Ryan's Mount Kilimanjaro Climb for Education

"I sat in a tin classroom in the middle of the Rift Valley in 100 degree heat listening to adult Maasai students read for me and do arithmetic. Here, where there is little help, it is a rough life. The conditions are very harsh. The road to the school is barely drivable for someone coming to visit. Yet there I was, listening to students read proudly what they are learning. And I was proud too, proud to be a part of an organization like Give Us Wings."

I wrote this last January shortly after visiting a Maasai village in the Rift Valley of Kenya when I was working with Give Us Wings as the Executive Director. Give Us Wings works together with adults and children in Kenya and Uganda to eradicate poverty. Through person-to-person support, both financial and educational, people overcome poverty and become self-sufficient. We support community development projects and the medical and education needs of the poorest of the poor in forgotten villages.

Give Us Wings began working with the Maasai people approximately six years ago. They provided a small amount of food to the (then) shy women of the village and suggested they think about forming a group. "We want to be able to read, write, do math," they proclaimed, only two short months later. With all of their great needs-lack of water, hunger, poor shelter, sickness-their first priority was to read.

Education is both a right and a route out of poverty. People who can read are more likely to find work, better able to look after their health and the health of their children, more likely to ensure their children go to school, and better able to hold their governments accountable. Today, this group of women learns in a small 12' x 15' tin school with a dirt floor. They are so eager to learn that they walk up to five hours a day - two or more hours each way - after completing their daily chores. With your support, we'd like change to that.

We will be spending approximately one week in the Rift Valley laying the foundation of the school. In addition, each volunteer will spend one day with a family, experiencing the rare opportunity to live life through their eyes. After we have laid the foundation - literally and figuratively - we will continue on to the next part of our challenge: Climbing Kilimanjaro.

For this challenge I need more than your encouragement -- I hope I can count on your financial support. Think of it this way: A donation is one small way to give back for the good fortune of being born in a country with so many opportunities. Please support me and the Masaai in this important project.

With sincere appreciation,
Ryan Foss