Ben's Vietnam solo cycle tour raises thousands for Glasgow kids

Howard Lake | 9 January 2007 | Newswire

Ben’s Vietnam solo cycle tour raises thousands for Glasgow kids
Save the Children youth participation worker, Ben Williams has arrived back safely today from his month long solo cycling tour of Vietnam and raised over £5k for the charity’s YES (Young East End Speaking) project in Glasgow’s East End.
21-year-old Ben, who has funded the trip himself, left for Vietnam on 7th Dec and cycled almost 1800km from Hanoi, forgoing his Christmas dinner on the 25th to complete his trip to Ho Chi Minh City.
All of the money raised will go directly back to the YES project, a network of 12 youth groups that tackle poverty and create opportunities for young people. YES challenges racism and sectarianism, brings together young people from rival gangs and gives children a voice, allowing them to have a say in their own lives and communities.
During his tour, Ben visited the Vietnamese Save the Children programme in Hanoi as well experiencing the memorable privilege of Vietnamese hospitality when he was taken in by a local family when faced with no bed for the night.
Ben’s total is still rising and he hopes to raise not just a substantial amount of money for the YES project, but also to raise awareness of the work being carried out and the true extent of youth poverty in Glasgow.
Ben said, “I have no doubt that the money raised will change the lives of young people in Glasgow’s East End and hopefully the trip will also inspire some of them to head off on their own life changing experience.”
He added that the highlights of the trip were:
Being taken in by the family when I had nowhere to go. They had not a word of English between them and I’d gone to their door and signalled for a bed to see if they would point to somewhere. Instead they took me in, fed me three meals, taught me Vietnamese through a dictionary they had and the younger ones played games with me. They wouldn’t take a penny for it. A very special experience.”
Susan Fisher, Assistant Scotland Programme Director for Save the Children, who oversees the YES Project, added:
Ben is a valued member of our YES Project team, working hard to ensure young people’s voices are heard and that they are able to contribute to making their communities a better place to live. His commitment to the young people of the East End and to the YES Project is inspiring and by taking on this challenge he has raised much needed funds for this work.”
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
Save the Children – Beverley Kirk, Media Officer (Scotland), 0131 527 8244 / 07764 560 940, b.****@sa*************.uk
Notes to Editor:
About Save the Children
Save the Children fights for vulnerable children in the UK and around the World who suffer from poverty, disease, injustice and violence. Working with them to find lifelong answers to the problems they face.
For more information about Save the Children, please visit the website: www.savethechildren.org.uk

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.