Childreach Int. Statement

It is with great sadness that we learned that Childreach has paused its operations due to financial difficulties. Childreach was a charity which offered students international challenge fundraising events in much the same way as Dig Deep. We have friends who have volunteered and worked for Childreach over the years and have admired Childreach’s work and influence, both through their development projects around the world, and also in their support of student fundraising.

This news does not affect our trips in any way. Dig Deep remains in excellent financial standing and we look forward to another summer of delivering amazing climbs, cycles and runs in East Africa to support our charitable work.

Our hearts go out to the Childreach Team and their student fundraisers who currently face uncertainty regarding their fundraising and participation in the challenges with Childreach (you can read an article from The Tab about this here). We have reached out to Childreach’s Trustees and informed them that we standby with an offer to assist any student who has signed up for a Childreach Kilimanjaro climb that was planned to take place in 2018, or that wishes to change their challenge to Kilimanjaro.

We want to make sure that all students affected are still able to take on this adventure of a lifetime and raise vital funds to change the lives of children in East Africa - but without being unfairly burdened by extra out of pocket expense or additional fundraising requirements, and with established fundraising support being offered to help them reach their target. Provided the trip costs are covered by outstanding fundraising we have offered to allow all students who wish to climb Kilimanjaro to transfer to Dig Deep Challenges without paying further registration fees and without any increase to their fundraising targets. We are in a position to make this offer as we do not rely upon for-profit or third party suppliers here in the UK, but rather organise all our trips in house drawing on our experience and expertise working in East Africa.

Student fundraising has been the bedrock that has allowed our water and sanitation projects to reach over 219,000 people in East Africa so far. It is our opinion that we should rally to support those students, who through no fault of their own, find themselves in an uncertain situation. If you have been affected and wish to talk to our team please contact challenge@digdeep.org.uk or call our UK office on 0114 360 1471.