Lunchtime Meeting - 12.45pm - Speaker Kate Breeden

Kate Breeden is from a local village called Llanfihangel-Yng-Ngwynfa (near Llanfyllin), half an hour from Oswestry, having returned to live here after completing a Geography MA at Edinburgh University.

Kate has recently been accepted to take part in a unique and challenging experience. She has been chosen as a participant on International Citizen Service (ICS) - an opportunity for volunteers to help some of the poorest people in the world and learn valuable new skills at the same time. It is a programme that brings young people (who make up the majority of the population in many poorer countries) from different countries together to tackle poverty and its causes, since we are well placed to change things for the future. It is also an opportunity for her to increase her understanding and experience of the world and develop important skills such as global and cultural awareness, team-working, leadership, communication and decision-making.

She has been selected to go to Zambia with Voluntary Service Overseas for three months starting later this month.  During this time she will live with a local family in Choma, and - along with a counterpart young person from Zambia - will be working on a community project attempting to tackle the huge problem of HIV and AIDS there, by designing and delivering a programme on Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health.

Kate is taking the opportunity to speak to us today as a great chance to showcase how our local young people in the community are getting involved in international development.