Edinburgh University Heroes

There are more students than we could list that deserve recognition for their charitable efforts, but The Tab has whittled down a long list of candidates to find these six everyday Edinburgh heroes.

Each of these heroes deserves equal praise for their great charity work, but The Tab will be rewarding one of the six with a £20 prize, to go towards their charity work. (Yeah, we know it’s not much, but we are a student tabloid after all, and our pockets, just like yours, are running painfully low on coins.)

So have a read, prepare to be amazed, and then vote for your favourite Edinburgh hero!

After realising how badly served young Ghanaians were by some supposedly charitable organisations, James set up the Turing Trust in order to develop sustainable rural schools in Ghana.

Using only volunteer power to keep admin costs to less that 1%, the Trust has already given an education to 20 extra students a year thanks to the construction of a girl’s dormitory and, following the completion of a brand new computer lab, a whole community has been given access to the digital world.

If you want to get involved in Edinburgh, the trust holds weekly meetings at Hendrick’s Bar, among other things. You could even donate your unwanted junk to them!

This June, Marco is spending six days climbing the tallest free-standing mountain in the world – Kilimanajaro – for charity. He is embarking on this crazy and demanding trip to raise money for the Meningitis Research Foundation, a charity which helps 3,400 new people who are diagnosed each year. Marco’s target is to raise £2,500 which will hopefully save lives in the future.

Tamasin is co-founder of Student Voice for Animal Rights, a supporter of the Animal Liberation Front and campaigns for 296life, which stands against animal cruelty.

Tamasin says: “269 is a very controversial movement where most of its supporters get the number 269 branded, scarred or tattooed onto themselves to raise awareness of the branding and inhumane slaughter of animals. I was slightly terrified and almost backed out, but I decided to go through with it to raise awareness of the campaign.”

Animal-lover Tamasin is also starting a discussion with the horse riding societies to avoid cruelty towards horses used by the University.

Philippa campaigns for human and animal rights and believes “human, animal, and environmental rights are all unified”. She has jumped on-board with the global protest against American biotech company Monsanto: the March against Monsanto.

Philippa has organised a film screening of a lecture by Vandana Shiva, an influential voice in the seed revolution, and also organised a public debate on Monsato’s actions and threats to the future of world food production.

Calum is raising money for military charity Help for Heroes by taking part in the Tough Mudder event organised by the British Special Forces. Last year, Calum planned and lead a 192 mile hike from the west to east coast of Britain, and raised around £3,000 for Help for Heroes.

Studying in Syria when the the uprising began, Lauren made the difficult decision to leave the country so she could be better placed to help those suffering. While she has contributed to many projects, perhaps her most important work has been in the wider effort to send humanitarian aid to the people of Syria. For example, she set up the only donation collection point in the Highlands in her hometown of Inverness.

While Lauren hopes to spend time working in refugee camps on the Syrian border in the near future, for the time being she is committed to helping the British public engage with the situation more actively, and invites anyone interested to get involved.