As I’ve mentioned before, my parents are my biggest supporters. When I first told them about my idea to run 2200km from Hanoi to HCMC for Vietnamese charities, they understood. Instead of trying to talk me out of it, they asked questions and helped me with planning and finding equipment that I needed. I am so lucky to be a Skinner!

After weeks of planning and hard work, last Saturday night, mum and dad hosted a fundraising quiz for namrunsnam. The Westbough School Hall was packed with teams ready to quiz! Tables were made up of family members, friends and colleagues. I was blown away by the amount of support we received. 

As well as the quiz, there was a raffle. I contacted some Maidstone businesses via email and was excited to be offered a variety of prizes. A special thank you to Freedom Fitness, Maidstone Fixings, Fredricks, Sue Spiel Therapies and the Curious Eatery for their prize donations. Thank you also to family friends, Maureen and Colin, who donated a bottle of whisky to the prize draw.

Woven Vietnam, run by my selfless friend Natasha, who I played netball with in Saigon, had a stall at the event. Woven’s beautiful products are handcrafted by Vietnamese women. Natasha is striving to empower these weavers to get a fair price for their skills and ensure their craft and communities can continue to thrive. Natasha kindly donated 5% of her sales to namrunsnam. Thank you Natasha! Find out more about woven by following their Instagram page @wovenvietnam

The quiz night and raffle raised an outstanding £670!!! This amount of money will truly change lives here in Vietnam. It could be used to rescue a victim of trafficking from slavery, reunite her with her family and prosecute the traffickers. It could ensure kids are no longer sleeping rough on the big city streets and are instead attending school with full bellies and a head full of knowledge.

I’d like to finish with expressing my gratitude to everyone who came to the event to support namrunsnam and most importantly my incredible parents who are simply awesome! I cannot wait to see them on the finish line next month!

https://namrunsnam.com/donate/

Can you answer some of the quiz questions?

1. Which Graham Greene novel is set in Vietnam?

2. Tom Cruise was nominated for an Oscar for which 1989 film, where he played a returning Vietnam war veteran?

3. The musical Miss Saigon, was based in which opera?

Thank you for reading

Naomi (aka Nam)

XXX