Sasha Correia

My name is Sasha Correia and I am currently studying chemistry biology and psychology at A level in St Joan of Arc. My plans for the future are hopefully to get into university to study medicine, and go on to become a psychiatrist or paediatrician. Fingers crossed anyways! Ever since I was first introduced to UDAYAN in year 7 I have always hoped that I would be lucky enough to get the opportunity to visit it. By the time I was offered the chance to go to UDAYAN I was still as eager. Perhaps it was because I had always seen the fundraising happening around school and the more I heard about what this fundraised money did for these children in India the more I wanted to be involved. Last year I was able to participate in raising £400 for an individual child in UDAYAN. I did this through for example organising for a teacher to dress up like Santa and selling sweets in a pick and mix. I hope to continue to support this child through this year again raising £400. This further fuelled my wanting to visit UDAYAN to visit the child I have helped sponsor and to see the incredible difference that money is making to her life. I hope from this trip I will not only get to experience a completely different culture, but understand the problems that some other people face and although they may be far away from us, it is still so important to do our best to better other people’s lives. I hope to gain a better insight into how important it is to support charities and not turn a blind eye to certain problems even if they don’t affect us directly. Simultaneously, I hope that I can help to strengthen the bon between St Joan of arc and UDAYAN, by showing all of the children that although we are far way we are thinking of them. I hope we can somewhat brighten their day through this and get to know what their life is like in UDAYAN. As we get closer to our time in India, we are all getting more and more excited as we know it will be a truly unforgettable trip.