East African Libraries

Many East African children, especially those who have been robbed of parents by the AIDS epidemic, have living needs beyond the comprehension of most of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere. The Global Alliance for Africa, a 501c(3) organization, supports the youth of this region with a holistic approach to meeting their needs. This NGO supports health, education, and micro-enterprise programs that provide a strong web of services for the people of economically stressed communities in Kenya and Tanzania.

I am asking for a donation on behalf of the Global Alliance for Africa to support these people. I have joined the fund-raising efforts of this sectarian group because I believe that vulnerable people in Africa need our financial assistance so they can achieve a better future--a future that the East African people build for themselves.

The students of the areas served by the libraries need access to the books used in their public schools. They need a safe and nurturing environment where they can pursue their studies. They need that extra little push that a little care can provide so that they can create a better life for themselves. My goal is to raise $3500 in 2011 specifically for the GAA's East Africa library program.

The library program has fostered a 13% higher school attendance rate for those students who are participants as opposed to students who do not. On average, 84% of Tanzanian children attend school, but 97% of the orphaned and vulnerable children participating in the GAA library facilities' programs attend school. The libraries provide textbooks for students' use. Without the library, four or five students share a single textbook. The libraries also become a positive influence on the entire local community by providing adult and child oriented programs, countering the negative draws in the urban slums.

I will be traveling to Kenya and Tanzania in January 2012 to meet the people running the libraries that have been built by GAA in urban slums of major cities of Kenya and Tanzania as well as in some rural areas of the same countries. I will see first-hand how the GAA libraries are used by their communities.

As an added bonus for me and my group members who are traveling to East Africa, I am paying for and participating in a GAA-sponsored climb of Africa's tallest mountain (19,000+ feet or about 5900m), Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. For me, that will be the climb of a lifetime. None of the money that you might donate to the Global Alliance for Africa goes to my climbing endeavor. All the money donated to GAA in my name goes toward supporting the libraries established by GAA. Other donations that they collect go to promoting the health, education, and economic benefits for the people of East Africa.

On behalf of GAA, I thank you for your donation, should you decide to give. I'll have reached 60 a few days before the climb starts. I have recognized that this is the time in my life to reach out, to act, and to make a difference for the people across the globe.