 2015. Within a week, they had raised £56,000 and were soon receiving 7,000 items every day.

Fast forward four years and they have reached over one million displaced people, worked with over 35,000 volunteers and currently support over 120 projects across Europe, the Middle East and the US-Mexico border.

So this week, donate some clothes and check out the What Can We Do? website!
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Welcome Week

9/9/2020

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Ah Welcome Week, the most exciting time of uni! Even though I am going into my 3rd year, I had already planned on going to the SU fair, getting all the freshers’ goodies and (the classic) Domino’s pizza! Needless to say that this year it will be different. When we need most human interaction, we also have the most restrictions on doing so. I can empathise with freshers and new students who might feel anxious and that they might be missing something because their week will not be like other years’. However, I am a firm believer that this year’s Welcome Week will likely have more events than any other one. At least RAG will do. 

We are the largest student-led charitable society on campus, we raise £200,000 a year and most of our committed students and volunteers get involved in some way during our Welcome Week events. So this year we had to step out of the stand-in-the-piazza-and-bar-crawl box. We had to switch it up. We put our masterminds together and planned not 1, not 2 but 9 events for the coming Week 0. There is something for everyone so let’s get started on this busy week.

Monday, we start off live on our Facebook page for an exec Q&A for anyone who wants to virtually meet us and have a casual chat!
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Tuesday, we have the first day of our infamous Fundraising Fair! This will be an online event when you will be able to sign up and meet some of our committee and charity partners. Charities that we work with such as Macmillan Cancer Support, Meningitis Research Foundation, Hope for Children, Amnesty International and many more will be available for a chat on how to contribute to their causes this year. From climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, trekking up Mont Blanc to a road trip around Europe- the opportunities are endless!

Wednesday is Societies Fair! We will be online all day answering any questions, check out our videos and all info on our impactful events. We then are holding a virtual Games Night with plenty of interactive activities for us all to meet new people- who said Game Night had to be in person?!

On Thursday we hold the second day of our Virtual Fundraising Fair, this time our wonderful Challenge Leaders will be free to talk about their challenges and other committee members will be doing short talks about uni life! We then have our fundraising event of Welcome Week- a virtual Mind-Reading and Magic show in aid of Beat UK! Chris Wall, a professional magician, will be hosting this session in aid of the UK’s eating disorder society. Tickets can be found in the SU page here. We will also be holding a virtual pub quiz for flats later on in the evening!

As the week comes to an end, on Friday we are holding a virtual Speed Mingling event! Join, get matched with people to talk to for 5 minutes then get matched with someone else, this way you will be able to meet loads of other students and interact with them! To finish off the week we're hosting a Cocktail Masterclass based on our wonderful challenges! It might not be our usual bar crawl but it's sure to be a great night!

This is it! We look forward to meeting everyone so so soon! Check out all of our events for more details on our website, Facebook or SU page! 

Don’t forget to become a member!
Loads of love,
Bia
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Getting ready for Uni: Packing

28/8/2020

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Photo by Sarah Brown on Unsplash

Packing. That dreaded task that is really tempting to put off until the last minute.
First bit of advice: don’t.
I’m not saying you should start getting out your boxes or suitcases right now, but you should, at the very least, start thinking about what you want to take with you.

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Next question: what on Earth should you take to Uni?
I honestly think that everyone who has ever gone to Uni has probably asked this question whilst staring around their room completely lost. And some people will have to answer this question at the beginning of every year. So don’t panic! If you do forget something, you can always buy it from the shops or get it sent to you from home.
Second bit of advice: make a list (and check it twice??)
There are lots of lists on the internet that you can use to see what you might want to take to Uni. But don’t just take 1 of these lists and follow it. Making your own list not only means that (when you start packing) it’s written in a sensible order for your house, but that you’ve thought about the different items being suggested and whether or not you actually need them.
Third bit of advice: about a month before Uni, start jotting down ANYTHING that you use (from your alarm clock to your phone charger and even that garlic crusher that you only ever use to make one dish but couldn’t possibly go through Uni without eating it).
Jotting down everything you use means that you can then go through the packing list you made and check that everything you use on a daily basis is on that list.
Fourth bit of advice: make sure you check what comes with your accommodation and also ask your parents/guardians to see if there’s anything they think you’re missing
Making these checks means that a) you’re not taking something that’s already provided for you (like a bin) and b) that you’re not forgetting something that you’ll need because your parents always did it for you (eg: a clothes horse or money for the tumble dryers).
Final bit of advice: try to give yourself about a week to pack
Much longer and you’ll constantly be tripping over boxes/cases and having to search for items that you’ve already packed. Much shorter and you’ll find the task a lot more boring, as well as increasing the likelihood of forgetting something.
Finally, we wanted to share with you a few surprising things we think you might need for the year ahead (especially if you’re planning on joining RAG!!):
  • Sleeping bag - we’ve got a volunteering event called St Basil’s sleepout to raise money and awareness for homeless 16-25 year olds
  • Fancy dress - a lot of our socials have a theme so coming prepared will make getting ready a lot easier 
  • Did you know, bubble wrap can cover many different themes if you just think outside the box?
  • Funky animal onesie for bucket collections - not only will it keep you warm, you’re likely to be able to raise more for charity!
  • Hand warmers - sometimes raising money for good causes requires being out in the cold, but having warm hands makes the day so much better!
  • Running shoes - we’re planning a big Movember campaign so bring your trainers and help us fight for Men’s mental health!
  • Sliders/slippers - life’s so much better in comfortable footwear!

If you’re still a bit nervous about the idea of packing (or have any other worries about coming to Uni) you might want to join our Pen Pal programme 
Good luck, we can’t wait to welcome you to Warwick Uni!

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Keep Calm and Don't Panic ... About Results Day

11/8/2020

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Results day is a day filled with apprehension, anxiety and uncertainty. Your entire future depends on this day. Are you going to go to your dream university? Are you going to go to your back up university? Are you going to go to university at all or start thinking about a gap year, exam repeats or the anxiety of going through the clearing process? Will all your hard work over the last few years pay off? All those A*’s in your GCSE’s / O levels, all nighters, extra-curricular activities to supplement your perfect college applications - do they really matter? Let me tell you about my story when my English grade went up...
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Being a Challenge Leader

29/6/2020

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​I knew I wanted to be a challenge leader after undertaking one of RAG’s fantastic challenges in my first year. I discovered a love for fundraising and RAG captured my heart, it’s such a wonderful society and I knew I wanted to become a bigger part of it going forward. I applied and was lucky enough to land the job of skydive challenge leader raising money for Unseen UK!

Another reason for wanting to be a challenge leader was that I was returning from a year abroad and knew it would be a great way of meeting a new bunch of people! And I was right!
Being a challenge leader has been fantastic. I’ve loved working with Unseen UK and getting to learn so much about the charity and how it runs and have loved helping out participants with their fundraising. However, perhaps the best part of being a challenge leader for me has been helping RAG on the whole! You really become part of a community when on the RAG committee and everyone works as a team to run all the amazing events they put on. I particularly loved helping out in RAG week, doggy de-stress will always be my favourite event!

There are so many ways to get involved in RAG and being a challenge leader is a fantastic opportunity! Knowing that I played a part in helping to raise RAG’s grand total of £90K this year really is the icing on the cake.

I would recommend being a RAG challenge leader to pretty much anyone, but perhaps more specifically: to anyone looking to gain skills in leadership, teamwork, and fundraising; to anyone who wants to make a difference to the world by helping to raise money for a bunch of amazing charities; or to anyone simply looking to make new friends and is willing to put in some work to do so!

​If you'd like to apply to be a challenge leader for next year, fill out this form!


RAG love xx

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Reflecting on the BLM Awareness Talks

26/6/2020

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On Monday 22nd June, Warwick RAG presented a day of talks surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. Spearheaded by our wonderful president and vice-president Bia and Haroon, the day consisted of 6 talks about different aspects of the movement.
​The day was organised because we felt that the BLM movement is one of the most important movements of our generation with great historical significance. As a result it is something that we all should be aware of, whilst striving to further educate ourselves. The livestream talks were a great opportunity for people to build a foundational understanding and use recommendations to further their learning. Being a society that focuses on changing and improving the world, we wanted to show our solidarity with the BLM movement whilst also highlighting the racial structures that are so apparent in our society today. 
 
If you've not seen any of the talks, I'd highly recommend taking a look. They can be found on the Warwick RAG Facebook page and a list of the resources suggested throughout the day can be found in this post.
But now I want to take a bit of time to reflect on the day.
 
The morning involved some discussions with members of Warwick LitSoc and Amnesty International. It was a chance to think about how White my education has been and how I could further my education to include a more diverse set of experiences. The members of Amnesty also discussed different forms of activism and projects currently ongoing to tackle racial discrimination.
The overarching theme of both discussions was the importance of education in fighting racial injustice and that just taking the time to learn a little bit more about the lives of others can make a big difference and discussing what you learn with others can make an even bigger difference!
 
The importance of education was further highlighted in the afternoon with talks by Dr Lydia Plath, Ruva Knight, Dr Schroeder and Dr Simon Peplow.
Through these talks, we learnt about the history of racism, the portrayal of People of Colour in music, a little about the life of a man who escaped slavery, and more about the relationship between the police and black people in the UK.
 
The afternoon was really thought provoking with some ideas expressed that seemed to turn the current national narrative on its head. Learning about the history of racial discrimination and the different stats at play was really eye-opening and I plan to look at the suggested resources to further my understanding of the topics involved. It was also interesting to take a look at the representation of Black People in media, especially in media created by Black People themselves, especially in hip hop.
 
Overall, the day was very insightful and it is definitely worth watching some of the talks or looking at some of the resources suggested. If you want to take some action, do take a look at the links on the Black Lives Matter event page where you can find some petitions you could sign, and places you could donate to.
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A Brief Summary of my Fundraising Journey for MRF

15/5/2020

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​No matter how many degrees or what kind of education we have, there are some lessons we can only learn through the School of Life. Here’s a little heads up on my experience with volunteering and how it helped me grow as a person.


In September 2020, I was supposed to be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of the Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) if I could reach the £3050 fundraising target. Unfortunately, my climb is now cancelled because of obvious safety reasons regarding Covid-19.
To be completely honest, climbing the world's tallest free-standing mountain has been a lifelong dream. Every day, I was getting closer to and more excited about fulfilling it. So, when I heard the news, I was terribly disappointed. But this project is bigger than climbing Kilimanjaro. It’s about fulfilling the dream of children, parents, direct and indirect victims of meningitis and septicaemia. It’s about eradicating meningitis by 2030; I shall never forget it.
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Looking at the big picture, I just realized how many skills I gained from fundraising for MRF. When I thought I was shy and introverted, I had to convince countless people to donate money for a cause they (sadly) didn’t necessarily know about. I laughed out loud during events like the dare contest, fought my fears during the Thai-Boxing interclub contest. This month, I have led a team of 20 volunteers during an online e-sport tournament where we raised more than £600 in less than two weeks ! A few months ago, I didn’t know much about charity and fundraising. Today, I can confidently say that volunteering will always be part of my life.

Last but not least, I have met awesome people like Shubham who is now a great friend, Luke from Students Against Meningitis, and Beatriz - president of Warwick RAG. I could mention many well-driven individuals wearing their heart on their sleeves, and many lessons that I have learnt from this experience… What a long list it is!

Moral of the story? MRF’s cause is greater than any mountain in the world. Our fundraising journey with MRF is not over. In fact, we’re only halfway! I am profoundly grateful to anyone that has helped me so far. If you want to check out our campaign for MRF, here’s the team’s link: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/warwick-kili-2020?fbclid=IwAR0dKZuXdfrvQFR6e50RO-b86y2Q2LvlfgUU2PkgCJY70Vtparan9g_DGLQ 
Spread the word, spread love.

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Supporting Charities during Quarantine

29/4/2020

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Hi! My name is Bia, I’m the new President of RAG and I wanted to share some ideas to support our beloved charities during this unprecedented quarantine state. Charities are currently going through a lot of losses due to the cancellation of various events and the big hit on global economy. As a RAG, we feel a responsibility towards the charities we support throughout the year so here are some virtual challenges that some causes close to our hearts have set up over the last few weeks. If you go to our website and click on the tab “Coronavirus”, you will find a list of more fundraisers to hold from home.

Quest to Bidibidi - East African Playgrounds are a charity that focus on sustainable development within education by building playgrounds and giving children the opportunity to play during their childhood. Playing develops social skills, communication and helps children deal with trauma. This incredible charity has recently launched a virtual challenge called Quest to Bidibidi. Bidibidi is the second biggest refugee settlement in the world, as large as the city of Birmingham! The quest aims to highlight that there are thousands of refugee children whose access to safe and fun play, helping them recover from trauma is severely limited and their lives will inevitably be further impacted by COVID-19. Funds raised by teams who take part will help East African Playgrounds fund projects including helping 27,000 refugee children in Bidibidi have a chance of a brighter future. This virtual challenge that starts at the charity’s Headquarters in Bletchley, in the UK and takes teams of up-to 12 people across 10 countries, covering 8,800km to Bidibidi settlement in Uganda. You'll navigate your way there through exercise/ physical activity, complete challenges and fundraise in order to rack up those kilometres.              Here is the link to the challenge: https://www.eastafricanplaygrounds.org/quest-to-bidibidi.
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2.6 Challenge - The 2.6 Challenge has been setup to save the UK's charities who are set to lose billions of pounds this year because so many fundraising events have been cancelled. Many different charities affected by the current crisis are urging people to raise funds in 2.6-related challenges. Some examples are Beat, Breast Cancer Now, Action Against Hunger and Meningitis Research Foundation.  Last year, the London Marathon raised £67 million for charities and The 2.6 Challenge is uniting the nation to do the same today. 
  • Beat (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/beat-at-uog-s-2-6-challenge) - UK's leading charity supporting those affected by eating disorders and campaigning on their behalf eating disorders. The demand for their Helpline has soared by 35% but at the same time our income is set to drop by 30%.
  • Breast Cancer Now (https://twopointsixchallenge.justgiving.com/get-involved?charityId=169) - A larger number of people have been calling the Helpline as many people affected by breast cancer that their fears and worries have increased during this time.  ​
From Sunday 26 April onwards,  you can create your own challenge/activity, and hold it whenever you can. Simply choose your challenge based around the numbers 2.6 or 26 and fundraise to support any charity of your preference. You can hold a dance-a-thon for 26 hours or a virtual challenge with 26 of your friends from uni who can donate to take part, or you could do a sponsored cycle, run or walk for 2.6 mile.
Link for more information: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/giving/events/twopointsix/
Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) - MRF is a leading UK, Irish and international charity that brings together people and expertise to defeat meningitis and septicaemia wherever it exists. Their vision is of a world free from meningitis and septicaemia, where effective vaccinations can protect everyone. 24th of April was world Meningitis Day, which reminded many that even though coronavirus is a big focus right now, lethal diseases like meningitis are still affecting hundreds people, especially children.  2020 is a crucial year for them. For over a year, MRF, along with experts all over the globe, have come together to help the World Health Organisation draft a detailed, concrete plan on how to defeat meningitis by 2030. In just less than a month, they will announce this plan at the World Health Assembly to gain global commitment to making this dream a reality. 
There is a  pledge to pressure world governments to make meningitis a priority in the future and it would be amazing if everyone could sign it- https://meningitis.typeform.com/to/Ectcvk?fbclid=IwAR1PofuZxGmNltmifz5TBBrr94BTVCc5QzGwNXhB7Bc7jGSwIJZhoRF8DOc 

St. Basil’s walk - St Basil’s is a charity dedicated to reducing youth homelessness and equipping them with the relevant skills to find employment has reached out with a virtual walk of the World famous Camino de Santiago trail. The walk can be completed individually or in teams - you will have six weeks from 4th of May to complete and it'll cost £10.00 to participate.  If you were in a team of five for example, it’ll only be 4,500 steps a day - which would hopefully be a breeeeze for the majority of you ! It's a great way to keep fit and combat boredom at home.
More info here-https://stbasils.org.uk/basilbytes/step-up-and-join-us-on-a-virtual-walk-along-the-world-famous-camino-de-santiago-trail/
This opportunity will be running from the 4th of May to the 12th of June
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5K Challenge - 
You can also go for a run and complete the 
5K challenge where you run 5 kilometers, donate £5 to a charity of your choice and nominate 5 people to do it as well! It's fun and keeps you healthy! You could also climb the height of Mount Everest in your stairs at home and raise thousands of pounds or reach out to your community and see if there is anything you can do to help those at greater risk during this difficult  time. 

If you have any virtual fundraising idea, reach out to us and we can help you put it up and promote it! I hope everyone is well and safe!
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    This blog is written by members of Warwick RAG. If you'd like to contribute a post, please send us an email!

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