Am I being Mean?

That's true, I know a couple of people who have been on several "once in a lifetime challenge"s .. at one point it was hitting at least one a year! It was clearly becoming just part of their hobby and I felt like asking them for some cash for my gym membership in return when they asked me to another "fund raising wine and nibbls night" .. but THAT would have been crazy and mean.. cause they did what they love doing in exotic locations FOR CHARITY

p.s. THANK GOD they all had children which put a stop to the annual "once in a lifetime" challenges.. I can go back to LIKING them now

It is I suppose a sort of "charity fatigue" that people can now only be attracted to raise money for a charity if it offers them some sort of dramatic, foreign challenge. It isn't enough to do a local walk or to do the Three Peaks challenge you have to go somewhere exotic and do something different. I'm not absolutely certain that a young person learns any more about survival if they are snowed in in Norway or in Scotland. I wonder what will happen when climbing Kilimanjaro or Cycling across Peru becomes just normal and everyday, what will the next great charity fundraisers be?

The kids going on these trips are given approximately 10 months to raise funds in addition to getting themselves into a state of top physical and mental health to enable them to cope with the physical challenge of climbing to approx 6,000m and extreme temperatures.
The preparation involves climbing in the Peak District whilst wearing a 75 litre backpack filled with kit and sleeping under canvas in the depth of winter. I won't elaborate further but the training was relentless.
In addition to this they were at a stage in their lives where the were undertaking exams and the necessary work that involves.
So, in reality they had only a few months to raise funds. There is therefore no way a 16 year old can raise £2500 in donations from bag backing, car washing etc in such a limited time. As most struggle to raise £500, there is little point is saying they should stay in the U.K. and send the £2500 to the charity. They never raise that, it's the parents who pay, having made a choice that their child would benefit from the experience, some doing so at great sacrifice to themselves. And as parents, that's what we do.

Now, as for making reference to "indulged first world youngsters" I would like to tell you something of my "indulged first world youngster"....in addition to her training and studies she worked 3 evenings a week from 5pm to 10pm in our local Tesco and every penny she earned went straight into the charity pot for taking with her to hand over to the school in Tanzania. I can't imagine every 16 year old girl would be prepared to do that.

I would like to finish by saying, there is no need to make a donation to anything if you choose not to.....Simple!

Jalima says it all for me!

Why are you assuming that money raised in the UK needs to be used for charities in the UK Anya? I don't remember saying that and I do take strong exception to being called, in effect, a Little Englander. All my life I've disliked nationalism and lived almost half of my life out of the UK. You seem to be using your own prejudices to colour your reading of posts to twist them into what you want to read rather than what is actually there.

Everyone I've met in RL who insists that 'charity begins at home' has gone on to make it clear that it begins at home and stays at home.

Well, charity could begin at home and extend all round the world to those who need it if more of the money raised was directed there.

I think the point some posters are trying to make is that if £2,500 is raised for each trip, much of the money goes to these firms which have been set up to extract money from well-off, well-fed first worlders under the guise helping people in other parts of the world who are less well off or maybe starving.

£500 to the starving and needy, £2,000 going to providing fun and 'experience' to indulged first world youngsters.

Charity begins at home! The war cry of the xenophobic

The people I know who spent time helping in the camps in Calais and Lesbos are the exact same people who have spent their lives doing youth work and working with people on the streets here "at home".

Anyone who claims that helping at home and abroad are mutually exclusive is missing the point.

Charity begins at home! The war cry of the xenophobic

I'm watching starving children on the news as I write this. South Sudan. Shall we let them starve then Grannypiper?

I have read the posts and some of them don't surprise me given the age and demograph of this site! Just pleased that not everyone falls into the GOW category.

I dont suppose they could support a local charity. Seems to me that that charity doesn't begin at home

Yes Anya, there is a whole world out there, and we went and discovered it by hitch-hiking, back-packing, sitting like sardines in student trains, learning how to fend for ourselves, saving money until we had enough for the cross-channel ferry, working in vineyards or fruit-picking. We didn't expect to get it by asking people for money which would go to companies making a good living by sitting on the coat-tails of charities.
If you read the posts, then you will find that no-one is against young people experiencing different opportunities, what is the concern is the amount of money which has to be raised to give them the opportunity which could itself be going to the charity which they are supporting.

No, no children or adults were harmed in Norway. You cannot plan for the weather can you in a place like that. It can change in an instant. So much snow in no time.

Bah humbug to lesser challenges such as walking the frigging Pennines. Where is your sense of adventure FHS?

There's a whole wide world out there, so less of the dumbed-down and parochial.

This isn't the spirit that made The Empire Great ?????????

How about raising money to bring Children from Africa to experience the British way of life ! I'm impressed with the people who bring the children from Chernobyl over. I totally agre about the porters on Kilimanjaro . And those childrenin Norway did they put anone I danger rescuing them?

Yorkshirel the local people don't often benefit. The porters do a very hard job for tips. They have a short life expectancy. Some people make a lot of money. Those doing the hard work don't.

Charities advertise for people to do this kind of sponsored event.
The young people involved probably hadn't given it much thought and just believed if a charity says they want you to do it, then it's a good idea, as well as fun for them.

Yorkshiregel I understand what you are saying but there are many challenges/team building/survival enterprises in this country. Cycling from Edinburgh to Cornwall, walking the Pennines, climbing Snowden etc . This way they could get the experience and raise more for the charity.

On the trip I mentioned that my son went on to Norway there was a white out blizzard and they were confined to camp. They were stuck for 2 days before anyone could reach them. He said what they don't tell you about Salopettes is that you have to take your top clothes off to use the loo because there is no trapdoor! Nor do they tell you about icicles that can form in minutes! Say no more. He actually wrote a postcard to me and OH because they were worried they would not be found, which I have kept safe...at the bottom he had written 'I want my Mummy'! He was 15yrs at the time :-)

They were all brought down eventually roped together. All you could see on the photographs was the top of the tent poles. It was in all the Norwegian papers so maybe some people might remember it?

These trips are not a jolly!

teachers' trip :-)

Also, just pointing out that some of the money raised by the children goes towards their teachers trip as well because they have to be accompanied.

The idea is to instil a feeling of belonging (to a team); comradeship; determination; positivity; responsibility; hard work; skill; endurance; leadership and strength of mind. All good life-skills which will enhance their chances of finding a job after leaving school or university.

I think these trips are worthwhile for all involved, and the charity benefits as well. If you don't feel you can help you do not need to contribute do you?

Totally agree with you. Youngsters perhaps will start out for the adventure but will totally have their eyes opened and their hearts touched.

Perhaps you do not appreciate what a challenge Killimanjaro would be to someone so young? Pushing yourself to the limit will impress on you that if you want something you have to work hard for it.

Also, the district that Killimanjaro is in is impoverished so people going on trips such as this provides work for the locals so they benefit as well.

You have to be fit in mind and body to attempt to climb this mountain. RAF and Army expeditions go every year to do the same sort of climb so why not youngsters when there is a spin off for some charity?

If the youngsters in this case were going abroad to do charity work I would have been happy to support/sponsor them. But, they told me that they wanted to climb Killimanjaro to raise money for charity and I don't understand why they can't raise the money here without such high overheads. As I said before, if they had told me they wanted the money to go travelling I would have been happy to make a contribution but they said the expedition was costing £2000 and I feel that the charity would benefit from that. I always encourage young people to go travelling and I admire those who do charity work, but there was something about this that didn't seem right. Sorry if I have offended anyone

I think some of you are missing the point of what concerns us. It's not the opportunity or the experience, it's the £2000 or so that has to be raised that does not go to the charity concerned but to some other organisation that is making a profit from organising travel etc. Our concern is that if £2000 (for travel etc) + £500 (for the charity) has been raised for one of these trips, then why can't £2500 be raised solely for the charity by an equally educationally useful experience in this country - which could well offer the same opportunities for learning organisational skills, appreciation of other people's problems etc etc.