Team Discova Walks 101 Km in September to Spread Awareness About Barriers to Education
Following the successful launch of the Eileen Yee Educational Fund last month, we are celebrating Eileen’s birth anniversary in September by kickstarting an annual event called The Eileen Yee Educational Fund Pink Week. From 23-27 September, we will organise a plethora of activities aimed at highlighting the fund, whose proceeds have already started impacting disadvantaged communities in Vietnam.
To build on issues like access to education, which Eileen was so passionate about, we have devoted this month to raising awareness about how high school students in the communities we support often walk up to 4 km every day just to get to and from school. Apart from being an obvious safety hazard, this deters many students from attending school regularly and even leads to some of them dropping out altogether.
So, this month, the Discova staff are literally walking in the shoes of these students not just to relate to their daily experience but to also rally support and raise funds to change lives. Titled Walk 101, each team member will be walking 4 km daily to reach 101 km at the end of the month and raise money through individual fundraising pages that they share with their connections and on social media.
Chi Ngo, Discova’s Regional Product and Project Leader for Education Travel emphasies that Walk 101 is a powerful reminder of the daily challenges that children in our communities face to access education.
She says, “In some areas, children walk up to 3 -5 kilometers each way, taking several hours to reach their schools. This long and exhausting commute often leaves them too tired to fully engage in their studies, impacting their academic performance and overall well-being.”
Thanks to generous contributions through the Eileen Education Fund, Discova has already been able to procure five bikes for students in the village of Trei Nohar in Cambodia.
Project Leader for Education Travel
Apart from the month-long walking initiative, to celebrate Eileen’s love for all things pink, we will be organising other in-office activities like photo competitions, a potluck, decorating our offices pink and so on.
In a span of three years, The Eileen Yee Education Fund, aims to provide 101 scholarships to disadvantaged high school students in communities where Discova has grassroots connections. You can donate to the fund here, or to learn more about the implementation of this programme, click here.
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A fund impact report will be published and shared with donors on a 6 monthly basis. For sponsors of scholarships, an individual update will be provided that gives an insight into the sponsored student’s progress. This will be suitably anonymised to align with Childsafe policies.
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