Africa Faces a Lost Generation of Children Deprived of Their Chance for Education
Charity volunteer Kerstin Weber seeks to tap into America's generosity to improve educational opportunities for a new generation of African children through the nonprofit project "Give an African Child a Book and School Supplies".
Online, February 24, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The sight of African schoolchildren gathering under trees for class appears to be fading away but Africa's school kids now face even more serious educational challenges, key among them lack of textbooks, lack of school supplies and, most depressingly, lack of food, reports The Progress Partnership.
When we think of Africa we think hunger but there's another shortage facing Africa's schoolchildren today: a shortage of books and school supplies that make for a meaningful educational experience for kids, and with these the loss of a whole generation's chance for an education that might lift them out of poverty. "When we went to school we had textbooks, notepads, pens and pencils but now the kids don't have anything," lamented a frustrated mother, herself a primary school dropout. "I was forced to drop out of school to help my mom on the farm so we could feed ourselves. I don't want the same fate to befall my children and I am doing my best to make sure they stay in school. But how can they learn to write if they can't have pens, pencils and notepads?"
With its Give an African Child a Book & School Supplies, and Run for the Cause 2011 nationwide campaigns, The Progress Partnership is responding to these needs with a focus on the education crisis which, it says, is directly linked to Africa's poverty. Give an African Child a Book & School Supplies is facilitating the donation of textbooks and school supplies to needy and deserving schools throughout Africa.
About The Progress Partnership
The Progress Partnership is a Texas 501(c)3 nonprofit working around the world to relieve hunger and poverty. The nonprofit's community-based efforts aim to improve basic education by increasing kids' access to books and school supplies, relieve hunger by facilitating the donation of seeds to farmers in developing countries, prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, and increase access to clean water and sanitation. The Progress Partnership's Give an African Child a Book & School Supplies nationwide campaign is asking for donations of English language books, school supplies and cash to help its drive to lift African children out of poverty through improved access to educational resources.