The project was divided into three different phases; an expedition, an environmental phase and a community project. During the first phase expedition, I was in a group of 12 participants and two project leaders. Over 18 days we walked on average 8 hours a day reaching heights of 3500metres. We completed our trek in the height of the rainy season which added to the difficulty of walking and camping each night. This trek was a huge achievement for the whole group and taught us valuable lessons such as working as a team and important leadership skills.

Although I think it is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, it was a great experience and taught me that you can do anything you put your mind to.

The second phase I spent working in a national park called Santa Rosa in the north of Costa Rica. As a group we spent three weeks working together with the rangers and some local people restoring the pathways to encourage tourism in the park. We carried and sawed logs to repair over 300 metres of pathway.

For the third phase we travelled up to a Nicaraguan village in the mountainside called La Perla. This was a small village consisting of about 25 families. We lived with different families and learnt a lot about their way of life and customs. It was a sad experience as the people were very poor and lived in basic mud huts, with no running water or electricity.

I spent my time working in a programme for school children called CEA. It was a place that children could come in the afternoons and we helped them with their homework and afterwards played games together. It was a great way to keep the children off the streets for the afternoon and they also received lunch and a snack after the session was over, which was often their only meal of the day.