Dear Friends,

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about the crazy challenge I am about to undertake and the great cause I will be doing it for. Your support can transform a woman's life and have a huge impact on her family and community! 

This November, I will attempt to bike across Ethiopia's Danakil Depression with an incredible group of women from Women on a Mission (WOAM) to raise money to help women survivors of war. 

We will mountain bike across the furnace-like Danakil Depression of Ethiopia, a raw wound in the Earth and come in close contact with sulphur/salt lakes, thermoactive springs, lava boiling lakes and volcanos. The Danakil Depression has hottest average year round temperature on Earth at 34.4C and also known as “Gateway to Hell”. (and still small settlements live there, probably not by choice.)

The conditions can be best described as "cruel”.

We are expecting consistent temperatures of over 40C during the day and the roughness of the terrain worries many of us.  None of us are experienced mountain bikers and neither do we know much about bike maintenance and repair. We have started training and are painfully aware that we have a long way to go before we are ready.  

Like all expeditions of WOAM this will be a pioneering one. We will be the first female team to attempt crossing this unhospitable remote region with mountain bikes. 

What I am about to go through is nothing compared to the struggles that millions of women in war-torn areas go through, daily. These women remind us of their strength and determination to overcome the most daunting challenges.

After completing this crossing of the Danakil, we will then fly to Rwanda to see first-hand where the funds raised by this expedition will be used and how Women for Women International’s holistic one-year program works to help women who have suffered from the atrocities of war get back on their feet and gain self-sufficiency.

I will be funding my trip and the money raised on this page will go directly to "Women for Women International", who have helped almost half a million women since 1993 (more info below). As a team we aim to raise $100,000.

I hope you choose to support me with a donation. 

I thank you in advance and look forward to sharing this journey with you!

With heartfelt thanks,

Milena


A few examples of what your donations can provide:

£27 could pay for Rights AwarenessTraining, so that a woman can learn that she is worthy of contributing to the decisions at home, including financial decisions.

£38 could pay for a goat, which can be raised for milk or cheese that can be sold at market, changing a woman’s life by giving her an income and status in her community.

£80 could pay for a bicycle, so a woman can quickly transport her goods, helping her grow and expand her business and become more self-sufficient.

£163 could pay for a bee-keeper basket, with all the supplies needed to set up bee-keeping business.

£156 could pay for Men’s Engagement training, to give a man a place to explore gender, masculinity, and understand the benefits to families and communities when women are empowered.

£500 could pay for ten sewing machines, to enable women to set up a tailoring business and provide an income for their families.

£650 could pay for poultry training, to give a woman the skills she needs to care for poultry and raise money through the sale of eggs and chicken

£3,000 could pay for a greenhouse, for a woman to grow organic herbs to sell at market.

About the charity:

I am proud to be raising funds for Women for Women International, an organisation supporting women survivors of war to rebuild their lives.

Since 1993, Women for Women International have helped more than 462,000 marginalised women to overcome the horrors of war and work towards a better life for themselves and their families.

Women for Women International reaches out to the women who are often left behind – those who struggle with poverty and violence, who are denied basic education and health care, and whose lives have been devastated by conflict. The women they serve have, quite literally, lost
everything.

Their year-long holistic training programme equips women to earn money, regain their confidence and actively participate in their communities. When a woman joins the programme, she comes together with 24 other women, forming a tight support group that helps to break the isolation caused by war and insecurity. The result: stronger women, stronger families and stronger communities.

With over twenty brutal armed conflicts across the globe and   unprecedented levels of violence against women, there has never been a greater need to support Women for Women International in their
mission to change the world, one woman at a time.

Your gift could transform a woman’s life, and have a huge impact on her family and community.

www.womenforwomen.org.uk 

Make sure to also watch the video
about the charity, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iarxgcit0gU 

About Women on a Mission (WOAM)

WOAM is a non-profit organisation headquartered in Singapore,
which combines challenging, self funded, expeditions and treks to remote and majestic locations around the world, with inspirational fundraising events and workshops in Singapore and abroad, to raise awareness and funds for women survivors of war and to support and empower women who have been subjected to violence and abuse.  WOAM’s strategy is to organise and promote yearly campaigns and challenging expeditions – that are self-funded by each participant - to increase visibility, and to raise money for specific charities. 

WOAM partners with existing established non-profit institutions that already have well run programmes and structures in place dedicated to serving the underprivileged with a particular focus on women's issues. 

http://www.womenmission.com