Dear Friends and Colleagues,

What is your first reaction when you face the words gender based violence, sexual abuse, forced marriage, early pregnancy, period poverty, forced labour or child trafficking? What if I said young Girls are involved???

Did you know, that:

• 130 million Girls remain out of school? Or that 1 in 3 Girls will experience abuse in her lifetime?

• Over 65 million people are currently displaced due to conflict or natural disaster, half of them children?

• 1 in 10 Girls have been unable to afford menstrual products? Financial barriers to products and taboos around menstruation are hindering Girls' education and future opportunities?

To me – even just hearing about these monstrosities – is like stabbing a dagger into my heart, then starting to bleed me out…

Vodafone has a history of striving for gender equality, but there is still so much to do, hence as part of The Vodafone Foundation Epic Challenge Series this year I am participating in the Epic Challenge Ride Across Britain to raise awareness of the challenges facing Girls and fundraising for the Vodafone Foundation to reach their target of raising £1 million for the Girl Fund.

Every penny you donate will be channelled into the Girl Fund, which is a restricted fund dedicated to supporting charitable programmes that improve Girls’ access to education, informal learning and health services in countries where Vodafone operates.

Besides our individual fundraising targets we also teamed up with colleagues in Vodafone Procurement Company organizing and attending multiple charity events such as the monthly Food Bazaar, raffles and auctions, charity football competition, quiz nights, etc. We know what incredible things we can achieve together! Now, it's time to #ShineALight on the issues affecting Girls, so get behind us!

In order to stay tuned follow Vodafone Foundation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or feel free to reach out to me if you need further information on our fundraising initiatives.

Thank you for your donations and support!

Kind regards,

Peter

Vodafone Foundation:

https://www.facebook.com/VodafoneFdn/

https://www.instagram.com/vodafonefoundation/

https://twitter.com/VodafoneFdn

Follow the hashtag: #ShineALight #ShineALightforGirls #VodafoneFoundation