The Seed, Africa: Educate a girl and change the world

* * * * * * * * * * * * If you educate a girl, you plant the seed to change a community, a nation and every future generation. . It starts with one girl and one scholarship. . * * * * * * * * * * * * Can t watch the video? Here s what it said: Imagine a seed and that seed is a girl. Growing up in poverty in Southern Africa. Given the chance to blossom, she has the potential to change the world. But the likelihood is, she ll face malnutrition, have children before her body is ready and contract HIV, before passing on the same fate to the next generation. Overwhelming, isn t it? But what if, with a one-off action, you could stop this cycle of poverty in its tracks? When girls receive a full education, they marry much later, have fewer children, their country s HIV rate drops and malnutrition falls by almost half. What s more, educated girls re-invest the vast majority of their income back into their family. So when you educate a girl, the next generation can look forward to a brighter future too. It starts with one girl and one scholarship. We have a girl. Her name s Lelo, and she dreams of becoming a doctor. She s been top of her class at primary school every year and has now been offered a place at one of the leading boarding schools in her country where students go on to careers in medicine, engineering and law. Why should we help her instead of any other girl? No reason. Except that she has a chance and with your help, she can take it. There s no getting around it. Good schools are expensive. But if we are to create leaders, scholars and doctors for the next generation, we need to educate to this higher level. £6,700 will allow us to send Lelo to school for a year. If we raise more, she can stay there longer. So, if you stay in one night when you were planning to go out, and pledge the money you saved towards The SeedÉ And your friend pledges as a Christmas present for their sister... Who champions it to her colleaguesÉ And her company becomes an official supporterÉ Then we can all come together, like a philanthropic flashmob, and meet our target changing one girl s life forever. Together, we can plant a seed to change the world. . What is The Seed? The Seed. is a people-powered initiative to sponsor a girl in Southern Africa to go to boarding school in doing so, planting a seed to change the world. We are not a charity. We re something much more dynamic. Just like a flashmob might start dancing in a train station, we re creating a philanthropic flashmob with the extraordinary result of stopping a cycle of poverty in its tracks. Rather than cracking out your jazz hands, crack out your wallet. Make a pledge! Alternatively, pledge on someone else s behalf and we ll send you a gift card. Our beautiful rewards make perfect Christmas presents! . What s the goal? We need to raise £6,700 to cover school fees and uniform. If we raise more, we can put it towards the next years fees. However, this is an all-or-nothing campaign, so if we don t raise at least £6,700 everyone will get their money back and Lelo won t be able to go to her school. We ve got 30 days to do it. You can pledge wherever you live in the world and as many times as you like! Once you ve made a pledge, please promote this campaign to your friends and encourage them to back us too so we can reach our target. Thank you. . For more information visit www.theseedafrica.com. or e-mail [email protected]. Got a question? Find all you answers here

by Georgina-Kate Adams in Emsworth