CHALLENGE A2Z – raising funds for the education of impoverished young people in South Africa
South African born Craig Hughes, 35, will be cycling solo from Basingstoke to St Petersburg and back – a round trip of about 5,000 miles to raise £30,000 for EDSA, a charity supporting the education of young people living in the slum settlements of the Western Cape, South Africa. That’s just £6 for each mile travelled!
Craig lives in Basingstoke but was born and brought up in South Africa where he has travelled widely. He had a great education in a multi-racial school but knows that millions of fellow Africans, because of their colour, have been marginalised and even years after the end of the apartheid regime still have no access to adequate education. Craig believes that education is essential if people are to make better life choices, particularly in the face of the AIDS pandemic. Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and enabling people to build better lives for themselves and those around them. Because of the work done by EDSA and ASSET in educating young black people in the Western Cape (his home until he moved to the UK), Craig has chosen to help us to get more black students through their final years at school and into university.
Setting off on the 1st July 2006 he will cycle through thirteen countries, and to add an additional challenge he is planning his route alphabetically according to the names of towns along the way, literally from A to Z. You will be able to track his progress on the website as he crosses countries.
Challenge A2Z will take him through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany,Demark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia,Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and England.
EDSA is an Oxfordshire based charity dedicated to supporting the education of young black people living in the poverty of the townships and informal settlements of the Western Cape, South Africa. We raise funds for the Saturday and holiday schools administered by our partners, ASSET (The Association of Educational Transformation). These provide a life-line to motivated young people in their last two years of secondary school, many of whom, without this additional tuition would fail their examinations and end up unemployed and living on the street. ASSET’s Saturday Schools annually provide 2,600 young people with expert tuition in all core curriculum subjects as well as Life Skills. Places are offered on a first-come, first served basis. and bursaries for university are available for Saturday School alumni.
- I am where I am today through hard work but also through great help from my Saturday teachers.
Nozuko Mabaso – now registered for B Com at the University of the Western Cape - I would love to plough back to my community the skills and knowledge that I’ve gained from ASSET and that I will now be gaining from my tertiary study so that more and more of our disadvantaged youth can be successful in life and pursue their dreams.
Lihle Mqayi - now registered for BSc in Environmental Sciences at the University of the Western Cape - Thanks most of all to the Life Skills classes. Because of them I am now sure of what I want to be.
Nonqaba Ndiki – now registered for BA in Psychology at the University of the Western Cape - I learned to know myself and also the other different kinds of people you meet in the world. I now know what I want in life.
Mandisa Stoto – now studying Accounting at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology
EDSA believes that access to fair and equal education for all is the key to lifting people out of poverty and enabling them to fulfil their potential.