Hi all,

As some of you may remember, Tracy volunteered in Malawi 3 years ago for Ripple Africa, helping with the sixth year class at the elementary school in a village called Mwaya. Ripple Africa have projects across Malawi, but several projects focus on small villages on Lake Malawi. As with most charitable organizations, Ripple have been badly affected by the global economy and many projects have slowed due to lack of funds.

Primary school and middle school (age 5 - 14 years) is free in Malawi, but secondary school (high school) is not, and the annual cost of a private secondary school is out of reach for most families in Malawi. Ripple has a program to sponsor the top students in each class, but have gone beyond this to build a new secondary school to serve the area around Mwaya and Matete. Previously, students had to walk at least 12km EACH WAY to the closest secondary school.

You can read more about Ripple Africa, the new secondary school, and other projects at:

http://www.rippleafrica.org/ripple_funding_secschool.htm

http://www.rippleafrica.org/ripple_charity_story.htm

As we are both very lucky to be traveling around the world, we keep being reminded how fortunate we are, as many of the countries we will travel through have similar educational problems. 

As Tracy has seen in person how much the kids in Mwaya and Matete want to learn, we wanted to help fund the new secondary school. We decided to do the 4 day trek on the Inca Trail in Peru at the end of October to raise money for Ripple Africa. We are paying all of our costs, so that all donations go straight to the project.

Donating through JustGiving is fast and totally secure, and they won't sell your details or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. 

A big thank you in advance for your donations, and please email us if you'd like to know more about Ripple Africa or have any questions.

Tracy & Ben