As a lot of you will be aware from my excited statuses and tweets, I am travelling to Ghana this year! I've wanted to go to Africa for as long as I can remember, mainly due to programmes like Comic Relief, but teaching abroad has always been a dream too; after all, there is only so much that English schools have to offer! After weeks of stressing over a myriad of different volunteering projects that I just could not afford, I found this one - orphanage work in Ghana - with IVHQ.

Despite having a phobia of flying and the fact that I'm heading out on my own, I could not be more excited to see a different part of the world, and, hopefully, make a difference in someone's life. It sounds so cliche, but that really is all I want to do. If one little child can remember that, when they were little someone called Hannah came to stay for 2 weeks & made them that bit happier, I'll feel like I've done my bit. I'm not even sure if I'm emotionally stable enough for this - I can't even watch the charity adverts so God only knows what I'll be like, seeing 3rd world poverty with my own eyes - but I'm going to give it my best shot and make sure that I make the most of this experience, for me and for the people I will meet out there.

Now, for the reason I've set up this page. The amount of money I've had to spend - on Visa applications, Police checks, 6 vaccinations for diseases I don't even want to think about, the programme itself, the flights & the things I'll need to take - is giving me grey hairs.. I'm a poor student and my part-time job only gives me so much money I can put towards this. The one thing I haven't quite managed to work out how to pay for yet is the equipment needed for the children. Living in an orphanage, they rely on donations of clothes, school books, toys and sports equipment.. and I want to help out with that. I'm going to be taking a certain amount of money over with me so that I can buy these things out there - after all, if I try and spend as much money as possible on them in Ghana, I'm helping out their economy which can only be a good thing!....................................... SO, if ANY of you reading this has ANY amount of money they could put towards this, I would be so unbelievably grateful.

I want to stress that I am not asking for money to help fund my trip or my flights.. any money I get from setting up this page will go straight to buying things for the children - and, in return, I will take photos of the things I have bought to show you all how appreciated your money has been! I'm not going for another 5.5 weeks, so if you want to donate but don't have money right now, that's perfectly fine... but seriously,any amount of money will be so gratefully received by me and the people in Ghana!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me via Facebook, Twitter or email!

Thank you all (and thanks for reading; I know I've waffled on!)..

Han :) xxx