The Birthday Fund

As you all well know...my 28th birthday is fastly approaching and I am super excited. Every year my sisters (Courtney, Priya, and Adora) and I celebrate each others birthday by either purchasing or assisting in the purchase of a gift that we would normally never purchase for ourselves...i pods, Tiffany's jewelry, Ugh boots, and cell phones just to name a few... But this year year we have a taken a new step in the Birthday tradition. This year I have asked my sister not for a tangible gift, but rather CASH MONEY... This money will go towards funding the education of local children in Lome, Togo. Parents have to pay a yearly fee to send their students to public school, which are commonly overcrowded, under funded, under trained, under staffed and so on. The fees range from 10.000 CFA to about 25.000 CFA a year, which converts to about $20.00 USD to $50.00 USD per year. While this may seem like an insignificant amount of money, ponder this thought... most people here live on less than $1.00 USD a day. School is a luxuary not a neccessity! So the BIRTHDAY FUND has been created...This fund will provide school fees for as many students as possible here in Lome and in local villages. The fund will send students to school for the remainder of this year and next year. After pooling the birthday money together we have about $350, which will allow us to fund about 20 children or so( I know it is not much, but we have to start somewhere). We are always looking for more money, so if you would like to contribute to the BIRTHDAY FUND...let me know and I will tell you where to send the funds. I will keep you updated on the progress of the BIRTHDAY FUND. Thanks for your support.