Big Birthday Wish to Restore School in Timbuktu

Dear Donors of the Big Birthday Wish to Rebuild the Tourari School in Timbuktu, Mali:

First, as the Founder and Executive Director of Caravan to Class, I would like to thank you for your generous support for literacy in one of the world's most underserved areas. It has been roughly two months since Eileen and Debbie launched their fundraising campaign to restore school in Tourari.

While Tourari is one of eight schools that Caravan to Class supports, it is a special place that I visited in March 2012. Tourari's Village Chief Mr. Ibrahim Ag Moha and the school's principal, Mr. Mahalmoudou Ousmane, are two of the most engaging people I have met in Mali and incredibly committed to education. This, coupled with the fact that Tourari's school was badly damaged due to the Islamic militants using the school to store weapons, lead Caravan to Class to decide to focus its infrastructure budget on helping Tourari first. When we are finished, Tourari will have a completely new cement building that we are sure you will agree creates a very accommodating school environment.

A number of donors have asked us why we don't focus all of our resources on building schools and letting the villages and the Ministry of Education take responsibility for operational support, paying teachers' salaries, providing food, books and school supplies, the way a number of large NGO base their education model in developing countries. My response is always that our main focus is helping young children, ages 6 - 12 years, achieve the dream of literacy. We believe that the best way to do this is to stay engaged in the school for a number of years and we do this by helping pay for operational support. We also believe that this is the best way to ensure the return on the social investment we are making. I attach a link to an article entitle "More Food Means More Girls in School" (http://allafrica.com/stories/201309041307.html). We are proud to call the UN World Food Program a partner of Caravan to Class and they provide basic nutrition to all the schools we support. We supplement the Sorghum they provide with some rice (the preferred grain) and some occasional meat. In addition, we are working on a contract to be signed by both the Ministry of Education and the Village Chief that spells out how Caravan to Class will reduce its operational support for the schools over time so that by the latest, at the end of five years, they will be self-sufficient.

Finally, I wanted to attach a link to a Youtube video that we just posted on Caravan to Class' work, narrated by the actor, writer, and human rights activist, Peter Coyote. You will see the Tourari chlldren in the last video footage towards the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImBD2oG9KNs&feature=youtu.be

We hope you will consider forwarding this letter to your friends. Every donation, no matter how small, gets us closer to our goal.

Thank you again for your support.

With Gratitude,

Barry Hoffner, Founder and Executive Director, Caravan to Class