Starting on June 1, 2010 I began a 1,004 mile journey to be completed on June 1, 2011 in order to raise awareness to a charity that means a lot to me. In the beginning of the year I was randomly contacted via Twitter by Peak 4 Poverty. Just a random tweet, I honestly don't even remember what that was about. I just saw that this person was talking to me and went to their blog to check out what they were all about.
Peak 4 Poverty goes to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, the world's largest free standing mountain. They do this to raise money and bring awareness to the growing number of AIDS orphans in Tanzania, the 3rd poorest country in the nation.
I cannot afford to go on the trip to Tanzania, but I was trying to find a way to help. First I bought about 10 of the red bracelets that P4P sells for $4. I still wanted to do more. So I contacted Nabeel, who was the first person to contact me via twitter and I relayed an idea that I had for him. I would run 1,000 miles in one year and blog about it to raise awareness and money for the charity. He was really excited about the idea and within a month The R4R Project was born. The P4P team created Run 4 Red Ribbon so that anyone interested could run, bike, swim as many miles as they want in whatever time period all to get people's attention and hopefully get them to donate to these children.
What drew me to P4P was that they not only strive to feed and clothe these children, bettering their day to day lives, but they also improve their quality of life by providing an education so that when they grow up and out of the orphanages they have skills and are able to uphold a job to take care of themselves and a future family as well.
"If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he eats for life."
I believe Peak 4 Poverty lives true to this proverb. They are giving these children an education so that they will be able to live a full adult life.
There is also a "pay it forward" aspect to P4P. The children a tought about helping others and see how much their lives are changed because of the generosity of others. In turn, once they get their education, learn a trade, and get a job they are able to turn around and help the orphanages that raised them. So by you donating to the cause and giving hope to the children, you are giving hope to many future generations of AIDS orphans. The kindness you show in donating $10, $20, $50 will not only improve the quality of life of AIDS orphans living in Africa now, you are paving the way to end poverty for future generations in one of the poorest nations in the world.
Please help me in the fight to stomp out poverty one mile and one child at a time! Head to my other blog to donate and begin the process to change a child's life for the better.
Thank you,
Jenna
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