"Can you imagine feeling energy and passion, fun and joy every day? That's the feeling I get from supporting ActionAid. I'm a junkie for making a difference and I can recapture that feeling whenever I'm low." Avis Talbot, 50, a business development consultant from south-east London, is explaining what she gets from her support for ActionAid.
"It makes me feel like I have a purpose; it makes me feel energised. Any time I want a buzz, I know I can make a difference to someone's life and feel absolutely brilliant."
Avis is just one of ActionAid's many supporters who gets a personal boost from being involved with the charity, as well as a sense of fulfilment from knowing they're helping people.
Transforming lives
ActionAid's work in the developing world helps people transform their lives. The charity provides people with the skills, education and tools they need to work their own way out of poverty.
Whether it's collecting donations or signatures or organising charity runs, it's the challenge that Avis enjoys. "If they want 500 signatures, I try to get 1,000. It makes me feel better that I've done something ... I've made a difference."
The trip of a lifetime
Do you want to feel the same way? ActionAid is offering one lucky Guardian reader the chance to see the charity's work first-hand in Rwanda. The successful entrant will live with a family who deal with true hardships every day. They will report on how the trip makes them feel and how ActionAid changes the lives of the people it works with. Find out how to enter here.
As Avis says: "When someone signs a petition or drops money in a box, I know that has changed the life of a woman and her family, or a farmer: just someone, somewhere else and that is just a really, really good feeling."
