On Wednesday November 22nd, all of the students from Thames Christian College took on the challenge to run a sponsored cross country in aid of the charities Go Make A Difference in Tanzania and the A21 campaign.
The first charity Thames Christian College is sponsoring is Go Make A Difference in Tanzania. Go MAD in Tanzania is a charity that exists to improve the health and living standards of villagers in the Diocese of Mara, Tanzania. It was set up by one of the foundation parents of Thames, and every year a group of Year 10 and 11 students are able to travel to Tanzania and build goat sheds, water tanks, visit schools and accompany a mobile health outreach team. Thames Christian College would like to raise £5,000 to enable Go MAD to continue the mobile health outreach team. This team gives out worm tablets, vaccinations, help weigh babies, and carry out tests for malaria and HIV. Villagers and school children can also be educated about menstrual health, basic hygiene and dangers of forced marriage.
There is more slavery than there has ever been in history today in the 21st century, and the A21 campaign works towards the abolishing of human trafficking. Human trafficking is the illegal trade of humans, and every thirty seconds someone becomes a victim of this modern day slavery. There is an estimated 40 million people trapped in slavery today, and this human trafficking is mostly for sexual exploitation and forced labour. 99% of victims aren’t rescued, but A21 works to reach these victims, rescue them and equip them to live independently. Therefore, Thames Christian College is also aiming to raise £2,000 towards the Crisis Care Shelters run by A21. These Shelters provide basic essentials for the rescued victims such as housing, clothes, food, medical and psychological care.
Everyone ran at least four kilometers, and two people even ran thirteen kilometers! One of the students who ran thirteen kilometers said, ‘I just wanted to help the mobile outreach team. It really encouraged me to keep running the best I could.’. This student was a one that was able to go out to Tanzania this year in October. Everyone was very excited and enthusiastic about raising money for the two charities, and Thames Christian College hopes to reach the amounts they were aiming for.
For more information about Go MAD in Tanzania, please visit, http://gomakeadifference.co.uk/go-mad.html
For more information about the A21 Campaign, please visit, http://www.a21.org/
