Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
At the end of June this year, a couple of friends and I are attempting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. This is a huge challenge, not only that it involves a week of trekking, but that the summit is at 5,895 metres, 2,000 metres higher than I have ever been before. I am really looking forward to it and have already started training so that I am hopefully as fit as possible before attempting the climb.
I am really hoping that as a result of my climb I can raise some money to support St Katherine’s Girls School in Uganda, which has a link with my old school St Swithun’s in Winchester. Although the link has been there for 15 years I have only become recently aware of it through the efforts of the School Chaplain and certain members of staff. The school is situated in the town of Lira in Northern Uganda, a region that has only recently emerged from many years of armed conflict, and that still lives in fear that war will return. The tragedies suffered at the hands of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) are only too prevalent in the school. Some of the pupils, who number over 1000, are abducted children who have returned with emotional scars and all the girls have been affected in some way. Some are orphans as a result, others had homes destroyed, others' families were and still are displaced. The school itself has been badly damaged, windows remain broken and all the gas cookers were looted, leaving the students and staff using wood fuelled cookers for preparing food. In spite of all this the school is a thriving one, full of singing, activity and girls eager to learn. As a result of previous funding many of the girls have been able to take A-levels and have ambitions for careers that would not have been possible without their education.St Swithun’s currently sponsors 21 of the girls at the school, and a recent trip there last summer has opened up opportunities for greater links and more sponsorship. The cost of a year’s education for one girl is £230. I am hoping through my climb to raise money for as many girls as possible to have the education that so many of us take for granted. Any money collected is being accepted by The Africa Educational Trust who are then forwarding it on behalf of St Katherine's to ensure it reaches the right people.
If you feel at all able to do so, please dig deep and help a school that against so much adversity is striving to give girls an education and a stable way of life.
Thank you,
Lizzie xxx
