Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. We’re
climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, at 5,893m / 19,334ft above sea level the highest free standing mountain in the world and
the highest point in , to raise funding
to give children a second chance at education in one of the poorest places in
the world.
With a population of over 12 million
is among the least developed and
poorest countries in the world, ranking 168 out of 177 in the 2008 United
Nations Human Development Index. An estimated 69% of the population lives below
the poverty line, surviving on less than $1 a day. This
has a huge
negative impact on the lives of children. The Mopti region is disadvantaged due
to its geographic position, which makes agricultural activities in most areas
almost impossible. Child mortality and illiteracy rates are high and the region
is one of the biggest child trafficking areas in the country.
L’Agence Evangélique de
Développement du Mali (AEDM) is a Malian community organisation established in
1994 to help the poorest people by
promoting health, education, democracy and human rights. One of their most
successful projects has been the establishment of their Passarelle or ‘second chance’ schools.
A Passarelle school is established in response to a request from a
community. AEDM help them to establish a School Council and the local people provide a structure to host a school. AEDM then provide a teacher and
resources to support children aged 8-12 develop their numeracy and literacy
skills in both French and Dogon. AEDM have established an agreement with the
education services that children completing their 9 months school automatically
qualify to enter the mainstream education services in that they
had previously missed out on.
Research suggests that a young woman
in who learns to read is 40% less
likely to contract HIV/AIDS. Further benefits of education in terms of health,
family planning, economic activity, etc. are well known. These can be
researched further at www.gapminder.com. Further information regarding the
work of International Service (who will manage the donation to AEDM at no cost) may be
found at the following links…
Donating
through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe
with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on 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 taxpayer. So it’s the most
efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs
for the charity.
So
please dig deep and donate now. Each school costs £3,000 per year. The more we raise, the more schools and the more children we can support.
