James, Year 10 student, Manor CE Primary

I was intrigued when I heard about the opportunity to go to Malawi as I’d heard that other people had had a good experience. I think it’s going to be really positive and give me good experience for going on to further education. A group of about 15 of us are going to Malawi next October. We will be working with people less fortunate than ourselves who may not even get an education.

I’m hoping that my experience there will help me to understand people more, and help me to work with people I don’t know so well.

Before we go, we are going to do the Living below the line challenge where we live off £1 a day for a week so that we can try to understand more about how people in Malawi live. It sounds a tough challenge, but we’ll just have to manage – it’s what they have to face every day.

I’d love to film our experiences in Malawi, as when I finish school I’d like to go to college and university to study film and documentary production. When I come back, I hope I’ve learned a lot through experiencing their culture and I’ll try to change my life for the better.