Like us you probably lament the depressing state of global affairs and increasing poverty the world over. One cannot help but be deeply affected by the knowledge that one billion people earn less than 50 pence a day, and two billion people lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, or electricity. As someone who works with rural communities in Africa, Cheryl sees this at first hand on the ground.

As we were seeing the New Year in with our families, we were acutely aware that the Maasai community Cheryl works with in Kenya was experiencing a very different start to 2008; the post election riots were in full force and people were being displaced from their homes.

We then made a pact, a joint-family New Year resolution, that in our own small way we would together make a difference to the lives of people in the developing world. Drawing on the very successful model of the 10$ Club that a colleague of ours set up in Washington DC back in 2002, the High Five Club was born that very day!

As individuals our families are limited in the resources we can bring to the table for poverty alleviation, but we concluded that if we could start by getting 100 like-minded people to give £5 a month, together we could make a direct difference of £500 to someone, to some local community, somewhere in the developing world each month.