We wrote recently HERE about Gareth Tutt from our Plymouth based design consultancy, N9 Design, who is taking part in the Virgin London Marathon 2012 on Sunday 22nd April. Gareth will run 27 miles in aid of the WAVES Trust in Africa.
WAVES supports the Mukuru Promotion Centre in Kenya who work with disadvantaged children, giving them ‘hope for a better life’ by providing them with educational support, building sports fields, setting up scout camps and music lessons. It also supports local health, welfare and skills training programmes for young people.
Please take a moment to read a note from the charity below which looks at the difficult life faced by girls in the slums. If you feel as moved by this as we do, we urge you to please make a donation on Gareth’s Sponsor page using the link at the bottom.
"life in the slums is particularly hard for girls as they suffer both domestic and sexual abuse. If they don't get a good education, many end up in prostitiution and inevitably contract AIDS.
"One of our students, Cynthia, who was living with her uncle and large family in crowded conditions became pregnant by the uncle and was expelled from school in the middle of her KCSE year. She kept the pregnancy a secret almost up to the birth. MPC were wonderful helping her to get home to her mother upcountry and then gave her a place in their small secondary school for the last term and found safe accomodation for her. Now she is doing a computer course run by MPC and she and the baby are living with her pastor and family. We'll be meeting her, and hopefully baby Grace too, when we visit Nairobi.
"Sadly it didn't end well for another of our students, Lucy. She was an orphan who lived with various relatives, none of whom seemed to care about her that much and she was often left alone and without money for food. Her brother was shot dead around the time of the post election troubles in Nairobi. We had hoped to set her up on a course after her KCSE last year but the MPC social worker couldn't find her. We asked again recently if she could be found to come and see us when we are in Nairobi later this month and the social worker discovered she had died. When asked what she had died of, a relative said she had been bewitched. We will probably never know what really happened and we wish we could have done more for her. In the end we can only offer opportunity but we cannot force a student to take it. It's just terribly sad."
The London Marathon takes place on Sunday 22ndApril, so if you’re about give Gareth a wave for WAVE! To make a donation please click below…
