20@20 Challenge

"Where there are challenges, where the future doesn't look possible, when people stand up, and dare to dream, it is amazing what can happen."
Madam Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Our new 20@20 Challenge is a bid to find 20 people who can draw on their previous Hitch experience to rejoin Link and fundraise for us a second time around!

The challenge was launched at our Hitch 20th Anniversary event in September 2011 by Madam Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the former Deputy President of South Africa and one of Africa’s most high-profile female politicians. Madam Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke of the tremendous contribution made by Hitchers to education in Africa, and the huge difference they could make again by continuing to support Link in the future.

That's why we are asking ex-Hitchers to come back and raise a significant but manageable amount to support our work, by signing up to the 20@20 Challenge. We're challenging you to raise:

£375 as an individual (the same as the current Hitch fundraising target)
Or £1,000 as a team of two or three.

You can fundraise through whatever means you prefer – sign up for a challenge event, hold a quiz night, do a good old-fashioned bake sale, or try something more wacky! In order to kick-start your efforts, we can offer you reduced entry to one of this summer’s highest-profile fundraising events:

10k Summer Run
Do something active for Africa - join us on a 10km run through the streets of London in July.
FREE PLACES available for a limited time to 20@20 participants!

London Nightrider
A one day charity ride with a difference...it's at night! Experience London's most iconic landmarks by moonlight on this exciting 100km ride.
Places cost just £39 for 20@20 participants – reduced from the usual £99!

If you meet your fundraising target, you will be invited to our exclusive celebratory reception held in London in July 2012. It’s fitting that this reception will be hosted by Madam Mlambo-Ngcuka, who will be keen to meet you, celebrate your success and tell you a little more about how your support is making a difference to education in Africa.

Good luck with the challenge!

For more information and to find out how to register, please contact Sally Pigott by email (sally@lcd.org.uk) or call 0207 226 9331.

Where will your money be going?Ethiopia flag

 

Spotlight: School Improvement Project, Ethiopia


Ade Cherake School in Ethiopia has nearly 100 children in each classroom supervised by just one teacher. When Link started working in the area, the school was failing to deliver a quality education to its children. The school lacked a clear improvement plan that would allow it to develop and make efficient use of the available resources.

The School Improvement Project is a perfect example of Link's drive to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of quality education in Africa. Our work is focused on building the capacity of district staff to support schools effectively and encouraging local communities to play a key role themselves in the development of their schools. With this extra support, schools are able to create more thorough improvement plans and are under a healthy amount of pressure to realise their goals and make concrete progress. It sounds straightforward but, until Link's involvement, this crucial extra support was missing and schools were suffering as a result.

Schools like Ade Cherake are benefitting greatly from the project - and we recently learned that the districts in which we work have made huge strides forward in the latest examination results. However, we desperately need your support to enable us to complete this project and ensure that many more schools - in Ethiopia and elsewhere - can make the steps forward they need to provide a quality education.