Members of the Balmoral based swimming group “Salty Crocs”, Terri Anderson, Danielle Pringle and Sarah Laverty are among a growing community who are joining forces to raise funds and participate in our 1HumanRace challenge. 1HumanRace has been designed to raise awareness of the challenges faced by vulnerable girls in East Africa and enable them to receive the education they deserve.

 

According to sector research by ActionAid, 85% girls aged 9-13 years old in Pokot, Kenya are subjected to Female Genital Cutting (FGC) and child marriage. In East Pokot, where we work, an uneducated girl is seen as the property of her father and brothers, while an educated girl is seen as a person with human rights.

 

Through our Keeping Girls in School project, we work with the whole community to build understanding of the risks of FGC and the importance of girls’ education. Our 1HumanRace challenge encourages participants to ‘move’ 85km in March and raise as much as they can to help our teams in Kenya grow our impact and change this statistic – and the future – for these young girls. 

 

Terri, Sarah and Danielle met through their swim group, Salty Crocs, which formed back in March 2020, when COVID-19 closed the local pools. The group started ocean swimming and quickly grew to over 60 members who swim up to 6 times a week – even through winter. The three women have each challenged themselves to swim 85km in open water in the month of March. They plan to start with the Malabar Magic 5km swim and finish with the 5km Around the Bay in Balmoral. 

 

“Through my work with So They Can, I’ve witnessed first-hand the atrocities these young girls face. I committed to show my support for the girls and when I mentioned it to Danielle and Sarah post-swim one day, they immediately volunteered to join and form a team. As mothers of girls (and boys) we wanted to set ourselves a really hard challenge, knowing that our challenge was insignificant compared to the challenges the East Pokot girls face.” Terri Anderson, who leads our Kenyan and Tanzanian programs, explained. 

 

To find out more and join the movement, visit sotheycan.org/1humanrace. You can also sponsor the Salty Crocs here.