WELCOME TO RAFIKI RELAY FOR EDUCATION - CENTRAL JUSTGIVING FUNDRAISING PAGE

Our amazing relay participants are taking on a huge challenge of collectively running, walking, cycling or swimming a whopping 13,222 km from Cairo to Cape Town in only 6 weeks. These wonderful people are doing this in order to raise much needed funding for Rafiki Thabo Foundation, as they support their vision, that young people, including those living with disabilities, will be empowered through education to enable them to reach their full potential and initiate positive change in their communities.   

Young people like Praise, a remarkable and incredibly brave young woman, whose dream is to become a lawyer so that she can fight corruption and fight for justice in Uganda. She was born with normal sight, but lost her vision completely as a young child. Her father abandoned the family due to her disability and left her mother as the sole breadwinner for four children – she could not afford to pay for their education, just food. Relatives were able to help Praise through her early years, but without Rafiki Thabo’s support, Praise would not have been able to start secondary school. We are delighted to say she is doing extremely well at school – and have all faith in her realising her dream of becoming a lawyer! It costs only £325 per year to help this courageous young woman transform her life.

In addition to our scholarship programme we also provide nutritious school meals to the very poorest students at our link school in Uganda, for many the only meal they will eat each day. Without it they would walk for hours to and from school in hazardous terrain, and be expected to concentrate and learn while at school, on an empty stomach. We also enable education through infrastructure and facilities' support at the schools. This includes revenue generating projects such as piggeries and chicken coops, electricity supply and refurbishing dormitories to allow the children to stay overnight at school, be safe and better able to learn.
 
Imagine how many young lives we can transform together! Thank you so much to our relay participants for their efforts, fundraising and donations and thank you to all their sponsors for encouraging them along in their challenge! 

Some participants will have set up their own fundraising pages. For anyone sponsoring those who opted to use this central page, please make sure when making your donation to mention the participant you are sponsoring in the comment field. This way we know when they hit their milestones to receive their medals and how many entries into the prize draw they have secured!

We have set ourselves a fundraising target of £5,000 for the relay, and we will keep you posted on how we move towards that total combining this central page and the individual pages that the participants will set up. 

Consider the impact your relay participation and sponsorship will have, with the knowledge that in Uganda 63% of the population live on less than £1.50 per day, or £550 per year. Yet the cost of the average secondary school is £322 per year and the average cost for a year at college or university is £840. 8 out of 10 children in Uganda will never go to secondary school! 

Given access to even lower secondary education, a household in Uganda could increase their income by 56%! With £5,000 we would be able to pay for the entire five-year secondary schooling for 3 children in Kenya, Uganda or Lesotho and pay for school meals for a whole year for 4 children, or pay for 5 students to attend university in Kenya for a year. 

Do visit our event website and read more about this fabulous event, the impact you will have, our inspirational supporters and, we would love for you to take part as well! events.rafiki-foundation.org.uk/relay  

Follow us on social media for updates @rafikithabofoundation, @rafikithabo 

Thank you so much for your support!! 

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