By Barry Hoffner | Founder/Executive DIrector
Dear Friends of Caravan to Class:
Happy New Year. I wish you and your families a healthy, happy and successful 2016.
On behalf of the roughly 120 children in the village of Kakondji, which I visited this past May 2015, I thank you for your support for our yearend campaign to fund the Kakondji school. I realize how many important causes there are to support both in the U.S. and overseas and I am grateful that you have chosen to support Caravan to Class this past year.
A recent report from the United Nations Children's Fund highlighted that more than 380,000 children remain out of school in some of Mali's more insecure regions which includes Timbuktu. In addition, ore than 1 in 6 schools remain closed. I am happy to say that with your support and the work of our team in place in Timbuktu, all nine schools that Caravan to Class has built and supports remain open and attendance remains strong. In addition, as a supplementary program to support the prioritization of education within the family, we have launched a pilot Female Adult Literacy Program in the village of Tourari funded with a grant from the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. By spreading the joy that comes with literacy to the mothers, we feel strongly that the children in those families, particularly the girls, have a much greater chance of staying in school.
Construction of our Kakondji school is now well underway. I plan to travel to Timbuktu next month to see the progress on the school and also to see our new Female Adult LIteracy in action and will send a note in early Spring to provide information on the progress of our projects.
Thank you again for your support. With your support, we not only achieved the second spot on Global Giving list of over 200 projects trying to raise funds on their platform during the yearend, but we also secured a $20,000 match grant from the Meier Family Foundation. https://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/year-end-2015/
Sincerely,
Barry Hoffner
Founder/Executive Director, Caravan to Class
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
