The Mission: The £10,000 target was eclipsed this year thanks to the hard work of all team members, with our final total being £12,909. Of this we were able to spend nearly £8,000 on items for schools, with the remainder going into a cumulative fund.
Where the money went: With the £8,000 we were able to provide rucksacks (containing tracksuit, hat, gloves, socks, towel, toothpaste, toothbrush, notebooks, pens, pencils, rubbers and a geometry set) to over 350 children. To the schools we were able to provide textbooks, dictionaries, song books, footballs, basketballs, pumps, educational posters, chalk and flags. In total we were able to support sixteen different schools and over 950 primary school children.
The Future: Having visited sixteen schools in the Sud Lipez area, we are now able to appreciate how much of a struggle life is up on the Altiplano. For each school we have collected information on numbers and ages of pupils, class sizes, and condition of school buildings, so that future expeditions can be more effective in their support. We also listened to what the villagers and teachers felt the schools needed and gauged the suitability of these requests. There is certainly a future for Challenge