Evans: We can make the world a better place

Dubai: With blisters still fresh on her feet from trekking through the Lebanese mountains, Tricia Evans encouraged a room full of potential volunteers to give up their time for the children of the world.

Evans is one of seven volunteer governors for Gulf For Good — a Dubai-based charity that organises adventure expeditions around the world, to raise money for underprivileged children in developing countries.

Not only does she give around one day a week to the charity, she also works full time as a business coach, and is a single mother to her 12-year-old daughter.

She herself has been on five trips with the charity, including those in the UAE, Egypt, Cambodia and Thailand, Jordan and Bangkok.

"For me it's giving back — I feel passionately about it. In 1988 I went to Africa for the first time and it blew my mind. It was such a shocking realisation that a massive majority of the world is in poverty. And the rest of us aren't in poverty — it sounds like a cliché — but we can make the world a better place. "I feel very, very strongly about that," Evans told Gulf News at the charity's information evening.

Gulf For Good has places open for its golden triangle multi-challenge in Thailand in November. The trip will include kayaking, trekking and cycling through remote jungle, to raise funds for a rescue centre that cares for Bangkok's street children. "You'd be surprised how good it [charity work] makes you feel and how much difference you can make with just a small [bit of] effort," she said. The charity was established nine years ago, and has to date raised more than Dh5.5 million for children around the world. Evans continued: "You can genuinely change the world, one person at a time. I don't know who said that, but it really hit a chord with me. That's exactly what we're doing — we're changing the world."