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View All Press Releases| Reed Elsevier Oxford | 20 Aug 2009 |
CATHY’S CHALLENGE GIVES CHILDREN EDUCATION AND CLEAN WATER
Having spent eight years in the Armed Forces and a similar amount of time managing facilities and real estate in the UK, Cathy Burgess wanted an even greater challenge.
When the opportunity came up to help re-build a crumbling school in Namibia, she jumped at the chance!
In October, Cathy of Littleworth, near Faringdon and the Army’s first female operational bomb disposal officer, sets out with 17 other volunteers to spend a week of grueling hard labour. They will be fitting new windows, carrying out basic building work, doing general repairs, sanding and painting in temperatures up to 40º C .
Their aim is to make the school a more suitable place in which 200 children can learn. The desperately poor youngsters come from a vast area, living by the Ugab river bed in Namibia’s Damaraland. Just to reach the school means walking many miles from their homes. Because of the distances involved, the school offers hostel facilities.
Not only though is Cathy keen to help the children of A. Gariseb Primary School, but also intends to raise money for other needy children in third world countries. She has set the target of raising at least £2,000 for Just a Drop, an international water-aid charity, providing clean water to children and their families close to their homes.
“Just a Drop is an amazing charity and I hope that by sponsoring my trip to Namibia, I can also raise enough money to provide another community with clean water, she said.
“The charity’s work is vitally important to children in particular because under the age of five, they do not have a fully developed immune system and frequently fall ill with water-borne diseases. Clean water can literally mean the difference between life and death, but the sad fact is that a child dies every 17 seconds somewhere in the world because of pollution.
“The primary school in Namibia does receive clean water and electricity from the government, but virtually no money for maintenance”, said Cathy, a facilities manager for the publisher and information provider Reed Elsevier. “Hopefully I’ll learn a few other practical skills along the way to add to those I acquired while helping to restore my barn.
“In my job I look after properties, so I am used to managing buildings and construction staff, but it’s quite a different matter when you actually carry out the building work yourself!”
The trip is certainly no easy ride. During her stay, Cathy will sleep in a tent before walking in the searing heat to the school each morning for a full day of non-stop hard manual work.
However, Cathy who served with the Army in Bosnia, is no stranger to difficult conditions and even trickier problems.
After recently completing an MBA, Cathy is now keen to help children who do not even have the basics of life.
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“I liked the look of this project but it’s still going to be extremely hard work”, she said.Cathy is appealing for help to raise funds for Just a Drop and donations can be made by logging on to http://www.justgiving.com/cathyburgess.
For further information on the charity, log on to www.justadrop.org.
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