Cyclist “Takes on Africa”

Would you cycle 20,000 km to raise money for children half a world away?

Helen Lloyd would.

In just a week, Helen departs from the UK on a two-year cycling trip from the tip to toe of Africa, which will end in Cape Town in 2011.  The trip is entirely self-funded and all money raised goes directly to the Welbodi Partnership.

We can’t thank Helen enough, and we wish her great luck and wonderful adventures along the way!

To learn more about her trip, visit the Take On Africa website. To donate and support the Welbodi Partnership, visit her JustGiving site. Consider pledging just $0.01 per km she rides, and donate $200 to help save the lives of children at the Ola During Children’s Hospital.

Mothers matter

Sierra Leone’s First Lady Sia Nyama Koroma – a former nurse – has taken up the cause of reducing maternal mortality. Today, women in Sierra Leone have a lifetime risk of dying in childbirth of 1 in 8. Even that devastating statistic understates the real tragedy, however, because far too often when a mother dies, her newborn child follows soon thereafter. And we don’t need to point out what this means for the other children she leaves behind.

Here is First Lady Koroma writing recently in the Huffington Post, arguing that “It’s Time to Make Mothers a Priority.”